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Comment by aerovistae | Hacker News Reader

Too bad the compass still doesn't know which way I'm facing 90% of the time.

The whole point of AR directions is that it uses data from your camera to figure out your orientation

Google uses AI along with the camera to correct the compass. If they could integrate this correction with their standard compass API it would be a game changer.

As a side note, the API docs in both Android and iOS fail to mention how unreliable the compass outputs are!

Or they don't don't know about it. It is pretty apparent that the google maps team have never tried to navigate via compass on an actual phone.

Compass operation is clearly dependant on the hardware and your physical surroundings. My phone compass ( LG V30+) works well in a suburban street or open bushland, showing high sensitivity. Inside my steel framed house or 5 metres from a 40 storey steel reinforcement sky scrapers not so much. ( And not much different from my 40 year old Silva compass) That's why Google is using the camera, Street view and AR to align the orientation

Yes. And why, for the love of everything that is holy, can you not disable compass navigation then?!?

Even gps direction is vastly superior during walks - despite the obvious issues with that.

Perhaps it's time to disrupt the world of compass physics by inventing one that doesn't get influenced by other magnetized objects?

Because that's the only way you'll fix that.

It's only the electronic compasses in mobile devices that are garbage. I've experimented with holding a regular small mechanical compass in one hand and a cell phone in the other. The mechanical compass is steady and accurate whereas the cell phone compass jumps all around. It's just poor design.

Sure, but that's because the compass in your phone is smaller than your nail is thick. Which obviously makes is significantly more sensitive to any disruption.

How would you design it better?

You can design a separate compass transmitting data to the smartphone. There's many people who could trade $50 and some additional weight in their bags for accuracy.

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