Design News - Indoor Location Technology

[VEBill]

Over the years, there have been many E-T threads looking for some sort of 'GPS for indoors'. It looks like they might finally be on track to developing such a technology.

Design News - Indoor Location Technology

 

[itsmoked]

Yay. Now if they could only get the power down to something rational. They idiotically declare "miniscule" 32mA?!

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Compositepro]

I thought that too, but there was a clarification in the comments to that article. It is a radio pulse transmitted that uses 32 ma for 120 microseconds.

 

[itsmoked]

Oh. That's a little better. I think they should've maybe bragged about the average current then.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[IRstuff]

http://www.decawave.com/sites/default/files/resources/dw1000-datasheet-v2.09.pdf

Their datasheet implies otherwise:

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529

 

[VEBill]

A common application for "Indoor GPS" seems to be flying drones; hopefully making the hype word 'autonomous' into something less of a BS lie. (This refers to the many university labs that hyped their work in "autonomous drones", but the environment was lined with curtains and IR Tracking Cameras, and the so-called 'autonomous' drones were all controlled by a PC hidden backstage.)

Given the power consumption of a drone's motors, an extra few mA wouldn't be a major issue for that sort of application. Other applications may have to await the Mk II version.

At least 'Indoor Location Technology' is now a thing being worked on. It's obviously an enabling technology for so many applications.

 

[jraef]

<groan>
This could take "instant replay" to a whole new level, making major sports events even more torturous that what the current technology has.

Seems to me by the way that the issue here is really just the level of accuracy involved. The last two hospitals I was in have indoor tracking of doctors, nurses and orderlies, I could see the nodes all along the halls. When I asked when my doc was coming by, the nurse looked at her iPad and say "Well, he's one floor below us and moving, so he's probably on his way." That was not likely 10cm accurate, but +- 1m would be good enough for that purpose.


"You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals" -- Booker T. Washington