[757labs] Relative position keeping / IFF using COTS

[Michael Ross]

Does anyone have any experience / ideas around relative position finding
using standard off the shelf tech?

Basically, can a bunch of nodes (smartphones, etc.) get accurate range and
direction from each other, so a node can build a map of other nodes
relative to itself even if it can't accurately geo-locate itself using
traditional means.

I think I did some back-of-the-napkin guesses a while ago and figured out
that wifi didn't work.  I think at the time I was thinking of some hybrid
visual/rf (maybe even audio) solution, and that more nodes could lead to
more accurate relative positions for all (like having multiple fixes in
maritime navigation).

Eventually, if you had 2 nodes with decent gps positions (or stationary
nodes with known position serving as a benchmark) and a bunch of nodes with
accurate relative maps including those 'known position' nodes, you could
propagate geo-position to the rest of the nodes.

If the accuracy was good enough, you could use it for the heads-up display
of lab projects, and maybe transpond contact info (the IFF part) once
Google Goggles come out.

-M
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