·1 min read
GPS is a guess, and what that means for a location-based experience
A phone's location is not accurate for the first few seconds. Here is why that breaks a geolocated audio experience, and what we do about it.
A phone does not know exactly where it is. It makes a guess from the satellites and the wifi around it, and that guess gets more accurate over the first few seconds.
Why this matters for a walk
If your first zone is small, it can go wrong right at the start. Either nothing plays while the player is standing in the right place, or something plays while they are still in the car park.
To the player this does not look like a GPS problem. It looks like the experience is broken.
What Obelisk does
Obelisk does not show the map straight away. It holds a screen in front of the walk while the signal settles, and shows a ring that tightens as the reading gets better. When the reading is good enough, the walk begins.
It usually takes a few seconds, which is about how long it takes to put headphones in. After that the first zone plays in the right place.
Drift after that
Even once the signal settles it still moves around a little. So a zone is slightly harder to leave than it is to enter. Without that, standing still can be enough for the app to decide you have walked away and stop the audio.