NaviGadget

satellite position fix in 100 milliseconds by NXP

Mar 20, 2007 gps navigation, misc news, software

NXP software recently showcased their solution for geotagging digital images. Their system consists of a small circuitry that embeds into to your digital camera, (or even camera phone), your PC, and their server. This system is capable of attaching location info to each and every picture you take in 100 milliseconds – so you don’t have to sit there and wait for up to a minute or two and miss the shot. All of this is done with very little power – so you can save your battery for your flash.

Rather than try to do all the processing that’s normally required for computing a GPS fix, the NXP device simply takes a digital “snapshot” of the raw GPS data whenever it wakes up. This only takes a tenth of a second, and consumes almost no power. Later (back on your computer), their client software queries a server they maintain, that’s continuously logging the detailed “ephemeris” data for all 32 GPS satellites. This is the data that tells exactly where each satellite is located in space at all times. Figuring out which satellites are in view, synchronizing with them, and downloading their ephemeris data is what takes typical GPS systems minutes to handle: This is why it takes so long for your GPS to start up and deliver the first position fix.

By offloading all the satellite tracking and computation to your host computer (when you download your images), NXP is able to reduce the “footprint” of their hardware to an incredibly tiny area (5×5mm in production versions), and to grab the needed data and go back to sleep very quickly.

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In the near future adding this kind of hardware to your digital camera will only cost an extra $2 or $4 if done in high volumes…via