Geotagging Accuracy Nikon and Nokia

Lots of interesting stuff going on concerning geotagging on the new Nikon P6000 . Also given that Nokia is churning out on the order of two to five million geo-smartphones a month, accuracy of the GPS tagged images is becoming topical. Richard's Tech Reviews while not exhaustive is a great start to at least address GPS qualities...?

Nikon CoolPix 6000 Geo-tagging Solution

This newest Coolpix camera from Nikon has a built-in GPS and Nelso's blog reviews the GPS functionality. Read the Great article on Nikon's Coolpix 6000 GPS qualities - Nelso Blog. He does a pretty good job but I believe he confuses normal GPS start-up lags as being related to the Nikon implementation when the noted lags are essentially present in all single channel GPS devices... The entry of the $500 CoolPix 6000 makes Nikon the alternate offering to Ricoh's geo-cameras. GO NIKON!



An explaining comment for Nelso's article...

Just a comment on what I believe is your disappointment regarding out-of-the-box initial turn-on to first sat lock in the Nikon CoolPix 6000.

All GPS units require two reference tables to be current and if not they must updated by un-disrupted listening to “a” satellite for a period of time. The larger table, the almanac, requires upwards of 10 minutes of uninterrupted lock on a satellite. The second, the ephermic table, needs a minute or three before precise satellite lock to be achieved. A bit of explanation -

The almanac is essentially the bus schedule that provides the essential “coarse” schedule for all satellites. Generally it must be no older than a week or three and if older it must be updated. Absence or presence of a stale almanac requires the update of this table which requires around 10 minutes of “constant lock to one satellite” to be fully loaded at the bit rates in the carrier code. Break the lock and it must reacquire and initiate refreshing of the almanac all over. So if you store your unit for more than a couple of weeks – expect 10 or more minutes minimally to regain a proper "almanac" table.

The next step to getting the "best" positional solution is the updating of the ephermic table. This is the very fine hour-to-hour resolution on the coarse almanac and accounts for things like tidal effects, day/night, and other fine tunings on the satellites’ paths. This information can be updated several times in an hour. The ephermic table is also the reason why cold starts with current almanacs can require upwards of a minute or three to properly lock and for accuracy to stabilize. This is where the a-GPS advantage can be found in certain geo-smartphones to improve time to navigating lock. These phones will hunt the ephermic table first from the carrier gaining this update via the mobile web feature… also allows the carrier to keep you locked to them as well?

Lastly, accuracy can be further improved by a differential correction that is know as WAAS. Its not available everywhere as it is broadcast from fix-position satellites - Europe and the US are covered. If present and if the GPS chip set can utilize this "very-fine" correction, GPS accuracy can be held to under three meters.. better chips-sets can be within a meter 95 percent of the time. This is really the fine tune and accounts for radio delay due to atmospheric density and other delays that vary minute to minute.

So the Almanac gets you to the bus stop. The ephermic tells you if the bus is going to be a bit early or late and the differential suggests delays due to making change or getting a long line properly to their seats.

Lastly, your point on moving a GPS several hundred miles from its last known position when almanac and ephermic are current can also confuse your unit. This lag is a result of GPS unit believing it is in the same area when it was turned off. It looks into the almanac, its clock, and then hunts for the predicted satellites based on its last known position. If it can not find those most likely satellites it falls into a search and find solution… for at least two or more satellites for a hint; this too delays the locked navigation. Giving the unit a hint can speed this up significantly… geo-smartphones use the local area code for the hint.

MidNight Mapper

Smartphones killing PDNs?

RIM beats Microsoft Mobile - Symbian looses 10 percent

Mobilewack

Isn’t this some good news? RIM surpasses Windows Mobile in market share for the second quarter of the year. RIM comes second after Symbian which dropped significantly from the same time last year. Amazingly Windows Mobile lost the second position although they have about the same market share they did last year.

BlackBerry is up to 17.4% from last year’s 8.9%. They have almost doubled their market share in a year. Apple went from 1% to almost 3% during the same period. The biggest looser seems to be Symbian which has lost about 10% from 65.6% to 57.1%.

Americans and their cellphones, new numbers

 

 

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Americans and their cellphones, new numbers

via Communities Dominate Brands by Tomi T Ahonen on 28/08/08

And continuing from my miscellaneous articles picked up during the vacation..

I read the September issue of PC Today magazine and it had some mobile telecoms stats from America. The Nielsen Company reports that the American cellphone penetration rate per capita is now 85% (still lagging almost all industrialized countries where leading countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Israel have per capita rates of 135%-140%). But the PC Today article gave good comparisons of how other technologies fare in America. DVD players are nearly as prevalent with 84% penetration rate per capita.  PCs are only at 80%, digital cameras at 69% and MP3 players only at 40%. Hopefully this helps wake up those who might still be asleep in America about the 7th of the Mass Media - the world's most prevalent technology is the cellphone.

There was another stat in the issue as well. The USA National Center for Health Statistics reported that 15.8% of American households has already cut the cord and have no fixed landlines, but use only cellphones for their telecoms needs. Again, this may seem like a big number (almost one in six homes in America) but of course, this also lags the leading countries quite massively. Finland has already passed the half-point with more homes relying only on cellphones than those that have a fixed landline.

 

 

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Clear Path heading for Disaster? HP and bad dealings

The printer market isn't exactly full of the most intersting news, but it's still big money, and big money tends to bring out the worst in people -- like former HP VP Atul Malhotra, who was just charged with stealing trade secrets from his former employer IBM and emailing them to other HP execs.
Apparently Malhotra requested some confidential sales data two months before he went from the three-letter company to the two-letter one, and when he got there he hit up some other senior execs with the files -- marking the subject line "For Your Eyes Only." Yeah, that's an effective way to keep a lid on things. Malhotra was fired from HP in 2006, so all this went down some time ago, and HP says it actually conducted an internal investigation about the matter before firing Malhotra and reporting the theft to both IBM and the authorities. Sure, sure -- but we'll know what's up when the next HP AIO is running a Cell chip.

New Wintec Bluetooth GPS Handheld

Wintec G-Trender ABC integrates high-sensitivity GPS receiver, barometric altimeter and electronic compass, also provides not only a large LCD showing various dynamical information but also the data logger supporting the off-line tracking. It is the best companion for sport and recreation.

Product Features

• GPS Receiver with latest "Atmel / u-blox Antaris® 4" GPS chipset
• 1-4 Hertz technology
• WAAS/EGNOS possible
• LCD display
• A very easy to read and user-friendly menu
  
• GPS data logger
• Trackback-Navigation with directional signs
  
• Large storage space for over 130.000 waypoints
• Photo function via freely obtainable PC software "Time Machine X"
• Barometric altimeter
• Electromagnetic compass
• Thermometer
• GPS Information (PVT)
• Lunar and solar system display
• Bluetooth interface
• USB interface
  
• Firmware updatable
• Dual function: utilizable via USB data cable as well as Bluetooth
  
• Mini-USB connection
• Rechargeable and replaceable Li-ion battery (BL-5C format)
• approx. 20 hours continuous operation when in log modus
• Very small, lightweight, handy
• Sturdy and rainproof design
  

What is a SMARTPHONE?

I have tried and tried to better understand the GPS chip count but the " industry pundits " used as sources are not much more that soggy cow-chips .

I have even gone to the horses’ mouths to try to sort out not the finite count but the magnitudes of growth. Too sensitive - fortunes and futures are at stake!

And my absolute biggest gripe is the speculation as related to so called smart-phones, the Mother-of-all-GPS uses, evolution into PDNs (or is it really PDNs/PDAs into smart phones?) for which there seems to be a rather dynamic definition that so crumbles the statistical edges that nothing or very little can be determined… with the result of FUD.

Personally I see the one-handed smart-phones versus enlightened PDAs and PDNs (also know as "I want-2-b-a-phone too!" devices) as key to really understanding what may or may not be really happening…

My personal bet is where ever you have a good digital camera the chances of having a GPS location will soon be the norm - so just count the great cameras? Too easy.. just point me in the direction of great cameras - Nokia, Nikon, Cannon, Kodak, and Apple or Google?

Smart Phones Must Have's:

• Provide voice communication via a carrier
• Provide Internet connectivity via carrier and WiFI/WAN (I don’t need no stupid carrier!)
• Can be programmed by third-parties
• Organize internally around a directory tree structures for programs and data
• Provide removable data storage/chips
• Include the Bluetooth halo
• Have a good camera – better than 3mp IMHO and VGA MPEG video
• Have good GPS – CEP less than 30m

Now the statistical chaff starts when “form/size” is included. There are two types based on size – candy-bar origami and ham-sandwiches both now exhibiting an evolving form identified as finger-fud:

One-handed – small, fits in your pocket including origami designs (which reveal a hidden keyboard) but can be and best operated with one hand and thumb – billions sold

One Hand vs Origami

Two-handed – needs two hands to operate either with touch/micro-keyboards or finger/stylus.

ham-sandwiches (size factor) like most Palm, RIM, and Microsoft OSed devices – keyboards not hidden but sometimes can be virtual – tens of millions to be sold soon

Ham Sandwiches

Both forms are evolving features I identify as finger-fud – best example is iPHONE and like derivatives (Ham-sandwich with crusts trimmed?).

So if you or your group can help normalize all of this noise we, at least this MidNight Mapper, will all appreciate your skills and clarity of purpose. Heck you might even be called over to DC to alert our government that things are happening in the GPS domain.

Lastly, there are two phone-GPS pieces really missing IMHO –

• really cool "integrated" usability (a review of third-party GPS utilities not just maps!), and
• accuracy of the GPS since LBS and its certain 2-come ad-$$ can be as bad as phantom clicks if the revenue models think 100m CEP versus 3m CEP is the smarter choice to deliver and charge 4 an ad?