GPS finding the height

Question

I am trying to create an application using GPS. I was able to get the latitude and longitude. Is there a way where i could say if i am on the first floor or second floor of a building ?

Is there a way where i could get the height or any other attribute to say if i am on the 1st floor or 2nd floor of a building ?

sorry i don't have any code to show you, i only need to get an idea to see if this possible, and some advice how to implement this.

How are you going to figure out how tall each floor of the building is? — Carl Norum, Nov 13 '11 at 18:50

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 13 '11 at 18:55

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Unfortunately you can't get floor numbers etc. The height you're looking for is often referred to as altitude or elevation. Google provides something they call Elevation API, you might be lucky there. The mobile devices are unfortunately not very accurate yet though.

And btw, you're question is quite broad, you might want to do some research and get back with a question more specific and related to programming.

answered Nov 13 '11 at 18:55

Marcus

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Even if you have a good API that gets you a floor or something like that, it won't really help as the phone's GPS measurements won't be very accurate. This API might tell you are in the second floor while you are actually on the 3rd one ;) – GETah Nov 13 '11 at 19:00
I've mentioned in the answer that the devices are not very specific yet. But since OP haven't specified what he wants to do with it I figured it would be kick in the right direction to provide him with the terminology :) – Marcus Nov 13 '11 at 19:02
How accurate is the `Elevation` API? – Illep Nov 14 '11 at 13:41
@Illep not very. If you could use it to get the floor number I'd be really surprised. – Marcus Nov 14 '11 at 13:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

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One of the major issues many GPS solutions have is the accuracy of the measured altitude. I have big doubts of the possibility of getting accurate altitude on a phone device. Even Latitude and Longitude are not accurate up to a full blown commercial GPS service such as Satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS).

edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

Community

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answered Nov 13 '11 at 18:55

GETah

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 13 '11 at 21:36

Current standard GPS receivers are pretty inaccurate. I own a garmin GPS with a "better" receiver and its still very inacurrate. The accuracy is probably around +/- 50m. Cellulars usually have cheaper receivers that go for engery saving and not for accuracy.

GPS finding the height

3 Answers3