Can You Find Me Now?
How is a Nintendo Wii game console able to determine the location of a Wii remote while a player interacts with the game? The answer is triangulation, a process that determines the location of an object by measuring angles from two or more fixed points.
Surveyors often use triangulation to measure distance. Starting at a known location and elevation. Surveyors measure a length to create a base line and then use theodolite to measure an angle to an unknown point from each side of the base line (Jains 30-48). The length of the base line and the two known angles allow a computer or person to determine the location of a third point.
Similarly, the Nintendo Wii game console use triangulation to determine the location of a Wii remote. A player places a sensor bar, which contains two infrared transmitters, near or on top of the television. While the player uses the Wii remote. The Wii game console determines the remotes location by calculating the distance and angles between the Wii remote and the two transmitters on the sensor bar. Determining the location of a Wii remote is relatively simple because the sensor bar contains only two fixed points the transmitters.
A more complex application of triangulation occurs in a global positioning system (GPS) A GPS consists of more earth-based receivers that accept and analyze signals sent by satellites to determine a receiver’s geographic location. (GPS) receivers, found in handheld in navigation devices and many vehicles, use triangulation to determine their location relative to at least three geostationary satellites are fixed points in triangulation formula (Understanding Satellites and Global Positioning System)
The next time you pass a surveyor, play a Nintendo Wii, or follow a rout suggested by a vehicles navigation system, keep in mind of it might have been possible without the concept of triangulation.
Works Cited
There are no sources in the current document.