The Global Positioning System (GPS) has proved a boon for those with a bad sense of direction, but the satellite-based system isn’t without its shortcomings. Something as simple as going indoors or entering a tunnel can render the system useless. That might be inconvenient for civilians, but it's potentially disastrous for military users for whom the system was originally built. DARPA is addressing such concerns with the development of a self-sufficient navigation system that can aid navigation when GPS is temporarily unavailable.
We’ve looked at numerous approaches using various mixes of technology that are designed to step up to the plate when GPS falls short. Navatar and Casio’s EX-H20G camera rely on a compass, accelerometers and pre-loaded maps, Smartsense and IndoorAtlas track a user’s movement through the Earth’s magnetic field, while UnLoc detects “invisible landmarks” to locate users.
DARPA researchers working at the University of Michigan have taken an approach somewhat similar to the Navatar and Casio systems with the creation of a “timing & inertial measurement unit” (TIMU).
The TIMU prototype contains a highly-accurate master clock and a six-axis inertial measurement unit consisting of three gyroscopes and three accelerometers. These give the device the ability to gather precise orientation, acceleration and time information to track a user’s position from A to B when contact with GPS satellites is temporarily lost.
The sensors are packed onto a single chip in six microfabricated layers that are each just 50 microns thick, which is approximately the thickness of a human hair. At just 10 cubic millimeters in size, the whole package is smaller than a U.S. penny.
“Both the structural layer of the sensors and the integrated package are made of silica,” said Andrei Shkel, DARPA program manager. “The hardness and the high-performance material properties of silica make it the material of choice for integrating all of these devices into a miniature package. The resulting TIMU is small enough and should be robust enough for applications (when GPS is unavailable or limited for a short period of time) such as personnel tracking, handheld navigation, small diameter munitions and small airborne platforms.”
Source: DARPA
Holy crap! All that in a package only a few millimeters on the side and one-twentieth of a millimeter thick. MMS and associated electronics have come a long way.
Even if it were nearly 100% accurate I don't see it replacing GPS entirely (starting location still needs to be known for one) but I think its a great idea for this application (taking over for a bit when GPS signal is lost).
It would also be a good platform to sanity check the GPS signal itself against tampering. I hope to see this in consumer tech soon. Even a rudimentary implementation would be more useful than assuming you are stopped as soon as GPS signal is lost.
Regarding this specific device, fit it with a transmitter, or digital storage and it does not take too much imagination to see all sorts of 'wonderous' applications for such a small, easilty hidden device. Imagine a situation where 'a night out with the boys' had to be just that because you knew that your wife would know exactly when it had turned into a night in with just one girl, instead!
@Wombat56: A little thicker than 1/20 mm, because it is six layers of that thickness, but still a MEMS marvel!