Usually databases are treated primarily as fairly dumb data storage systems, but they can be capable of much more. Case in point the PostgreSQL database and its – Ada-based – PL/pgSQL programming language, which allows you to perform significantly more complex operations than would be realistically possible with raw SQL. Case in point the implementation of a Kalman Filter by the folk over at Traconiq, which thus removes the necessity for an external filtering pipeline. Using a Kalman Filter is highly desirable when you’re doing something like vehicle tracking using both dead-reckoning and GPS coordinates, as it filters out noise that can be the result of e.g. GPS reception issues.
The article describes a project where someone developed a software-defined GPS receiver from scratch using Python and an RTL-SDR dongle. The project tackles the 'coarse' positioning capability of GPS, achieving location resolution within 24 seconds from a cold start. The article highlights the project's accessibility and potential as a starting point for further exploration of GPS technology.
