Car trackers determine the location of the car by calculating coordinates using signals received from satellites to the GPS module. However, modern devices use additional A-GPS and LBS technologies to improve the quality of coordinate determination. This article will discuss how these technologies work and what their benefits are.

For high-quality operation of the beacon (GPS marker), it is necessary that the tracker receives signals from at least 3 – 4 satellites simultaneously. In this case, the American GPS satellite system or the Russian GLONASS system can be used. However, our GPS markers support working with both systems simultaneously, this significantly improves the quality of location determination. However, communication with a satellite is not the only way to determine location; in addition, satellite navigation systems are not without disadvantages:

• in a megacity, multi-storey buildings greatly limit the visibility of satellites, and in “dead zones” (tunnels, enclosed spaces, narrow streets, in depressions) the receiver does not “see” them at all;
• in the mode of receiving signals directly from a satellite, the GPS receiver consumes a lot of energy, which is not suitable for devices that must operate offline for a long time;
• After some interruption in receiving signals, the device needs time to contact the satellites and receive the latest data (synchronization). That is, the car owner needs to wait a few minutes until the device is completely ready for use.

In order to minimize the impact of these shortcomings on the quality of positioning, tracker manufacturers use A-GPS and/or LBS technologies. How do these technologies work and how are they different?

A-GPS technology

To begin calculating coordinates, the tracker needs data on the current location of the satellites, and A-GPS technology allows the device to receive data not from the satellites themselves, but from the server where this information is available.

At the moment when the GPS receiver can receive signals, it must first detect satellites and then operate with their signals, which requires a certain amount of time. A-GPS technology gives the tracker information about where to look for these satellites, so when you turn on the GPS receiver for just a few seconds, the beacon will be able to send the coordinates of the object’s location. When receiving information, the Internet channel provided by the cellular operator is used, and the GPS chip itself is not used. However, if the object is outside the cellular coverage area, A-GPS cannot work.

Our devices support A-GPS technology, moreover, A-GLONASS (the joint technology of A-GPS and A-GLONASS is called A-GNNS), providing fast and accurate determination of coordinates in the most difficult conditions.

To transmit data (coordinates, signals), the GPS marker uses the Internet channel of the cellular operator, so the device periodically exchanges data packets with nearby base stations. LBS technology allows you to detect the location of an object using an electronic map of the LBS system, on which base stations of cellular operators are mapped.

As a rule, within a city, a GPS marker is located in the coverage area of ​​several base stations at once, and its probable location is calculated based on the intersection point of the coverage radii of each station. The accuracy of location determination, depending on the number of stations, can vary from 50 meters to several kilometers (outside populated areas).

It is interesting that “budget” devices of Asian origin, offered under the guise of GPS markers, determine location exclusively using LBS technology. There is simply no GPS chip in such devices. However, the cost of the devices in some cases justifies their purchase. For example, the device can roughly orient a traveler to which city the luggage ended up in if it is lost.

Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of LBS and A-GPS technologies

The main advantage of A-GPS is a significant increase in the launch speed of the GPS receiver. The probability of a tracker disappearing from the visibility zone of all satellites at once (GPS and GLONASS) in modern conditions is extremely low, and staying in the “dead zone” can last only a few seconds. The tracker, using constantly updated data (via A-GPS), can receive a signal, instantly calculate and send coordinates (before the next signal disappears), this allows the tracker to track the route accurately and without interruption and, most importantly, find coordinates in the most difficult conditions quickly and accurately .

LBS technology uses a static database and provides an idea of ​​the location of an object, but cannot actually provide precise coordinates. This technology itself is inferior to a GPS tracker in terms of accuracy in determining geographic coordinates, and in addition, it does not provide additional information at all (speed of movement, altitude above sea level). However, LBS can save the situation, for example, if a car finds itself in a “dead zone”, where the attackers drove it “to the dumps”, even approximate information about the location of the car will help law enforcement officers find the vehicle.

Therefore, when creating high-quality modern trackers, the manufacturer uses both technologies. The presence of LBS and A-GPS in the tracker improves the quality of the device, making it possible to eliminate the occurrence of “white spots” on the route, as well as the complete disappearance of the car from the “visibility” zone.

The weight measure pound, pound, pondus is little known to residents of Russia, since it is mainly used in England and English-speaking countries, and because of this, converting weight units kilogram to pound and back weight in pounds to kilograms causes a certain problem. Pound (pound) comes from the Latin word pondus, which means weight, weight and is used to measure units of weight and mass. In English-speaking countries, the Latin word libra was used before the introduction of pounds pondus, but the abbreviation lb (libra) is still used in some places. Also, in a number of countries with English, there is a monetary unit called the pound, such as pound sterling, which also comes from the Latin word libra. The weight unit pound (pound pondus), which is now used in America and England, is equal to 16 ounces of weight or in the metric system weight 453.592374495300 grams. Our script for converting weights from a pound (pound pondus) to kilograms and should not be confused with the troy pound, which is used as a pharmaceutical unit of weight in England, is equal to 12 troy ounces or in the metric system 373.241718913976 grams. Or with weight measures in pounds (pound pondus), which were previously used in Russia, Sweden and Austria, when in Russia before the revolution the weight measure pound was equal to 32 lots or 409.512030787770 grams of the metric system, pound used in Sweden (Swedish pound) was equal to 425 grams, and the Austrian pound in weight was equal to 560.01 grams of the metric system. Also in some countries you can come across the term metric pound, which is written in Holland as pond, in Germany as Pfund, and in France as livre, while everywhere the metric pound is equal to 0.5 kilograms or 500 grams. Concluding our description of the weight measure pound (pound pondus), let us once again recall that our script converts kilograms into pounds (pondus) and vice versa, which are used as a measure of weight in England and America and a pound is equal to 453.592374495300 grams, rounded to 4 decimal places .

weight unit calculator

To convert weight units kilogram pound, you need to enter the number you need in the kilograms or pounds field and click the arrow to calculate and convert weight units between each other.

Despite the fact that the metric, decimal system of measures and weights has long been adopted in continental Europe, we are constantly faced with English and American units of measurement of length, area, volume and weight. The most common among them are inch, foot, yard, mile, acre, pound, pint, barrel.

Many, I am sure, have seen a mysterious inscription on bottles with various liquids fl. oz. In England and the USA there are many other, less well-known units of measurement.

Most often we use these units of measurement when talking about such common things as the size of a car tire or TV screen. The size is usually already indicated in inches right in the model name. The same is true with the diameter of metal and plastic pipes, the size of wrenches and the bolts and nuts themselves. The mileage of American cars is indicated in miles. When calling the price of oil, they say: “price per barrel,” and the weight of gold is often called in ounces. Some cookbooks also list weight in pounds and volume in ounces or quarts.

What does the inscription lb or lbs mean in American stores? Read about this at the bottom of the page.

And one more small note: don’t try to remember all this, that’s why reference books were invented, so as not to overload your memory with routine. So take a look!

All that remains is to wish you seven feet under the keel and go directly to the table!

Listen

WEIGHT AND MEASURES TABLE
UNIT	UNIT MEASUREMENTS	ABBREVIATION OR SYMBOL	EQUIVALENTS OF SAME SYSTEM	METRIC EQUIVALENT
		ABBREVIATION OR SYMBOL	EQUIVALENTS IN THE SAME SYSTEM	METRIC EQUIVALENT
WEIGHT - WEIGHT
Avoirdupois* - Avoirdupois
short tone	short ton		20 short hundredweight, 2000 pounds	0.907 metric ton
long tone	long ton		20 long hundredweight, 2240 pounds	1.016 metric ton
hundredweight	English quintal (see long hundredweight)	cwt	112 pounds, 0.05 long ton	50.802 kilograms
short hundredweight	short (US) hundredweight		100 pounds, 0.05 short tons	45.359 kilograms
long hundredweight	long (English) hundredweight		112 pounds, 0.05 long ton	50.802 kilograms
pound	lb.	lb** or lb avdp, also # (mostly USA)	16 ounces, 7000 grains	0.454 kilogram
ounce	ounce	oz or oz avdp	16 drams, 437.5 grains, 0.0625 pound	28.350 grams
dram	drachma	dr or dr avdp	27.344 grains, 0.0625 ounce	1.772 grams
grain	share	gr	0.037 dram, 0.002286 ounce	0.0648 grams
Troy - Troy system
pound	lb.	lb t	12 ounces, 240 pennyweight, 5760 grains	0.373 kilogram
ounce	ounce	oz t	20 pennyweight, 480 grains, 0.083 pound	31.103 grams
pennyweight	pennyweight	dwt also pwt	24 grains, 0.05 ounce	1.555 grams
grain	share	gr	0.042 pennyweight, 0.002083 ounce	0.0648 grams
Apothecaries" - Pharmacy system
pound	lb.	lbap	12 ounces, 5760 grains	0.373 kilogram
ounce	ounce	oz ap	8 drams, 480 grains, 0.083 pound	31.103 grams
dram	drachma	drap	3 scraples, 60 grains	3.888 grams
scruple	scruple	sap	20 grains, 0.333 dram	1.296 grams
grain	share	gr	0.05 scruple, 0.002083 ounce, 0.0166 dram	0.0648 grams
CAPACITY - CAPACITY
U.S. liquid measures - US liquid measures
barrel	barrel	bbl	42 gallons	159 liters
gallon	gallon	gal	4 quarts (231 cubic inches)	3.785 liters
quart	quart	qt	2 pints (57.75 cubic inches)	0.946 liter
pint	pint	pt	4 gills (28.875 cubic inches)	473.176 milliliters
gill	jill	gi	4 fluid ounces (7.219 cubic inches)	118.294 milliliters
fluid ounce	fluid ounce	fl oz	8 fluid drams (1.805) cubic inches)	29,573 milliliters
fluid dram	liquid drachma	fl dr	60 minims (0.226 cubic inch)	3,697 milliliters
minim	minimum, 1/60 drachma	min	1/60 fluid dram (0.003760 cubic inch)	0.061610 milliliter
U.S. dry measures - Units of measurement of dry substances. USA
bushel	bushel	bu	4 pecks (2150.42 cubic inches)	35.239 liters
peck	pitch	pk	8 quarts (537.605 cubic inches)	8.810 liters
quart	quart	qt	2 pints (67,201 cubic inches)	1.101 liters
pint	pint	pt	0.5 quart (33,600 cubic inches)	0.551 liter
British imperial liquid and dry measures - Units of measurement of liquids and dry substances. England
bushel	bushel	bu	4 pecks (2219.36 cubic inches)	36.369 liters
peck	bake, 2 gallons	pk	2 gallons (554.84 cubic inches)	9.092 liters
gallon	gallon	gal	4 quarts (277,420 cubic inches)	4.546 liters
quart	quart	qt	2 pints (69.355 cubic inches)	1.136 liters
pint	pint	pt	4 gills (34.678 cubic inches)	568.26 milliliters
gill	Gil	gi	5 fluid ounces (8.669 cubic inches)	142.066 milliliters
fluid ounce	fluid ounce	fl oz	8 fluid drams (1.7339 cubic inches)	28,412 milliliters
fluid dram	liquid drachma	fl dr	60 minims (0.216734 cubic inch)	3.5516 milliliters
minim	minimum, 1/60 drachma	min	1/60 fluid dram (0.003612 cubic inch)	0.059194 milliliter
LENGTH - LENGTH
mile	mile	mi	5280 feet, 1760 yards, 320 rods	1,609 kilometers
rod	genus	rd	5.50 yards, 16.5 feet	5.029 meters
yard	yard	yd	3 feet, 36 inches	0.9144 meter
foot	foot	ft or "	12 inches, 0.333 yard	30.48 centimeters
inch	inch	in or "	0.083 feet, 0.028 yards	2.54 centimeters
AREA - SQUARE
square mile	square mile	sq mi or mi 2	640 acres, 102,400 square rods	2,590 square kilometers
acre	acre		4840 square yards, 43,560 square feet	0.405 hectare, 4047 square meters
square rod	square rod	sq rd or rd 2	30.25 square yards, 0.00625 acre	25.293 square meters
square yard	square yard	sq yd or yd 2	1296 square inches, 9 square feet	0.836 square meter
square feet	square foot	sq ft or ft 2	144 square inches, 0.111 square yard	0.093 square meter
square inch	square inch	sq in or in 2	0.0069 square feet, 0.00077 square yards	6.452 square centimeters
VOLUME - VOLUME**
cubic yard	cubic yard	cu yd or yd 3	27 cubic feet, 46,656 cubic inches	0.765 cubic meter
cubic feet	cubic foot	cu ft or ft 3	1728 cubic inches, 0.0370 cubic yard	0.028 cubic meter
cubic inch	cubic inch	cu in or in 3	0.00058 cubic foot, 0.000021 cubic yard	16,387 cubic centimeters
*In the USA, the avoirdupois system is used to measure weight. **In American stores you can often see the abbreviation lbs instead of lb for the pound. This is simply a misguided attempt to indicate plurality. **Capacity and volume are essentially the same thing, but since different units are used to measure dry and liquid substances, the universal units of volume have been placed in a separate section of the table.

Word pound comes from Latin libra pondo. First word libra means “scales” - actually a device for measuring weight and an astrological sign, since the constellation looks like scales. Second - pondo- just weight. Accordingly, the whole combination libra pondo means "pound of weight" (or, if you prefer, "pound of weight"). In modern English, "libra pondo" has been modified and shortened to "pound", but the abbreviation remains from the Latin libra - lb.

You can often see the abbreviation in stores in English-speaking countries. lbs to denote pounds, which, strictly speaking, is an error, because. According to international convention, the pound is a unit of measurement, and abbreviations for units of measurement in English do not have a plural form, just like in Russian, by the way. We don't write KGy or KWe.

It is no secret that everything fishing in the world is measured in measures unknown to the average Russian person. Particular confusion arises from the fact that sometimes different names turn out to be actually the same thing, and one can argue for a long time about how many libres are in a pound. And then there is the Roman measure, so everything there is generally not the same as it is today.

Line break test, line test for rods and reels are measured in Librach... :) Actually no - in Pounds. The confusion arises from the fact that the abbreviation for pound is lb(or if there are a lot of pounds lbs), what we used to call libra.

1 pound (1 lb) - 0.453 592 37 kg or 453.59237 g. Roughly we can count - half a kilo, which is convenient for the first mental estimate, given that such an estimate will be overkill by about 10%. And for a quick and accurate determination there is a table (rounded):

lb	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
kg	0.450	0.900	1.360	1.815	2.270	2.720	3.175	3.630	4	4.550

lb	12	14	16	18	20
kg	5.450	6.350	7.250	8.160	9

Historical reference: The Roman pound is Roman Libra, where the reduction came from. The weight in grams of the Roman pound/libra is different, so I won’t even give it.

Lure test for fishing rods, bait weight, float load test are measured in Ounces(abbreviated oz, from ounce).

1 ounce (1 oz) - 28.349 523 125 g. An ounce is essentially 1/16 of a pound.

Traditionally, the weight in an ounce is written on the boxes of wobblers and squeezed out on jig heads not in absolute numbers, but in fractions of 1/2, 3/5, 5/8 oz, which again completely confuses the brain function of an ordinary Russian with a secondary and higher education. Therefore, the table (grams are given in two approximations for convenience):

oz	1/32	1/24	1/16	1/12	1/10	1/8	1/7	1/6	1/5
G	0,89 1	1.18 1.2	1.77 2	2.36 2.5	2.84 3	3,54 3,5	4,05 4	4,73 5	5,67 6

oz	1/4	1/3	3/8	1/2	5/8	3/4	7/8	1	2	3	4	5	6
G	7,09 7	9,45 9,5	10,63 10 - 11	14,18 14	17,72 18	21,26 21	24,8 25	28,35 28	56,7 57	85,05 85	113,4 113	141,75 142	170,1 170

Sometimes you see the following inscriptions: 1-1/2 oz is actually 1/4 oz, and not (1 oz - 1/2 oz) = 1/2 oz. This is the arithmetic.

Historical reference: The modern common ounce is Ounce avoirdupois, 1/16 of an avoirdupois pound. Is there some more Troy ounce, which is used in jewelry and banking. And there is Roman ounce. A troy and Roman ounce is 1/12 of its own pounds. And of course, all these ounces are not equal to each other, so we don’t want to know and generally forget about them until someone is given a spoon made of pure gold, then we can show off with happiness and count in troy ounces, because it’s not hala-bola, but gold .

Postscript: volumes of liquids are also measured in ounces, but there is no way to change our tradition of measuring the same liquid in grams. Because “well, they’re pissing” and “sir, add 2 ounces, please” are two big differences: one is filled with meaning, and the second may be the reason for an unreasonable message.

Not so long ago, the GPS module was a distinctive feature of top smartphone models, and the technology itself was used only in navigation products. Today, a chip for calculating coordinates using satellites is built into any average smartphone, and the ability to find out the location of a subscriber has opened the way for the creation of a considerable number of useful services.

When a person chooses a cheaper smartphone without GPS just because he doesn’t have a car and doesn’t need navigation, he is very wrong. In fact, he denies himself the pleasure of being on the crest of a wave. Along with the reduction in price of the GPS modules themselves, we received another important bonus - a properly functioning mobile Internet. 3G networks are rapidly being deployed in many cities, and mobile operators are gradually offering unlimited tariffs. Included in the package is the ability to always remain online, and data on the exact location allows you to use modern Location Based services. However, many of them can be used without GPS.

Google locator

Intelligence agencies can find a person based on a signal from his cell phone. You can too, but only if you both use Google Latitude. To get a distribution suitable for the platform, go to www.google.com/latitude directly from your phone in a mobile browser. What's next? You will get access to the now native map from Google, on which, among other things, a new object will appear - a label with your location. Add friends who also installed this program, and you will see where they are currently located.

Everything works very clearly, after all, it’s GPS. But you need to see the faces of those users who see their fairly accurate location on the screen, although they had no trace of any navigational strays! In fact, many LBS services can work without GPS, determining coordinates from base stations that are nearby, and even from Wi-Fi access points (read more in the sidebar). I quickly recruited a dozen friends who began to actively use the program. First, launch and see who is where and who is nearby. It was cool, a couple of times we even managed to meet in a shopping mall this way. But very soon it became clear that you won’t be able to keep track of the card all the time, and if so, then you won’t get any use other than fun from using it. But the guys from Google are great here. The latest versions of Latitude have added the ability to enable location alerts. In other words, the next time one of your friends is nearby, you will receive an SMS!

This will be cooler than Twitter's geotag - a special option that allows you to provide each tweet with coordinates or descriptions of the place from which it was sent. Latitude's notification system is intelligent. It will not send SMS every time your colleague comes to work. Alerts are sent only in the following cases:

• when you or your friend are in an unusual place; If a friend is in a familiar place (for example, at home or at work), notifications are not sent.
• you or your friend are in a frequently visited place, but at an unusual time.

Collecting data and analyzing your usual places of stay may take about a week, after which alerts will begin to be sent.

True, to do this, you must remember to enable the “Location History” option in the settings, but you must keep in mind that from this moment all your movements are logged - they can be very conveniently viewed by requesting information for any time. In addition, this interesting service has other useful options, for example, automatic status updates in Gtalk or creating a widget for a website/blog indicating the current location.

Locator 2.0

However, no matter how you look at it, Google Latitude is generally a very simple service that primarily displays you and your neighbors on the map. At the same time, it is not specified in any way exactly what place you are in: at a movie screening, having lunch in a cafe, or just coming to study. A new trend in the West that is gaining stunning momentum is the Gowalla (gowalla.com) and Foursquare (foursquare.com) services, which have upgraded the Latitude idea by adding a social network element to it. These are two similar and fiercely competing services that allow you to share information about your location and the places you visit. In addition, you see who else has been to these places and what advice they left there. It turns out to be a cool directory of various places and establishments with automatic search and linking by location. You take out your phone and you immediately see what’s in the area. Read the reviews and decide where to go. I went inside, set the appropriate status - you can wait for your friends. This is called check in :).

Services are rapidly developing and adding new features. If you live in a large city, then you should definitely try one of them. Even in Russia there is a fairly large user base who are happy to share information. All you need to do is create an account, find friends by importing contacts from Gmail, Twitter and other services, and install the mobile application on your phone. In principle, it is not even necessary that the mobile phone supports GPS - the location, again, is very well determined by the cell towers visible in the area. At any time, the program displays places included in its database and reviews for them. If you come to some place and the required object is not in the service database, feel free to create your own. User activity is supported in every possible way. Foursquare conducts marketing promotions: if you are the first to arrive at a restaurant, you get a 50% discount on lunch, etc. Plus, over time you gain a rating, which allows you to see more information than everyone else. The application now exists for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and other devices. Alas, Windows Mobile and Symbian are not on the list. But the Russian alternative project AlterGeo (altergeo.ru) has clients for these platforms. Using its own hybrid positioning technology (WiFi+GSM+WiMax+IP), the service will determine your location and suggest nearby establishments, find out how far your friends are from you and what people are nearby. Moreover, since AlterGeo has built-in Google maps, Yandex.Maps and OpenStreetMaps, you can work with the application anywhere in the world.

Yandex.Traffic

If the location of a contact is constantly updated, but he remains in the middle of the road, you can only sympathize with him. A friend got stuck in a traffic jam. There are various ways to monitor the situation on the road: reports from various operational services, cameras and detectors with automatic image analysis, messages from enthusiasts and, of course, software using LBS services.

You can express respect to the Yandex team for many things, but personally from me - thank you very much for Yandex.Traffic. Having developed the Yandex.Traffic mobile application (http://mobile.yandex.ru/maps), the guys publicly made available something that in many countries does not exist even for emergency services. The user now has on their phone not only a map and the ability to get directions, but also constantly updated information about the traffic situation linked to this map. Moreover, he himself is involved in collecting data on traffic on the roads. The application periodically transmits current coordinates and speed to the server.

If several people are moving in the same direction on the same street at a speed of 40 km/h, then the street is clear and can be marked green. If, on the contrary, in some place everyone is barely crawling, then updated information with “red” sections of the road is sent to the participants. The same data is also displayed on the Yandex.Maps online service. The community's opportunities don't end there. See an accident or road work? How they hesitated! One click of the mouse - and the information goes to the server, from where it is relayed to everyone. You can criticize Yandex.Traffic for a long time because they lie and take data out of thin air, but this approach really works and allows you to bring at least some modicum of control over the situation. Why drive down a street where even this service has an impassable traffic jam? In addition, Yandex data is also used by navigation programs that can calculate the route, taking into account the situation on the road. Mobile Yandex.Maps support the Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, Android and Blackberry platforms and allow you to view maps of more than 130 cities in Russia, Ukraine and other countries. The traffic jam feature is only available for a few cities, but this is probably for the best - it means you can still move around the city freely somewhere else. For Muscovites, as those especially affected, I will tell you one hint: in order not to waste extra GPRS traffic, it is better to download a map of Moscow from the Yandex website and save it in your phone.

Waze

It is clear that the more users send information about their movements, the more accurate the information about traffic jams will be.

But when there are a lot of users, you can go for more - with
using them to create the map itself. The OpenStreetMap project (www.openstreetmap.org) appeared a long time ago and allows everyone to create and make changes to maps based on the wiki system, including by uploading their GPS tracks (travel logs recorded by GPS software). Now the service can boast of very good coverage, and it was also used during rescue operations in Haiti. With its help, in just a couple of days they were able to create detailed maps of the areas of the island affected by the earthquake. The Waze project (www.waze.com) is a much younger project, and therefore uses more modern approaches.

Essentially, this is a navigation program that displays the traffic situation, but with a big difference from all the others: the maps for it are compiled by the users themselves - the so-called weathersers. While moving, Waze records a track and periodically sends it to the server. If at least one more user passes along this road, the road is considered confirmed and appears on the map. For laying roads, the waser is awarded points. Street names are also given by users; You can get additional points for this (the system here is somewhat similar to OpenStreetMap). As in Yandex.Maps, drivers can send information about traffic jams, accidents, stationary radar cameras and police ambushes to the server. Moreover, for each event you can leave a comment or, for example, refute messages - all this is done through a convenient client. I used the Android version, but there are also implementations for iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian. As for map coverage, it is quite scarce for Russia. The reason is obvious - a small community, but you and I can expand it.

If you start drawing maps together right now, especially in those places where no online map is yet available, then coverage can quickly increase significantly.

Mobile planetarium

However, we are all about roads, but about roads. Let's talk about the stars! In addition to the GPS module, many manufacturers also build an accelerometer into the phone (this is not such an expensive module), which is used to recognize the landscape and portrait location of the phone and a million other things that the developers’ imagination is enough for.

Some recreate toys like a maze, where you need to guide a ball to the finish line without getting it into the hole traps. And others use an accelerometer in conjunction with a GPS module, resulting in a lethal mixture of different technologies. This is exactly what a team of enthusiasts from Google did, who developed the Sky Map for Android application ( www.google.com/sky/skymap). The result is a mobile planetarium. The idea of ​​the program was born in the minds of developers even before the official appearance of the Android platform.

Excited by the features the new phones would have, including GPS, digital compass and motion sensors, they thought it would be cool to use these features in a mobile app that shows a picture of the sky depending on where a person is and where they point the phone. . GPS and clocks made it possible to generate a map for the exact time and location of the user, and real miracles were achieved with a digital compass and accelerometers. Using these two sensors, the application can determine the exact direction in which the phone is pointed, and based on this, display on the screen only those stars that fall within its virtual focus of vision. As a result, if you want to find out what kind of star is shining so brightly in the East, then you just need to point your phone there and see on the map that it is Venus! What do you think? I checked it personally, going to a place where there are no tall buildings and the glow of the city - Sky Map really works! Working for the search giant, the guys couldn't get around the search function, and in a particularly spectacular manner.

You simply type the name of a planet or star (or select a picture from a gallery of photographs from the Hubble Telescope), and the phone itself shows where you need to point it to see the object. The closer you are to the target, the redder the cursor becomes with the direction and circle in the center. Eventually, the object ends up in it, and voila! Here it is, the perfect astronomy textbook. The only pity is that the application exists only for the Android platform (1.5 and higher), and the device must have accelerometers to work.

Games with GPS

Accelerometers will also be needed in a completely new type of games that use reference to the real location of the gamer. One such game is 3rdEye.

The idea is to transfer the RPG style to the real world: there is also a character, but he moves not through the virtual world, but through the real one. The plot of the game is still simple: the current location is displayed on the map (only GPS is used, since the accuracy of the data is important), various creatures are running around that need to be exterminated. You will have to exterminate quite naturally: holding the phone in your hand, you need to really indicate the blows. It's not for you to click the mouse. If you run into a crowd of monsters, you'll have to really puff :). An accelerometer is used to read body movements.

In addition, you can shoot down enemies (please note - virtual enemies) with a car, but very little experience is given for this. A less advanced game, but also using a GPS receiver, is Geocaching.

Info

• To view recordings from FourSquare, you must register. If you don’t have such a desire, but want to see how users live, you can use the service. This is a map with comments from FourSquare users.
• Yahoo is considering acquiring fast-growing startup Foursquare for about $100 million.

Links

Sharing your location is convenient if your phone is stolen. Online services allow you to track it and remotely erase all data from it. Take note: itag.com, wavesecure.com.

Determining coordinates without GPS?

Each of the base stations has a certain set of parameters that the phone receives, thanks to which each base station can be recognized. One of these parameters is CellID (abbreviated CID) - a unique number for each cell issued by the operator.

There are databases in which for each CID its coordinates are indicated. The more you know about the base stations around you, the more accurately you can calculate your current location. Accuracy varies from a few hundred meters to several kilometers, but this is a good starting point to get your bearings. You've probably noticed that Google's mobile tools can very well determine a person's location. This means he has the data. But from where? There are many sources, but we also help with this. Few people read the terms of use, but in fact, by installing the program, we agree to send information about the connected CellID and current coordinates (if GPS is enabled).
For more information on how to access this database, read our article “Navigation without GPS” (the PDF version will be on the disk).