Zephr.xyz

Exciting paper by Google published in Nature yesterday. https://lnkd.in/gDJ4uRft It is super encouraging to see the positive results from networking GNSS receiver measurements to improve the accuracy of positioning. Zephr's core thesis is that by crowdsourcing GNSS measurements we can create device specific corrections using carrier phase data. Seeing this work well for another part of the error equation is encouraging. We could be seeing a shift in the fundamental approach for how we approach positioning in the age of ubiquitous sensors. 95% of the GNSS chips produced currently can't use these correction techniques and services. Opening this market will be a big enabler for the next generation of location based apps/devices. #GNSS #GPS #corrections #ionosphere

Good times - working with NSIN-DIU to run demos in Hawaii this week. We recently built an app to do real time tracking of jamming that interpolates its area of effect. Since we don't have jammers on the day-to-day we built out a GNSS interference heuristic as a proxy for live testing. On the way back from a demo we drove through the Nuʻuanu Pali mountains and tunnel. It was a great spot to map GNSS interference so we recorded the screen on our way home. The short clip is below or a longer video here - https://lnkd.in/gyc8vnfR #GPS #GNSS #GPSjam #jamming

Niantic, Inc. recently released "worldpose", which uses sensor fusion and GNSS data to enable AR experiences. The fascinating aspect of this to me is the motivation: "This allows for the placement of AR content in areas with low VPS coverage, ensuring that users can still experience accurate and engaging AR interactions even in less mapped regions." In many ways this is a happy marriage of two positioning technologies. In urban areas you are more likely to get high density videos and images of the built environment to fuel the feature databases that power VPS. Also, urban areas are the most challenging area for GPS to accurately position in. Vice versa GPS is becoming increasingly accurate in the open sky scenarios outside of urban areas, where it is difficult or expensive to collect imagery at global scale. It is a lot more tractable to perpetually map urban cores in 3D than it is the entire globe. Although this does put an onus for more accurate GPS as AR will be increasingly prevalent with smart glass developments. There is no company that looks at global scale AR adoption more deeply than Niantic. Definitely a canary to watch as this all advances. https://lnkd.in/g6kpEkze

The Zephr team has been working for a while on how to tackle jamming and spoofing in Ukraine. We got connected to a group working on medevac challenges because of persistent adversarial jamming. When Defense One reached out we thought it was a nice opportunity to share the story. One correction of the story is the work has been all volunteer. We don't have a contract as referenced in the article.

It was super fun and nerve-racking to do a live interview about all the amazing advancements being made in AR and smart glasses. I'm not sure I totally agree with the headline that it will be a "long road". While there is still work to be done for full AR, there is so much immediate opportunity with smart glasses to add really compelling features. I'm most excited about locationally enabling smart glasses, but I'm personally biased there. Big props to all the engineers doing the heavy lifting on this work across companies! It feel weird commenting on it. We hope to have our own work to add/share in the near future. https://lnkd.in/g_4dXzkv

The best part of a company off site in the mountains is getting to do some field testing. We've wanted to test GPS accuracy on MTB and hiking trails for a while, and finally had a chance. The hope is better positioning on the trail will lead to more accurate times and paces in your favorite fitness app. No more GPS doing to win those QOMs and KOMs 😂 .

It has been fascinating to learn about smart city use cases for shared mobility, emergency services and traffic management while working with Kickstart Innovation in Zurich this week. The program has been a nice complement to the engaging work with NSIN - National Security Innovation Network we started back in August. Both are fabulous accelerators focused on creating pilot opportunities for start ups. Wonderful staff and well run operations that provide a ton of value while preserving your equity. Really recommend both programs if they are a fit for your go-to-market. https://lnkd.in/g-Hwa5FN

Thanks to SpaceNews for the opportunity to discuss the challenges for AltPNT to truly replace GNSS. There is a good bit of marketing hype out there, and we thought it would be helpful to have a pragmatic discussion on it all. In our previous work at Pixel8earth and Snap Inc. we were able to go deep on building out large scale visual positioning systems (VPS). While creating a "snow globe" where positioning without GNSS is possible at scale, developing a viable system entirely independent of GNSS remains a significant challenge. There is no silver bullet to end our reliance on GNSS, but we now have increasingly sophisticated augmentations that provide graceful degradation for a growing number of use cases. https://lnkd.in/gVJDy3WY

Big congratulations to Zephr.xyz teammate Ariel Baron for his publications in The Institute of Navigation's journal NAVIGATION "Implementation and Accuracy of Doppler Navigation with LEO Satellites". As Apple has added GlobalStar to the iPhone and Google is adding Starlink to the Pixel the opportunities to leverage LEO satellites for PNT is going to skyrocket 🚀 https://lnkd.in/g87bu-D7

Tons of fun talking with Mojtaba on @AllThingsXR about positioning and AR. Thanks for the opportunity to share the team's work! https://lnkd.in/g95eajke