Plus, there's no standardization for people who do have addresses. That makes it extremely hard to describe a location in situations where disasters are occurring. Image courtesy of what3wordsīillions of people live without an address, Sheldrick said in a TED Talk. Disaster ResponseĪfter the earthquake in Mexico City in 2017, the Mexican government converted GPS locations into three-word combinations and shared them with first responders. The friends reported their location as "///," and the mountain rescue team was able to pinpoint the hikers' exact location in the woods. The cops told them to download the what3words app and to let them know their current location in Hamsterley Forest. In one case, a group of friends taking a hike in the woods in England were saved by the police after they got lost. To communicate a location, then, one party tells another their three-word location. Since the Earth has room for 57 trillion 3-meter squares on its surface, that left a few trillion extras lying around. That left the team with 40,000 words, which composed some 64 trillion unique three-word combinations. What3words removed any hyphenated words, curse words, and homophones. The English language is composed of 171,476 words, at least according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Report: Russia a Prime Culprit in GPS Spoofing. ![]() Inside the Locked Rooms Where They Protect GPS.The 7 Best GPS Apps for Tackling the Outdoors.What3words, the company these friends founded in London five years ago, can now pinpoint a location more exactly than addresses do, especially if the place has multiple entrances or encompasses multiple buildings. With a third friend who specializes in translation, the three set up shop. Soon after, he ended up writing down the first three-word location algorithm on the back of an envelope. ![]() There had to be a simpler way, Sheldrick thought, so he looped in his longtime friend Mohan Ganesalingam, a math whiz, to help him come up with a location system that was as precise as GPS coordinates. The only problem? Typing out 16 digits every time was pretty annoying. So Sheldrick began using coordinates to tell people where to meet him. This led to equipment being dropped off in the wrong places, and even a situation where a band showed up to the wrong wedding. The last digit is used to round up or down to fit the number of digits allowed.Working in the music industry, Chris Sheldrick quickly discovered how easy it is to show up at the wrong place entirely. ![]()
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