App: What3Words > Off-map GPS with 3-meter resolution

[rcjordan]

Interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/23/the-gps-app-that-can-find-anyone-anywhere

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.what3words.android&hl=en_US

[ergophobe]

Been using it for several years.

One word of warning - make sure that you have truly acquired a good GPS signal. One time it told me my car was in London

[ergophobe]

BTW when I say "using" it, I mean mostly as a novelty, not as a tool.

If it had wider adoption, it could be a great tool. For our little quarter acre lot, there are at least ten locations. So unlike an address, you can use it to specify front door, back door, garage, etc. Aside from a survey, there are not that many things you need to describe to closer than 3 meters, but there are a lot of things you need to describe more precisely than 30 meters or 300 meters if you have a few acres at one address.

Still doesn't solve the problem that EMS deals with in cities where it only works in two dimensions. No way to specify altitude (i.e. what floor someone is on in a high rise)

[rcjordan]

>Been using it for several years

Phooey, I thought I was going to be showing you something new for trails & backwoods.

I can see how this would be handy for large complexes or sprawling (flat) construction sites.

[ergophobe]

Ha ha... don't know how I found it. For a while I was trying to evangelize. Tell people "You can find that flower at dawn-green-armadillo" or "the base of the route is at "leather-serene-jumbo"

One cool thing about the algorithm is that unlike long/lat it has built-in means of avoiding confusion. Adjacent squares do not share any words. So if you're close, you have all three words wrong right until you hit the right square and get all three words right.

[buckworks]

An uncanny, fun moment ... my home address contains the word "organist". I play the organ and so did the builder of this house.