Geosense, determining your location without GPS

Geosense is a software sensor that represents the Location & Sensors platform in Windows 7; it collects information from various sources about your location when there is no GPS device on board.
It works best on computers equipped with WiFi adapters, but their availability is not necessary.

How does it work?

Developers hired thousands of pigeons that work for bread crumbs to spy on their users around the world.

No, seriously, Geosense is designed to use a hybrid system of geolocation services and geolocation methods to determine the most accurate location information, not limited to WiFi triangulation, as well as triangulation of cell towers (cell tower) and IP search.

Currently supported:

• Google Location Services (WiFi)
• Google Location Services (IP)

Under consideration:

• Google Location Services (Cell)
• Skyhook Wireless (WiFi)
• Quova (WiFi)
• Navizon (WiFi)

Security

Data security is always important for developers, but to be honest, they are just a little under their control.

Geosense only collects and temporarily stores information about access points around you for the sole purpose of sending this data to Google Location Services. The privacy policy of this Google service explains what data they collect and use.

The location information provided by Geosense is only available to applications that are running on your Windows 7 system. Responsibility for the use of this information rests with the software manufacturers.

I installed what now?

Unfortunately, at the moment, not many applications support this functionality. To demonstrate how the sensor works, the developers created a client application for Google Maps .

The following applications are also available:

• Weather gadget for the sidebar, in the properties, select "Find location automatically"
• MahTweets - Tweets and Flickr Photos with Geo-Tags

It's all free

Developers believe that until manufacturers integrate GPS devices into PCs, Geosense is a great alternative to address this shortcoming.

Official project site
Additional information about the Location & Sensor platform