• hamsamrich@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Quantum sensors can sense the tiniest of changes in the gravity or magnetic field and use a previously prepared map of these properties to determine their location. Since a quantum sensor does not need to receive or send a signal to an external device, it cannot be hacked or be spoofed by a fake incoming signal either. “ Very cool!

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I don’t think it’s realistically possible to do that totally undetected. Since the earth’s magnetic field is so weak and field strength goes down rapidly as distance increases, malicious actors probably couldn’t spoof patterns well enough to make the data look real, at least not without coming very close and staying near their target.

        • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          So you constantly need updated maps. Reminds me of celestial navigation where you always need an up-to-date almanac.

            • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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              2 months ago

              What? You just download a new map for the area you want to go to every year or so, no need for GPS

              • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I’m not sure you got me. How do the map makers update the map? If the gravity variance changes so it can’t be used to determine your position then clearly you need some other way to determine your position to update the gravity map. And what might that be??

                • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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                  2 months ago

                  Using the same reference points on earth that GPS uses, that doesn’t mean using GPS.

                  • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    That doesn’t work too well out in the ocean and lots of other places too. If you can’t use your gravity map, you’re gonna use GPS for precise position data.

    • MangoCats@feddit.it
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      2 months ago

      Two issues I have with the presentation:

      A magnetic field is an external signal - the Earth’s magnetic field is actually incredibly weak…

      10x better performance than GNSS … positioning accuracy of 1 nautical mile. Cheap old school handheld GPS out in the woods was accurate better than 10 feet most of the time, so what in this performance is 10x better? 10x more resistant to jamming? Seems like it should be completely impervious to jamming. 1 nm accuracy is useful, but hardly better performance.

      • lefaucet@slrpnk.net
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        2 months ago

        GPS is vulnerable to various attacks.

        It’s unclear what the capabilities are, but there IS a Russian satellite that HAS jammed GPS for almost a whole hemisphere. It’s operated several times for a couple seconds over these past few years.

        Veritassium did a great presentation on how we know this.

        https://youtu.be/tz23G_UXCGA