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Sprint's Family Locator Finds Kids, Sends Them Messages

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GPS requires line of sight

andrewn

Apr 13, 2006, 6:44 PM
I'm not sure how this is going to work if they are actually using GPS since, GPS requires line of sight to work. If they are using GPS It wouldn't work if the person was indoors, the car or the phone was in a backpack or even your kids jeans pocket.
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sicadastra

Apr 13, 2006, 6:49 PM
Its not true GPS in the traditional sense. Not direct to satellite, it uses the same triangulation via cell site that e911 GPS uses. Not as dependent on line of site, but does require cell signal. Same idea as all other LBS on the market, Nextel & VZW both have turn by turn direction apps that use the same system. VZW will be launching their version of this locator service very soon, and I think Sprint even has GPS based games in the works.
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Darth Ridiculous

Apr 14, 2006, 11:29 AM
Sounds like some "24" type stuff! very cool!
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staiano

Apr 14, 2006, 1:05 PM
Darth Ridiculous said:
Sounds like some "24" type stuff! very cool!
I'm haveing Chloe send your location to my PDA as we speak 😁
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bigswol

Apr 17, 2006, 9:03 AM
staiano said:
Darth Ridiculous said:
Sounds like some "24" type stuff! very cool!
I'm haveing Chloe send your location to my PDA as we speak 😁



Haha Darth as u seen even they switched services toward the end of last season!! lol
But we do have those GPS location phones here @ Verizon humm no comment!
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Rich Brome

Apr 14, 2006, 2:09 PM
Standalone GPS used to require line-of-sight, although the newest chipsets can work indoors in same cases. The technology is improving.

When you have GPS in a phone, though, it's usually not standalone GPS, it's assisted GPS (A-GPS). A-GPS does use the satellites, but it gets help from the network and the towers to work much faster, more accurately, and indoors.

First, the network knows what towers the phone is near, so it knows the general area the phone is in. The "location server" on the network uses that info to tell the phone which GPS satellites to listen for, skipping the time-consuming "searching" step.

Then the phone takes raw readings from the satellites. Turning that data into an accurate location requires additional info...
(continues)
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sicadastra

Apr 14, 2006, 7:52 PM
Well said. Much more detailed than my pathetic attempt at an explanation...

This is the first i have ever heard that the phone would receive any direct reading from the satellites however... I'm not sure how the phone is capable of this as it does not operate in the same frequency band as the GPS signals from the satellite. A cell phone operating in 800, 850, 1850 or 1900 mhz while the GPS signal is sent out at 1575 or 1227 mhz.

How does this work?
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sicadastra

Apr 14, 2006, 8:07 PM
In reply to myself, nevermind. I think I've got a grasp of it now. gpsworld.com has very good (and very technical) explanation of the integration of he technologies.

Here is anyone else is curious:
http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDeta ... »
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Rich Brome

Apr 14, 2006, 8:17 PM
Correct - it is a different frequency band. Ever since E-911 was mandated, CDMA phones for the US have required antennas that can receive GPS as well. It helps that they only have to receive - and not transmit - in that band.
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