We all use the GPS, that real-time positioning service that allows us not to get lost along the way. Super useful, yet super dangerous when we are in crowded areas, perhaps in an urban center with such a density of buildings and people. Well, it seems that Google has made some significant improvements to the system, obviously starting from Pixel 5 e Pixel 4a, the latest smartphones in the house. Luckily he also announced that this improvement will arrive for all Android smartphones next year. Let's go see the details.
Today Pixel 5 and 4a, tomorrow all Android smartphones: this is how the GPS positioning for mobile devices improves thanks to Google
GPS accuracy plummets in dense urban areas due to reflected signals between buildings. This manifests itself with the app Maps, for example, showing our location on the wrong side of the street or even in a completely different place. It appears that Google, through the building mapping, is slowly eliminating this problem.
La 3D mapping, which includes building models, informs the GPS system of any obstacles and therefore allows to improve the positioning and tracking of the user. Let's read what Google itself has communicated on the official website that you find in the source:
When you use your device's GPS while walking, Android's activity recognition API will recognize that you are a pedestrian, and if you are in any of the more than 3850 cities, the tiles with the 3D models will be downloaded and cached phone
In the image we can see different colored lines which respectively represent:
- yellow: predetermined route
- red: route made corrections assisted by 3D mapping
- blu: route made with corrections assisted by 3D mapping
It is possible to see how the mapping allows (blue color) to follow a much more faithful path to the predetermined one (yellow). LThe update that brings this improvement to Pixel 5 and 4a is that of December which, according to the developers, improves tracking by 75%. In any case, this update should also arrive for next year all Android smartphones from version 8 and up.
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Source | Android Developers
