El GPS It is one of the most delicate components of mobiles and tablets. Although today we can determine our location through WiFi networks, in order to keep a more accurate record we need, yes or yes, to use advanced geolocation, however, this consumes plenty of battery. Today we are talking about an interesting project that avoids the use of GPS and still manages to locate and guide us precisely.
It is an application developed by Christian Henke, called smart navi, which is part of Google's Android Experiments Program. The idea is very simple: our mobile devices are loaded with very low consumption sensors (accelerometers, gyros, etc.) that act continuously and, even so, GPS continues to be a fundamental part of navigation, with a really high energy cost.
From a first location, Smart Navi measures the steps and the address to locate you on a map and know from there where we are at all times or how to get to a destination.
Alternative to GPS in experimental phase
Although Smart Navi does not yet have a final stable version, the application can now be downloaded from Google Play and App Store. From what we have been able to see, it is tremendously accurate, even surpassing traditional GPS in this area, since it does not have the signal and coverage problems that the traditional method can suffer.
We only need to enter our height and make use of the GPS at a very specific moment: when we start using Smart Navi, for a first location. From there, we can have it turned off and save up to a 80% battery.
All this may seem a bit strange, however, it is not the first time that someone thinks of such a system. Without going any further, the my band Xiaomi calculates steps and sleep (by lying position) with sensors similar to those used by the application. If we mix this with a map, we can obtain a combined system of extraordinary efficiency, as Henke has shown us.
respectful with privacy
In addition to the ingenuity of an application, which breaks with a traditional scheme of rather dysfunctional use, Smart Navi is of open source and absolutely respects the privacy of the user. For its originality, efficiency and philosophy open source, we are facing one of those applications that we are happy to recommend.
Will it be the first step towards the disappearance of GPS?