Mapping Out The Future Of GPS Technology

February 16, 2012


Dr Michael Milford from Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Science and Engineering Faculty said his research into making more reliable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) using camera technology and mathematical algorithms would make navigating a far cheaper and simpler task.


“There are some places geographically, where you just can’t get satellite signals and even in big cities we have issues with signals being scrambled because of tall buildings or losing them altogether in tunnels.”



“For example if I am in a kitchen in an office block, the algorithm makes the assumption I’m in the office block, looks around and identifies signs that match a kitchen. Then if I stepped out into the corridor it would test to see if the corridor matches the corridor in the existing data of the office block lay out.


Dr Milford said the “revolution” of visual-based navigation came about when Google took photos of almost every street in the world for their street view project.

However, the challenge was making those streets recognizable in a variety of different conditions and to differentiate between streets that were visually similar.

The research, which utilizes low resolution cameras, was inspired by Dr Milford’s background in the navigational patterns of small mammals such as rats.

“My core background is based on how small mammals manage incredible feats of navigation despite their eyesight being quite poor,” he said.


“But no one’s actually stepped back and thought ‘do we actually need all this stuff or can we use a very simple set of algorithms which don’t require expensive cameras or satellites or big computers to achieve the same outcome?’”



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