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Comment by denysvitali | Hacker News Reader

I've recently vibe-coded "where-am-i", a small CLI that returns your approximate location using the technology described here.

https://github.com/denysvitali/where-am-i

Tbh, I think this geolocation method is amazing, and I'm grateful it exists, because GPS indoor really sucks.

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Honest question - what's your use case for needing GPS indoors? I generally know where I am when I'm indoors :)

It's useful in shopping malls, airports, train stations, car parks and so on. Anywhere you need to navigate a large complex.

Maybe indoors is the wrong term: as soon as you don't have direct sky visibility it's relatively hard to get a position.

Some examples: on a train, on the underground, in a train station, in a mall, in an office building, ...

Even if you do, it will often take more time to acquire a fix than most people are used to

Probably depends on the construction of the roof and windows. At least on European trains I've never had an issue getting GPS (unless you are in a tunnel or subway system). It takes a bit longer to get the first fix if you don't have AGPS, but no worse than in a car. Same with planes. On the other hand in a building it it pretty much only works next to a window, and malls don't have windows

Not OP but navigating large malls, subway terminals, etc is nice

You're in a large building you're unfamiliar with. Particularly one with an unusual layout, like a mall or hospital.

For a variety of reasons I've set a personal best for time in large hospitals in the last year. They can be very difficult to navigate in the best of times, much less in the less-than-ideal mental state that often accompanies time in a hospital.

/usr/libexec/geoclue-2.0/demos/where-am-i

Generally yes, but if you go to a giant mall, train station, airport then you usually don'y.

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