Visual Positioning System

‘GPS is a satellite-based navigation system that was originally designed to assist soldiers and military vehicles and maintained by the United States.’ Later, it has been offered to the general public as a service to navigate their way. 

What is Visual Positioning System? 

The VPS will use the phone’s camera along with Google’s extensive back-end data to analyze the route. It will allow the camera to detect current location based on nearby shops, signboards, etc. and then will suggest the navigation path for the journey. VPS is predicted to be far more accurate than the Global Positioning System (GPS) and is designed to overcome the challenge of GPS. This technology is useful in urban areas where GPS is often blocked by skyscrapers.

VPS-How It Works?

Leveraging the possibilities of GPS system and camera in the mobile phones and embedding the same with augmented reality Google is giving a new definition for navigation system. Let’s have a look on how it works!

VPS uses Google’s extensive back-end data and your device’s camera to analyze the surroundings where you are in. The greater accuracy of the features makes it really easy for them to identify where you are.

• First of all, the button should be tapped to activate the visual view. Following, simply point your device’s camera to the preferred destination to see the relevant info.
• The surroundings will be displayed with an overlay of Maps data for close by business and there will be arrows pointed in the direction where you have to go.
• You can also see a small map displayed on the bottom side which acts as a reminder for where you are headed.
• VPS retrieves its data from the surrounding buildings and landmarks where you are in rather than completely relying on satellite location that erases the possible flaws with GPS.

Key Benefits of VPS

When the standard GPS technology is not enough, this new visual system can offer you ample support to fix your navigation concerns.

Out of the many benefits, here let us have a look at a few of the main advantages that makes it a stand out.

• Despite if it is for a large public venue, school or a business establishment, VPS can be a great aid to the visually-impaired. The close-up visual assistance can be a life changing assistance to the visually-impaired to make their navigation a lot easy.
• The camera-enabled navigation system can be a real friend in case you get lost in busy intersections or at an unfamiliar locale. Just switch on the phone’s camera and take the visual view and you are safe.
• VPS can help you to get better insights for your business, provide assistance for clients on foot and made available for all transportation methods.
• Being an icon in the navigation sector, Google is offering remarkable comfort and easiness for our travel from one spot to other with negligible dependency
• The demo even gave clear hints on the added benefits than just reaching the destination spot. By simply positioning the camera over the lanes where you are, you can actually automatically see your favourite spots like retailing outlets or eat outs.
• The system not just helps with routing directions but makes the best use of Augmented Reality so as to retrieve supplementary information by taking clues of nearby signboards and shops.
• The technology can really come handy in urban areas where GPS services are often distracted or blocked by skyscrapers.
• One of the key benefits is its usability in both indoor and outdoor areas, GPS-denied environments and the accuracy is assured despite if it is large or small areas.
• Moreover, the service is highly scalable and the low cost and high benefits make it special. You can enjoy the benefits with no beacon or anchor costs and lets you learn & map on the fly. 

Expected Drawbacks:

• Not to be a surprise, all indoor environment areas may not be appropriate for Visual Positioning System and there will be a lot of related issues to handle with at least in the first phase.
• Sufficient visual interest will be the key in most cases in order to work reliably, especially for re-localisation. False-positive detections can be avoided only with uniqueness of particular regions of the surroundings which can be challenging.
• Unlike the preloaded street view, the changing lighting conditions can result in occlusion in a visual view. This can happen when some areas get white out, or appear to be in dark shadows.
• In real world, there can be people or vehicles walking into your frame and blocking the accuracy of capturing location which is not in anybody’s hands. If it is a busy street, things can go worse. However, you can expect Google to take some extra measures to overcome it at least to some extent.

With these technological advancements, the service offerings are expected to be more virtual, augmented and customized for each consumer. And we are curious to see what all will the future unfold for us in the world of a new navigation tech industry.