[Electronics-talk] GPS in the Big City

[Gerald Levy]

Not true at all.  Last year, Rick Harmon from Blind Geek Zone produced a 
podcast demonstrating the GPS app for the IPhone 4 in his home town of 
Akron, Ohio.  Needless to say, it was not very accurate and often announced 
incorrect street names and landmarks, even though Akron is not a 
particularly dense urban area like midtown Manhattan.  So it would stand to 
reason that the GPS app for the IPhone would not work well in a major city 
with a lot of tall buildings that could block the direct line of sight to 
the orbiting GPS satellites.

Gerald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Chaltain" <chaltain at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] GPS in the Big City


> I'm not sure about the BrailleNote running Sendero, but iPhone/Android 
> running a GPS app will also use cell tower and wifi hotspot triangulation 
> to improve location reliability. I would think this would help quite a bit 
> in a large metropolitan area, but I can't speak from experience.
>
> On 04/10/2013 10:49 AM, Tracy Carcione wrote:
>> I work in midtown Manhattan.  I have Sendero GPS, running on a
>> Braillenote PK.  I find it pretty unreliable in New York City, probably
>> because of the many tall buildings.  It frequently says I'm 2 blocks
>> away from where I know I am, and heading in a different direction than
>> I'm heading.  My question is, does this happen with all GPS in big
>> cities, or is it because the GPS is running on a PK, not the most
>> powerful system in the world?  Would, say, IPhone GPS be more reliable
>> in the big city?
>> I am only interested in the big city aspect.  At home, in north Jersey,
>> the Sendero and PK work reasonably well.
>> Thanks.
>> Tracy
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> Christopher (CJ)
> chaltain at Gmail
>
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