What is TarantulaX used for?
Last updated
Last updated
In simple terms, the GPS accuracy of a typical smartphone generally ranges from several meters up to more than ten meters. This lack of positioning precision is often cited as one of the primary reasons why smartphones are considered insufficient for mapping and 3D data collection.
However, with the assistance of TarantulaX, the positioning accuracy of your smartphone can be remarkably improved to the centimeter level—achieving up to 1 cm precision.
Moreover, TarantulaX is not limited to enhancing GPS positioning alone. For instance, it can maintain high-precision positioning for your smartphone even in environments where GPS signals are unavailable, such as inside tunnels. This capability represents a significant advancement in mobile positioning technology.
TarantulaX is a specialized device designed specifically for Web3 and blockchain applications, incorporating robust security features. The integrity of TarantulaX location data is guaranteed, making it indispensable for DePIN projects. Equipped with a sophisticated security chip, TarantulaX cryptographically chain-signs all data it generates. Each data point contains the hash of the previous one, similar to a blockchain structure, rendering any attempt to forge TarantulaX data as impractical as forging a Bitcoin block.
In summary, a phone precisely located within the ROVR network can leverage its sensors—such as video, speed, acceleration, heading, altitude, and magnetic declination—to collect valuable information on public roads. Users are rewarded with significant ROVR tokens for contributing this data.
This is made possible through a technology called Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning—not magic. Standard GPS on smartphones inherently contains errors, regardless of the phone’s price or quality. This can lead to inaccurate location readings; for example, you might be physically standing on the south side of the street, but your phone shows you on the north side. This discrepancy can cause inconvenience, such as when an Uber driver arrives on the wrong side of the road.
TarantulaX enhances accuracy by not only receiving GPS satellite signals but also obtaining broadcast correction data from nearby base stations through your phone. It analyzes and compares these signals to calculate spatial and temporal GPS error values in real time, allowing it to determine your precise location with centimeter-level accuracy.
Furthermore, TarantulaX collaborates seamlessly with the phone to perform a series of automatic calibration procedures. These steps determine the three-dimensional spatial offset between the TarantulaX antenna and the phone itself. By applying precise coordinate transformations based on this calibration, the system is able to further enhance the phone’s positioning accuracy, achieving an extraordinary precision level of approximately 1 centimeter.
TarantulaX integrates a high-precision Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) system that can continue to accurately track the device’s trajectory for a significant duration after GPS signals are lost. It achieves this by measuring parameters such as speed, acceleration, and attitude, and applying advanced filtering and integration algorithms. Additionally, the ROVR system leverages prior data collected by TarantulaX and further refines positioning accuracy through the smartphone’s built-in sensors, even in the absence of GPS signals.
In decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) projects, location spoofing and data falsification pose critical challenges. TarantulaX addresses this problem with a robust and unique security mechanism. It packages GPS messages at 1Hz along with satellite observation data into chained data blocks, digitally signing each block. This approach is analogous to the blockchain method used in Bitcoin, making it computationally infeasible to forge or tamper with TarantulaX data—thus effectively eliminating cheating related to location information.
