Over the last few years, there has been a lot of attention given to 5G and how it will change so much in our society. (Learn more about 5G, by reading 5G – The Hype and the Reality)

But there is a major update to our mobile devices that is getting little to no attention. Without this update, 5G’s impact on our society will be greatly diminished.

That update is the roll out of the next generation of GPS.

In this article I will explain how GPS works, debunk some of the myths, then explain the GPS update and why it is needed.

How GPS Works.

Let me explain how GPS works, you maybe surprised. 

A Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of at least 24 satellites. Each one of these satellites travels around the earth two times a day each transmiting a unique radio signal.

This is a one-way signal; GPS satellites do not receive a signal from your mobile device.

This signal is saying, “At this time, the satellite is at this location”. Your mobile device then uses this information to figure out the distance between itself and the GPS satellite.

How is distance is calculated?

Remember the last time you watched a firework display. You saw the firework explode then a few seconds later you heard the explosion. That’s because the sound had to travel over a distance to reach your ears.

Now imagine your friend is standing the same distance away with a loud speaker shouting out the current time.

They yell into the loud speaker, “its 10:01 am”. By the time you hear, “its 10:01“, its now 10:02 am. That means it took 1 second for their voice to reach your ears. Knowing that sounds travels at a speed of 343 meters per second (1125 feet per second), we can quickly calculate your friend is 343 meters (1125 feet) away from you.

That’s exactly how the GPS Satellite signal works. When a signal from a GPS Satellite is received by our mobile device, our device can calculate the distance between itself and the GPS Satellite. Except the signal is traveling at the speed of light which is 299,979 km per second (186,282 miles per second)

Now that we know the distance from a single GPS satellite then how do we know our location.

We use a process called trilateration.

Using a simple two-dimensional example, let’s imagine we have three GPS satellites each with a known position in space.

The first satellite broadcasts a signal and our mobile device calculates the distance between itself and satellite 1.   

We then can draw a circle, equal to the calculated distance, around satellite 1.

Now we receive a signal from a second satellite, we calculate the distance and draw another circle.

With two satellite’s, we can see that our mobile device could be at either of the two places where the circles intersect (red dots).

If we add our third satellite, we can pinpoint our location (red dot).

Myths.

If we are to believe Hollywood, we would believe that GPS can consistently locate our precise location within centimeters (half an inch). All we have to do to confirm our belief is turn on Google Maps and ask for directions.

But….

Google Maps and other GPS mapping apps are using a bit of smoke and mirrors. The true reality is, that at best, these apps can locate our phones within a 5 meters (16 feet) radius. And that’s under an open sky away from buildings, bridges and trees. Most of the time its around 12 to 15 meters (40 to 50 feet)

If you have ever used a “find my phone” app to locate your phone somewhere in your house, you will know, that the app cant pinpoint your phone under your chair’s cushion.

The app might even incorrectly show the phone is in your neighbour’s house.

The trick that most GPS navigation systems use is to look at your calculated GPS location and direction and then guess which road or path you maybe on.

Then the question arises, “who cares, if the smoke and mirrors are working, why change it.”

Imagine two self driving vehicles are approaching an intersection using our current GPS technology. They both “think” they know where they are, but they could both be off by 5 meters (16 feet) or more.

Or imagine that Boston Dynamics has finally produced a commercially viable automatous robot and it is trying to navigate along a very fine pathway.

I think we can see what could happen.

5G’s promises autonomous vehicles. But what’s truly the point, if all of these devices only know where they are within a 5 meters (16 feet) radius.

For us in the delivery industry, this margin of error is why we are still use location barcodes. Proving a shipment was delivered to a certain location simply cant work in an urban setting when the location is off by 5 meters (16 feet) or worse.

The Big GPS Update

In our explanation above, our mobile device is only receiving a single signal from our GPS satellites using one bandwidth. But, here is the thing, those satellites are transmitting multiple signals on different frequencies.

Multiple signal GPS devices are called Dual-Band GNSS (aka Multi-Band)

Up until recently, dual-band receivers would cost $5000 or more. But now low-cost Dual-GNSS chips are making their way into our consumer grade mobile devices.

By receiving two signals with varying bandwidths from our satellites, we can over come signal loss from weather, buildings and bridges. Which also means, we have a greater chance locking into more GPS satellites at one time, which means better accuracy.

On top of the cost reduction of Dual-Band GNSS chips, a set of new more robust satellite have also come on-line.

All of this simple means, if your mobile device has a new Dual-Band GNSS receiver, then two things will happen:

1. Two times reduction in positioning error.
2. Can provide accuracy within 30 cm (1 foot)

If you want to read more, please check out this article: https://insidegnss.com/galileo-hits-the-spot-testing-gnss-dual-frequency-with-smartphones/

If you combine this new GPS update with the faster data speeds promised by 5G and include Starlinks roll out, providing faster data speeds to rural location, within a few short years, we will really start to see and experience another large leap forward in technology.  

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Barcodes are just Morse Code

If you want to know even more about barcodes, then take a moment to read my previous blog, “How do Barcodes Work” where I explain how barcodes were invented.

The Basics.

If you don’t have time to read the linked blog, I will break it down this way; when you scan a barcode the device translates the image into numbers and letters.

For example, if you scan this barcode:

you will see the number, “1”.

If you scan this barcode:

you will see the letter, “a”.

If you put them together into a single barcode:

you see “1a”.

Great, so how does this help with scanning a package?

Imagine you had an Excel sheet with a list of packages. Each row listed a package’s pick-up address, delivery address, weight and piece count.

Then you assign a unique name to each package, for example “package1” and “package2”. Your Excel sheet looks like this:

This would allow you to quickly find a package by using the “Find” button in Excel and typing in a package name, for example “package1”.

Putting that all together, we can:

1. Make a barcode that translates to “package1”
2. Stick our barcode onto our shipment.
3. Click the “Find” button in Excel.
4. Scan the barcode
5. Which translates to “Package1”
6. Click “Find”
7. And we find our package.

Now that we have selected our package, we can update it by changing its “status” field from “dispatched” to “picked up” or “delivered.”

Essentially, when you break down all the fancy computer code, that’s what’s happening when you scan a shipment.

They key take away is: if you don’t have “Package1” listed as a name in your Excel sheet, you will not find anything when you scan “Package1”. That means all the barcodes on all your shipments must also be in your database and they must be unique for each shipment.

Locations and Chain of Custody

For those who need proof that a shipment has been delivered to the right address, then location barcodes can also be used and they are just as simple.

In our example Excel Sheet we see “Bobs Work” as a delivery address.

All we have to do is make a barcode that translates to “Bobs Work” and stick this by Bob’s loading dock.

When we scan the location barcode and click “Find” we can then see that “Package3” is for delivery at that Bob’s Work.

We can then add another scan for the Package Name. If anything other than a barcode that translates to “Package3” is scanned, we will simply say: “Not for this location”.

Advanced Scanning

Now that we have the basics all sorted, its time for some fun stuff. This is usually where my conversation starts with clients.

How do you scan a barcode such that it magically creates a shipment record in the software?

It’s actually very simple: you just do everything backwards.

First, you scan the location barcode and that tells you the delivery address.

Then you scan the package name barcode which tells you the unique package name.

With those 2 pieces of information, your system creates a new shipment using the matched delivery address and unique package name.

While this works most of time, I’m sure you can see some failings. What about the shipment’s pick-up address, weight, piece count, customer account, etc.

We have two options. One is some coding magic, but that’s a secret. The other is to use a different type of barcode.

Here is a “traditional” Picket Fence barcode that contains the pick-up address, delivery address, weight and piece count.

That’s just way too long for a scanner to read. If we add a street address and customer account details the barcode would not fit on our package.

One solution is QR barcodes.

Picket Fence barcodes are read horizontally from left to right, just like reading a book. Thats why when we add more information the barcode gets bigger

QR barcodes are read horizontally and vertically.

For example, here is a QR Barcode

This barcode contains:

1. Full pick-up address details, including street, state, country and postal/zip
2. Full delivery address details, including street, state, country and postal/zip
3. Weight
4. Piece count
5. Customer account details.

That means you could scan a QR barcode and create a shipment that doesn’t even exist in your database, which would then allow you to properly track and trace your shipment.

Its magic.

Watch IDS scan a Barcode to Deliver a Shipment

If you want to see how IDS scans a barcode to deliver a shipment click here to see and read more.

If you found this blog helpful, feel free to subscribe by completing the form in the menu on the right hand side and you will receive future blogs as they become available.  

The post How does Scanning a Barcode Deliver a Shipment appeared first on Dispatch & Delivery Software with Routing and Drivers App.

What the Heck is a G?

G simply means “generation” of cellular technology (for my readers outside of North America, that’s the same as mobile technology).

The original cellular technology from of 1G only provided analog radio signals for voice.

With the deployment of 2G in 1991, voice transmissions were digitized and it was possible to send and receive text messages. Digitizing voice transmissions was important as it prevented outsiders with the right equipment from overhearing or surreptitiously recording analog (1G) transmissions.

Sometimes those records were awkward:  https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2011/07/21/BCPhoneScandal/

In 1998, 3G was unleashed. This generation provided a slow internet connection, mainly using WAP browsers at data speeds of only 2 Mbps (megabits per second).

Since 2008, we have been living in a world of 4G (also known as LTE).

4G provides data speeds of 10 to 100 Mbps and has led to the possibility of video transmissions.

After 10 years, 5G is starting to come online with the possibility of data speeds ranging from 2 – 100 Gbps (gigabits per second).

To put that into perspective: 5G’s 100 Gbps is equal to 100,000 Mbps, or 1,000 times more data per second than 4G’s top speed of 100 Mbps.

Another promise of 5G is the decrease in lag time.

The easiest way to describe lag is to remember the last time you a watched a fireworks display. First you would see the explosion, then a few seconds later you would hear the explosion. That’s 4G. 5G promises to eliminate this lag time so the user would see and hear the explosion at the same time.

These extreme speeds with almost no lag will mean little things like being able to stream 4k and 3D video on our mobile devices.

It might also mean bigger things like autonomous wireless vehicles, smart stadiums, smart cities and all sorts of connected smart devices that we have not even thought of yet.

But…. There is a catch

Breaking Down the Waves

The 4G and 5G microwaves that connect our mobile devices have a different wavelength. The size of these microwaves affects both speed and strength.

To explain what this looks like, think of a surfer:

4G creates big waves with large gaps between each wave. These larger waves start way out in the ocean and slowly but steadily bring in 1 or 2 surfers onto the beach every few minutes.

5G provides smaller waves with small gaps between each wave. These smaller waves only appear a short distance from the beach, can’t flow over rocks or sandbars, but quickly bring in 20 or 100 surfers onto the beach every few minutes.

Like the big waves with large gaps in between, 4G provides coverage over larger areas (up to 72 KM [45 miles] from a tower) and can easily penetrate or “wash over” obstacles (like buildings) but provides slower data speeds.

Like the smaller waves with small gaps in between, 5G can only provide coverage over small areas (around up 250 metres [850 ft] from a tower) and cant penetrate obstacles like buildings (and even has issues with rain) but provides a lot of data quickly.

Beyond the Wave.

Yikes! 5G’s coverage is so small. Thankfully, 5G’s wavelength also helps to overcome the small coverage areas in a unique way.

Because of the smaller waves associated with 5G, tower antennas will be significantly smaller. This means 5G’s base stations can easily fit onto light poles and power poles.

This also means each base station can pack more antennas and serve more devices. For example: 4G base stations only have 12 ports (1 port for either a receiver or a transmitter). In comparison, 5G’s base stations have hundreds of ports.

These smaller, more powerful 5G stations will be easier to place and will provide more “power”, overcoming the disadvantage of smaller coverage areas.

After the Wave

One thing that most overlook is what happens after the microwaves arrive at the base station. All that increased data must go from the base station, through the mobile carrier’s network and out into the internet. That doesn’t happen with magic, it needs hardware and lots and lots of fibre-optic wiring. This is known as “back haul”.

Some experts are predicting that 5G’s demands will mean 80% to 100% increase in the existing fibre-optic network just to handle that extra data.

It’s also been estimated that between 2020 and 2025 network-related capital expenditures by telecoms would increase by 60%, roughly doubling the total cost of ownership of all the infrastructure.

In the end, 5G is coming and it promises to change our lives in ways we can’t imagine. But it’s not going to happen overnight and will take years and a lot of money to implement.

The post 5G – The Hype and the Reality appeared first on Dispatch & Delivery Software with Routing and Drivers App.

You think you know, but really, do you?

This is the first in series of articles about Barcodes, how they work, innovative ways they are being used and what is next.

The Barcode

In 1948, Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland started research into creating a cash register that could read a product’s label and automatically enter in the correct price. The goal being to speed up and reduce errors during the check out process.

Their first challenge was how to make a product’s label “readable” for a machine.

To solve this, they used technology that was readily available to them in the 1940’s. That being the telegraph.

Before we could transmit our voice through radio waves, we transmitted tapping sounds over wires. The tapping was Morse Code and the machine that made the tapping sound was the Telegraph.

How that tapping or Morse Code worked was simple. If you made 3 quick taps, then 3 long taps and then 3 quick taps, you were saying S.O.S. Where 3 quick taps meant the letter S and 3 long taps meant the letter O.

These taps would be visually represented as dots and dashes. So our S.O.S would look like this:

Woodland’s brilliant idea was to turn Morse Code’s dots and dashing into lines which could then be “read” by a machine.

Using sand on the beach in front of his father’s Florida home, “I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them”, said Woodland (Seideman, Tony, “Barcodes Sweep the World”, Wonders of Modern Technology)

Meaning our Morse Code S.O.S. would now look like this:

But there was a problem.

Woodland and Silver realized that their new code would always have to be scanned straight on to ensure the scanner would read their code from left to right.

Meaning, if the code said “coke” and you scanned it upside down, then it would be read as “ekoc”.

Their solution was to create the Circular Barcode, which could be scanned from any angle.

Their Circular Barcodes was the Great Grandparent of the QA Barcode.

The Scanner

Now that Woodland and Silver had their barcode, they needed a way for a cash register to read it. So again, they turned to popular technology that was widely in used in the 40’s. That technology being movies.

When movies first came into being, they were silent. The challenge was how to add sound. The solution was to add the sound directly onto the edge of the film strip as an image of a sound wave.

When the projector shone light through the film onto the movie screen, it also illuminated the images of the sound waves. On the opposite side of the film strip edge was a Photomultiplier.

A Photomultiplier takes light particles, which are known as photons, and turns them into electrons.

As the photons projected through the images of the sound waves changed, then so did the electron flow produced by the Photomultiplier. This changing electron flow created an electric signal. The electric signal was then converted to sounds via an amplifier and a speaker system.

So when Woodland and Silver needed a way for a machine to read their barcodes, they simply adapted the movie sound technology. They did this by shinning a 500-watt light bulb through the barcode and onto a Photomultiplier. But instead of turning the created electronic signal into sound, they converted the signal back into the original letters and numbers of the barcode.

Putting it together

Now that we have a barcode and scanner, we need to put it together so that our cash register would charge the right price.

Imagine if we had a bottle of Coke. We then created a barcode using our converted Morse Code to spelled out the word, “Coke”. We then fastened our barcode onto our bottle.

We then connected our scanner to a computer and scanned our barcode.

The scanner reads the barcode and tells the computer, “Coke”.

The computer then looks up in its’ database the word “Coke”, finds a record that says a Coke costs $1.25 and then display’s on its monitor “Coke $1.25”.

And that’s the magic of barcoding.

But wait! we are not done yet.

We don’t use Morse Code for barcodes and the linear barcode became the standard.  But why?

In 1949 Woodland and Silver filed a patent for their barcode and scanner, which was granted in 1952. They then quickly sold their patent which ended up in the hands of RCA.

While they were waiting for their patent’s approval, and this is important, Woodland started working at IBM.

In 1966, RCA attended a meeting held by the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) on how to create an automated check out system. The meeting resulted in an agreement to initiate an internal project to test Woodland and Silver’s barcode patent.

In July 1972, RCA and the Kroger Store in Cincinnati started an 18-month test of the Woodland and Silver’s circular barcode. Sadly, their test kept failing because when the printers created the circular barcode, the ink would smear which then made the barcodes unscannable.

Back at IBM, Woodland was still working on his original linear barcode. He discovered that linear barcodes wouldn’t smear because they were printed in the same direction as the stripes.  

But there was still the issue that linear barcodes could only be scanned from one direction.

Thankfully, Woodland’s colleague at IBM, George Laure, overcame this last hurdle by creating the following barcode format standard:

• The first digit was always a 0.
• The next 5 digits was the manufacturer code.
• Which was followed by 6 more digits for the product code
• With the final digit being a check digit to ensure the barcode was read correctly.

With the barcode always starting with a 0 and ending with a check digit, the scanner and computer always knew, regardless at what angle it was being scanned, which way to read the barcode.

Woodlands Linear Barcode combined with Laure’s format became IBM’s UPC (Universal Product Code) which on the April 3, 1973 was selected to be the NAFC standard.

IBM’s UPC is still widely used today as the standard for the retail industry. However, there are now countless number of other barcode formats in use today, such as EAN, Industrial, Interleaved, Standard, PostNet, Code 11, Codabar and QR Barcodes.

So now you know how barcodes work.

Watch IDS scan a shipping barcode

If you wish to learn more, please click here to watch IDS scan shipment.

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