SOLDIERS could soon locate themselves using transmissions of TV shows like Lost.
US troops normally use GPS to check their position, but signals can be difficult to pick up inside buildings or in built-up areas. So the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking at ways to obtain position information from other "signals of opportunity" that contain timing data, including cellphone signals, when GPS is unavailable.
"Television transmissions from terrestrial transmitters could be used like GPS," says Bart Ferrell of developers Boeing Phantom Works in St Louis, Missouri. Provided the location of a TV antenna and the time of transmission are known, software can calculate the position of a receiver based on how long the signal takes to reach it.
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