CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlmobilegeolocation
Jey
Jey

Reputation: 1511

HTML5 Geo Location in mobile phone with no gps

Scenario: I have a nokia 5233 which doesn't have a GPS or WiFi. I installed Opera Mobile web browser which supports HTML5. I tried html5 geolocation in opera mobile. I was stunned it pointed the exact location of my phone. Not approximate location its a accurate location.. It was like it used GPS to find my location but the phone doesn't have a GPS. I used network data connection to load the page.

My questions:

  1. How does the browser able to find my accurate location without GPS.
  2. Can i use the same method in an application i develop to find the exact location of the user.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2006

Answers (3)

zizoujab
zizoujab

Reputation: 7800

Your navigator( opera ) support HTML5 sins it can get your current position. The navigator can user multiple methods to get your position ( your wifi , mapping your ip address to a location from your Internet Provider , triangulation for mobile phones ...) as i know you cant know or specify the method your browser uses to get your position. Most probably your navigator is using triangulation because you have no wifi, now GPS.

Upvotes: 0

Bryan Naegele
Bryan Naegele

Reputation: 660

  1. Your phone is triangulating itself based on cell tower signals. It can be pretty accurate.
  2. For people's phones that support it and allow you to geolocate them, yes.

Upvotes: 2

buley
buley

Reputation: 29208

Does your phone support wifi? Google, Apple and a company called Skyhook all run databases of wireless routers (often in addition to two other points of reference, gps and cell towers).

Each router has a unique (and non-changing) MAC address. When your phone checks in, it sends a list of all the MACs for WiFi APs it can "see." Based on the database (which is updated thanks to you and everyone else) they can pretty accurately pinpoint where you are based on the wireless BSSIDs around you.

For more info, check out this article I wrote on Skyhook.

Upvotes: 2

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