Paste QR codes on every available surface, where each QR code encodes its precise geographical position, altitude, and spacial orientation. Now if you need to know where you are (and your height and tilt), simply scan the nearest QR code and up pops a handy screen from your preferred online map provider. Vehicles would be provided with continuously operating omnidirectional QR scanners.
Unlike GPS, QPS is immune to tunnels, mine shafts, solar flares, and hundreds of meters of sea that you may find above your head. What's more, all those pesky satellites can be recycled and finally put to good use.-- the porpoise, Aug 27 2013 Poorman's GPS http://wiki.osgeo.o..._Power_Company_gridGPS coords encoded onto every hunk of Taiwan Power Company property [the porpoise, Aug 27 2013] //Unlike GPS, QPS is immune to tunnels, mine shafts, solar flares, and hundreds of meters of sea that you may find above your head. What's more, all those pesky satellites can be recycled and finally put to good use.//
QR codes are, but your cell phone has to connect to a cell tower, then to the internet, then send the QR code data and receive a response. Which is all a bit less reliable than GPS.-- DIYMatt, Aug 27 2013 //your cell phone has to connect to a cell tower, then to the internet,//
Not necessarily. There's no reason why an app can't decode a QR code to recover coordinates.
You know, [thep], this is really not such a stupid idea...-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 27 2013 No, it's not a bad idea at all, but the obvious downside is having “QR codes on every available surface”. You could make it work with RFID instead, but you'd need special equipment to read those.-- ytk, Aug 27 2013 Can't we just print the coordinates on every available surface instead? QR codes are just an unnecessary layer of encoding/obfuscation (particularly since portable computers now have good optical character recognition (OCR) software making QR codes largely redundant in my opinion).-- xaviergisz, Aug 28 2013 One way to avoid ugly QRs everywhere would be to light natural objects in such a way that their shadows create the code, only viewable by standing in a precise location. But that defeats the point of the idea.-- tatterdemalion, Aug 28 2013 //What's more, all those pesky satellites can be recycled and finally put to good use//
Well, for those users who reside within a couple hundred metres of a city CBD, that is.
I can't imagine someone paying to have QR codes pasted on every rock, tree, patch of dirt or whatever else the environment consists of - just beyond city limits.-- Custardguts, Aug 28 2013 <Wonders about QR graffiti>
Ling wuz ere..-- Ling, Aug 28 2013 random, halfbakery