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Dash Video Cam Based Global Positioning System Navigation

Uses image recognition of the road you're driving on that was uploaded by previous users.
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Inspired by theircompetitor's system using stars and celestial bodies, this uses pictures taken of the road ahead of you.

Logging into the system, you upload your driving to the image database. Your location is correlated with current GPS satellite and cell tower location methods until such time as a database for that area is created.

This would navigate the way humans and animals navigate naturally. "There's a waterfall over there and a mountain over there and a patch of trees to our left. We must be at X location."

Once the database if full, you've got a simple global positioning system completely independent of satellites, cell towers, moving celestial bodies and un-effected by weather.

doctorremulac3, Jan 05 2017

Hey, that could be the backup system for my transmission ... GPS_20moderated_20transmission_20settings
[normzone, Jan 05 2017]

someone doing a passable Dr Manhattan impression http://twistedsifte...ier-guillaume-nery/
..riding undersea currents..skip the first 40 secomds...naff all happening [not_morrison_rm, Jan 05 2017]

proto salmon navi system https://drive.googl...CQbjUTY5ekRISFhROTA
[not_morrison_rm, Jan 06 2017]

Google maps Tokyo ghost https://drive.googl...CQbjb0o0WXp1bVBYSFk
..it's like the Ghost in the Shell, but different [not_morrison_rm, Jan 06 2017]

[link]






       That might work, but this is the simplest, and oldest incidentally, navigation system: visual location recognition. Of course with image recognition technology and large databases being so cheap these days it would be imminently doable.   

       Only one problem: Satellite and cell tower location works great.   

       Maybe I could sell this to the military for when the Russians shoot down all our satellites in prep for WW3.   

       Hmm. Making money off of the apocalypse? Might as well. Better than just sitting around lamenting the whole "end of the world" thing.   

       I'm thinking this might even work in areas where there's not a lot of difference in the landscape such as a desert. Except for on the ocean, every place on Earth has a distinct horizon.   

       And, oh yea, this wouldn't work on the ocean.
doctorremulac3, Jan 05 2017
  

       For more assurance of image-recognition accuracy, it could factor in travel direction and distance. This could be done by monitoring steering wheels, odometers, speedometers, accelerometers and compasses.
Alvin, Jan 05 2017
  

       Yea, you could tie that other stuff in as well.
doctorremulac3, Jan 05 2017
  

       //And, oh yea, this wouldn't work on the ocean   

       Seabed sonar images....although I'm guessing some kind of brine-ometer to measure sub-sea currents might help too.
not_morrison_rm, Jan 05 2017
  

       Huh. Clever.   

       What's the range of those things?
doctorremulac3, Jan 05 2017
  

       Hmmm, a selection of salmon from around the world, each one pointing to its river of birth, should give some triangulation see prototype salmon navi system link above. And some video of a smartass riding undersea current, see link.
not_morrison_rm, Jan 05 2017
  

       [+]   

       I think this is an inevitability. That we'll have a virtual world running on computers lagging ever so slightly behind the real thing. That there will be so many cameras, mics, weather sensors etc., that you could use this model against whatever it is you're looking at to determine where you are, or even feed in some older pics to find out when you are.   

       This model would include oceans, land, stars (even clouds if fast enough), caves, and looking down from above. The AIs will be able to grok it all in one hit, so we'll probably depend on some API to get the data simplified to monkey level for us; some sort of Earth model search engine.   

       You'll be able to do Earth searches for anything, including location. But of course it could also be asked to show a stream of a lightning storm, a shark swimming by, the view from the belly of a landing aircraft, or the virtual overlay of gravitational wave sources, scattered across the sky.   

       Hmm.. one step more would be to overlay any augmented reality that's granted public viewing.   

       Now imma sit back in my recliner, strap on the hi-res goggles and take a virtual drive, flight, dive.. somewhere.
TIB, Jan 06 2017
  

       The fact that this is "un-effected by weather" suggests that [doctorremulac3] is brewing an idea for a weather-powered navigation system.
hippo, Jan 06 2017
  

       Hmm. Now that would be a challenge.
doctorremulac3, Jan 06 2017
  

       There are parts of this town that I'm sure would be confused by the sheer repetitive nature of the environment.   

       Deserts are another story however, as they change landscape continuously.   

       If I planted a tree, or spray-painted the road some random color, or shoveled snow into the road's path, or went through Autumn, would the system get confused?
RayfordSteele, Jan 06 2017
  

       //would the system get confused?   

       Yes, if it's stitched together by interpolation, eg that ghost I found on google maps (link).
not_morrison_rm, Jan 06 2017
  

       Those new self-driving cars make computer maps of their surroundings using radar and lidar and maybe also cameras. The total of THAT data-set could be incorporated into this Idea, as those cars cross the countrysides, not just dash- cam video data.
Vernon, Jan 07 2017
  

       ...and homing pigeons, a selection of them, tethered to something like a rotary clothes dryer.   

       The most obvious way is just long bits of string with "This way to London" tags at regular intervals
not_morrison_rm, Jan 07 2017
  

       No, that would make it too easy to escape.
pocmloc, Jan 07 2017
  

       Ahh, that's the cunning part, the string is going in other direction.
not_morrison_rm, Jan 07 2017
  
      
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