track small movements of iphone with no GPS

iphone ios4 gps accelerometer gyroscope
Ricky Robinson picture Ricky Robinson · May 28, 2011 · Viewed 13.4k times · Source

I have to write an application for iphone that tracks the movement of the iphone itself, given its initial position, without ever using GPS. That is, I can only use data provided by the gyroscope and the accelerometer. The distances I need to measure are rather small and the precision I'm looking for is 40-50cm (~2 feet) at the very most.

Is this possible? If so, what's the best way to go about it? Also, do you know of any existing (and possibly open source) projects that have implemented this already?

Thanks a lot!

Answer

Ali picture Ali · May 28, 2011

If you integrate the acceleration twice you get position but the error is horrible. It is useless in practice.

Here is an explanation why (Google Tech Talk) at 23:20. I highly recommend this video.

I answered a similar question here and here.

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