A friend on the outside could then use the geolocation data from the analocator and drone deliver supplies at night. The contestants turn the camera off at night and the secret delivery wouldn’t have to be anything overt that would be easily noticeable post-delivery.

Contestants are allowed to bring ten items to the location with them. Part of the show is deciding which items to bring and which items to go without - skipping a fire starter or a water bottle, for example. But this way they could drone deliver a few of those small items they skipped out on.

I’m talking about this show, for anyone unfamiliar: Alone - Wikipedia

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    You may be surprised to find that GPS signals are quite low power by the time they get to Earth. Receivers employ a bunch of tricks to extract the signal out of noise. It does not take much in the way to attenuate them to the point where they are useless. If a receiver is embedded in a body cavity it is unlikely to work well unless it has a direct full-sky view – which is especially troublesome for that particular body cavity.

    It might be easier to embed a tiny receiver in someone’s skin: in their shoulder, or the nape of their neck, with less bodily tissue between them and the sky. A strategically-placed tattoo could help cover it up. The receiver would also need power so you would either need to embed a power source in it (which may be larger than the receiver itself) or work out some RF power source nearby. (But if you didn’t know where in the world they were, how would you know where to place the power source?)

      • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Then that’s more feasible. It also means that it doesn’t have to try to operate while safely stowed. The contestant can remove it and then turn it on. They might even be able to strategically bury it somewhere. The small amount of dirt above it will attenuate the signal, but if buried in a place with an open view of the sky they will get a much stronger signal than they would in a building.

        We are spoiled with how quickly the GPS in our phones work, but they already have a good idea where they are from the cell towers, and they can also get information on which satellites are in view from the Internet. If the GPS receiver had to work without access to those resources, it may take minutes to get a fix.

        Then, it also has to communicate the position data: if there is no cell service, that would have to be some sort of satellite communication or other long-range thing.