Google's 3D maps to improve location tracking for Android users

The system will use 3D building models of more than 3,850 cities around the world, raw GPS measurements, and machine learning.

Google's 3D mapping aided corrections will use 3D building models of more than 3,850 cities around the world

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Google is working to improve the accuracy of its location tracking for Android users in dense urban areas with tall structures. It already has 3D maps of several locations that it planned to use to improve user experience.

Google's 3D mapping aided corrections will provide a set of corrected positions for the inaccurate locations.

The system will use 3D building models of more than 3,850 cities around the world, raw GPS measurements, and machine learning.

Currently it supports only pedestrians in any of the over 3850 cities. Google is working to support more modes, including driving.

It is available now on Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G). Google plans to roll it out to the entire Android family in early 2021.

The company claims that this will reduce wrong-side-of-street occurrences by around 75%. Users appear on the wrong-side-of-the-street when GPS signals are reflected by buildings in dense cities.

“Google's 3D mapping aided corrections is a major advancement in personal location accuracy for smartphone users when walking in urban environments," said Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit.

MediaTek’s Dimensity 5G family enables 3D mapping aided corrections.

 

The US-based company reckons that the biggest location issue is inaccuracy in dense urban areas, like users' position appearing on the wrong-side-of-the-street or on the wrong-city-block. It believes this causes problems for most used location apps like rideshare and navigation.

All GPS systems are based on line-of-sight operation from satellites.

Line-of-sight is a type of propagation that can transmit and receive data only when the sender and receiver are in view of each other without any obstacle between them

This means that they need to see the object to accurately track it and translate that into useful navigation data.

But in big cities, most signals are reflected as the direct signals are blocked by the buildings. The GPS chip assumes that the signal is on the line-of-sight and therefore introduces error.