![]() If you collect too little it is going to be shorter,” Ranacher says.īecause most devices collect positions at a high frequency-though this can vary based on the brand as well as the current position of GPS satellites-Ranacher and his coauthors found it more likely that distance will be overestimated when using GPS technology.įor their study, published in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science, a participant walked on a premeasured track with a GPS device that collected positions every second. “So the problem is as follows: if your GPS collects too many positions while you are running, your track is going to be longer than it really was. These tiny errors add up the more miles you go.Īn example of GPS measurement error, where the line between two points is farther than the distance you actually ran. When your watch or phone tries to measure the distance between the last two pings, the line will be longer than what you actually just ran. The second, and more common, type is measurement error: Each time a satellite tries to pick up your location, it can be slightly off. “Your GPS track looks like a square, whereas it should be a circle.” “Let’s say you run along a circular track, but your GPS only records four positions during that time,” Ranacher said. If your running watch does not ping your location frequently enough, it will underestimate how far you run. GET MORE RUNNER'S WORLD: Sign up for the RW Daily newsletter This can lead to two types of error, according to Ranacher. It frequently pings your location-that is, finds your location at a specific time-then measures the distance between each ping. ![]() Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playīasically, a GPS-enabled device does not continuously track your movement.
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