Underwater digital magnetic compass with trackback?

[RonR]

All the time and money spent on GPS development and deployment was to accurately target missiles on the USSR. The side effect years later was the civilian use, and that now someone who can't read a map, or navigate, can get from point a to point b.


Bob

Not just missiles- GPS was to be used for aircraft navigation, for ships, for soldiers in the field, and also for civilian applications, particularly aviation and marine, though originally at a degraded accuracy.


My father was one of the engineers responsible for developing and positioning the original GPS satellites, he and his co-workers were very aware and excited about potential civilian applications. To get funding it has to be primarily “sold” to congress as having military use (which it did), as it was expensive. The benefits of this technology, freely given away to the entire world, have repaid the investment many, many times over.




To the OP’s question, compasses just show a direction relative to the earth’s magnetic field. Unless you are able to swim in a perfectly straight line, or in straight vectors at set speeds for timed intervals and do the math, and are in zero current, a magnetic compass solution to the problem he poses can’t exist. If you have a compass mounted on your wrist or a console, it’s moving all over the place, and doesn’t know your direction of travel even if it had a processor tracking headings. More information is needed.


Sensor technology is advancing incredibly, and I wouldn’t say that a system, maybe mounted on a tank to have a more stable platform, couldn’t be developed in the future. But it would always be less reliable than systems like Liquivision’s that rely on acoustic transmitters to guide you to the boat. That also has the advantage of being available now.

-Ron

 

[DiveNav]

Not just missiles- GPS was to be used for aircraft navigation, for ships, for soldiers in the field, and also for civilian applications, particularly aviation and marine, though originally at a degraded accuracy. ...

Back in the '80s, when I was working for Rockwell, I was selling one of the first GPS RF receiver module for civilian applications .... it was ~ 3" x 3" and costed ~$500

Earlier this century (~10 years ago) I co-founded and run a fabless semiconductor company developing ultra low power GPS RF receiver .... it was ~ 1mm x 1mm and costed <$1

I can't get away from GPS ..... those satellites keep tracking me down.

So far we managed to get GPS / INS working underwater only in eDiving (where the water is virtual) .... but in some dive sites we make the GPS signal disappear when you get too close to trinkets and bubble credits (so divers can't mark down the exact location )

Alberto (aka eDiver)