Tactical coordinate suppression



Here's an interesting piece of arty annoyanceware, a GPS jammer that finds your coordinates (via GPS) only after you find a place and stand still (switched by a motion sensor), then the device jams the waypoint for everybody else. The concept of the device is to help you find you a place of solitude and then its blots out the spot electronically, so that others can't find it.
GPS-HOG - 2007 - Link
Related:
- Modifying a cheap portable cellphone jammer - Link
- The World's Simplest Radio Jammer - Link
- Wave Bubble - Open source Wi-Fi, cellphone, GPS and ... - Link
- Turn off TV week - Link

Personal cell phone signal blocker device ($48 - not sure what's up with this company, proceed with caution) - Link.

Wavebubble open source RF jammer - Link.
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Sep 11, 2007 04:00 PM
Arts, DIY Projects, Electronics, GPS, Gadgets |
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Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
| Posted by: blaisepascal on September 11, 2007 at 5:06 PM |
I hate to be a cynic, but what's the point of this? It jams GPS so only one person can be at a given spot at any given time? Doesn't the Pauli Exclusion Principle take care of that? Besides I don't thin many people use GPS to tell them where to go, just where they are.
| Posted by: wackyvorlon on September 11, 2007 at 5:11 PM |
A very important point to remember: Intentionally interfering with other's signals is nearly always illegal, and can at times even threaten life and limb.
| Posted by: garethb2 on September 11, 2007 at 5:29 PM |
I think you're kind of missing the point. It's techno-art, conceptual art. And as with all art, YMMV.
| Posted by: ildenizen on September 11, 2007 at 7:01 PM |
Several possible problems here.
First off, GPS coordinates are calculated on your receiver.
Secondly, GPS satellites don't receive info, they only transmit data, so there is no congestion as such.
Finally, GPS employs long gold codes on one of two (L1 or L2 frequencies) that are integrated over long periods (thus the acquisition time), transmitted over broadband, and exist in a negative signal to noise ratio. Tough to block these over any physically realizable distance. A good GPS receiver could "pull out" one Satellite signal from literally thousands of simultaneous signals.
Short story - I am not sure what this device jams...
| Posted by: jkgordon on September 11, 2007 at 9:26 PM |
I think we should welcome our readers from the NSA, CIA and the FBI that just tuned in. :)
| Posted by: wiml on September 11, 2007 at 9:49 PM |
ildenizen, I'd assume you could jam a GPS receiver by overloading the rf frontend before the de-spreading stage. The more dynamic range the frontend has, the harder this is to do. I'd bet there are more sophisticated approaches possible by spoofing an apparently-valid signal, too.
and yeah, "proceed with caution" is always a good idea when contemplating buying illegal goods over the internet :)
| Posted by: screaminscott on September 12, 2007 at 9:03 AM |
As much as I like this blog, I wish we had to filter we could set:
1. Useful stuff
2. Arty stuff that's still cool to look at.
2. Arty conceptual stuff that has no practical purpose other than give artists the false impression that they are 'deep'
Sure would make my browsing faster.
| Posted by: volkemon on September 17, 2007 at 4:09 PM |
@screaminscott
Hmmm...I was gonna vote for #3, until I looked closer....
Guess if you pick #2 you lose all in the other #2...poetic justice in a typo....
But its the comments that MAKE it all worth it.
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