European GPS became 10 X more accurate overnight

In anticipation of the long awaited Galileo GPS sattelites, an intermediary solution named  EGNOS became active a few days ago. The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) locates you within 2 meter within most parts of Europe as opposed to the ‘old’ 20 meter for standard ‘USA powered’ GPS.  Once the €3,4 billion European Galileo project is up and running, consumer satellite receivers on its Open Service using the two available bands (1164–1214 MHz & 1563–1591 MHz) will achieve an accuracy of <4 m horizontally and <8 m vertically. Receivers that use only a single band will still achieve <15 m horizontally and <35 m vertically, comparable to current civilian GPS C/A devices.

EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system that improves the accuracy of GPS satellite navigation signals over Europe. “The system consists of transponders aboard three geostationary satellites over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Europe, linked to a network of about 40 ground stations and four control centers.
 The EGNOS ground stations receive signals sent out by the US GPS satellites. Information on the accuracy and reliability of these signals is relayed to users via the geostationary satellite transponders. This allows them to determine their position to within two meters, compared with about 20 meters for GPS alone.”

EGNOS is similar to the Nord American WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and Japanese MSAS (MTSAT Satellite Augmentation System).  EGNOS-enabled devices can also receive WAAS & MSAS.

Most recent GPS receivers got shipped as ‘EGNOS’ ready, so without any direct financial charges (that’s what some of those European taxes are for), your navigation device became more accurate overnight.

I quickly checked for TomTom and Garmin and their recent top models all seem to support EGNOS. However I did not find information on the Apple iPhone3GS and HTC Android device EGNOS-readiness. Share your link to a trustworthy source  in the comments below.

Egnos might also boost Augmented Reality applications

Apart from the evident advantages of more accurate positioning (navigation, logistics, shipping, travel, construction, emergency services…) such raised precision is a prerequisite for Augmented Reality (AR) applications, which need to be fed with exact location coordinates to make sense. Today the ’sensors’ are the weak point on consumer devices such as Apple iPhone 3GS and Google Android mobiles. Basically you need a handset with an application that computes information from the GPS receiver (up to 70 meter inaccurate due to buildings obfuscating satellite signals), compass (easily disturbed by metal objects) and camera (’low’ resolutions) to add interaction with “layers” of interest which are added on the screen. With a good mobile data connection you can even pull real-time data from the internet (e.g. Maps or  Wikipedia). The AR application will ‘mash’ these data and 3D-objects up with what you ’see’ on the screen.

I liked the experimental interface above which illustrates there are no limits to future application surfaces. This reminded me of my favorite university professor Pattie Maes and her SixthSense with demo with Pranav Mistry at TED below.

Another great example of available AR technology is the mobile browser by Layar. Game developers are even working on objecs and characters that will appear to move around your environment and allow interaction. Nice bonus for gaming retro geeks, is that the current technological limitations make these first generation AR apps take you back to the arcade times

Let me know if you already enjoy the raised precision

Tags: Android, AR, Augmented Reality, EGNOS, GPS, iPhone, Layar, Sensor precision, SixthSense
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