Homemade GPS puzzle box puts a modern spin on treasure hunts
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Oct 20th 2009 7:43PM
posted Oct 20th 2009 7:43PM
[Via Slippery Brick]
posted Oct 20th 2009 7:43PM
Estimated time drivers save by using real-time GPS traffic updates
Drivers that use GPS systems with real-time traffic info spend 18% less time behind the wheel than those who do not.
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Jumanji.
global positiouiji
That's GPJ, right?
this sounds like a fun thing to have for someone that likes a treasure hunt. Love to see what he did to make it.
1. Put the box on ebay
2. ???
3. Profit!!
It would be better if it was an actual scavenger hunt, with clues that take them from place to place, instead of just giving the distance.
So what happens after 50 wrong tries? It locks up forever?
Obviously it explodes in your face.
That's what she said.
It breaks a vial of poison killing the cat inside.
Picks a random location in Africa.
At first it begins to shrink, condensing it's mass until it has reached a level suitable for it's content. This will take more than one earth-week, but it will become too small to be seen by the human eye within 2 hours. Then it activates its integrated mechanisms. It multiplies. Eating away matter, creating more of itself from it. Although this will be slow at first, the rate increases exponentially. Within 48 hours, they will have the reached the collective size of a large pen, and have the mass equivalent that of a car.
After a few days, its mass will reached a level high enough to begin to have a significant affect on earths gravitational pull. Water will drain from the opposite side of the planet, flooding the other. Buildings will start to collapse, suddenly being pulled in a slight angle. The immediate area of the device will collapse upon itself, falling towards it, only fueling the process with more mass.
Finally, all of earths mass will have been devoured, and Earth will end its days as a black hole, impossible to see and with all traces of earthly life erased for eternity.
@Arkenlo:
A rather dark end, but at least it's not gray and gooey.
@Arkenlo: Thus proving once and for all how f*cking badass Arduino is.
Hm, I find it funny when I find what was on Hackaday.com on here, the day after it appeared.
But is Hackaday still a 'sister site' as described in the below link?
http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/14/the-300gb-ipod-and-you/
Cute, but I think that 3 points would be enough to triangulate the exact location
You assume that the location is in question within the triangulated area. Please think before you post.
Err, you get a distance at 3 points. You draw a circle around each of those points with the distance as a radius. The circles will intersect at the location. What did I miss? Maybe if it's really far away you'll have to take earth curvature into account, but there are formulas for that too. The simple way would be to go to that location, and try the same trick again. in short distance it should be more accurate
Wouldn't you just need 2 points? On each point, draw a circle of the distance, and where they intersect.
And lol@Tanooki for your lack of thinking in posting something about telling someone else to think!
er, and where they intersect is where the location is.
Thats what I thought, Triangulating the position would be rather simple. I don't think that other guy understands what triangulating means.
Two points would give you 2 possible locations since the circles will intersect at 2 locations :)
Yeah, really, it should only take three tries to pinpoint the general area, and three more to narrow it down from there. Fifty tries oughta be more than enough to get it, if you're clever.
I think this is, technically, trilateration, not triangulation because the GPS/Arduino system is calculating distance-to-target during each session rather than triangulation which is computing distance-to-target based on two observations of angle-to-target along a known baseline.
GPS uses trilateration to locate points on Earth, not triangulation. You could make a gizmo to triangulate your position using GPS positioning to locate the end-points of the baseline and then have it do all the math but that's like building a 12 foot ladder to reach an 8 foot high shelf—you only needed the first 8 feet to get to the cookie jar so why bother with 4 more feet?
@GreatWizard
Actually, only 2 would be necessary in theory. If the distances are accurate, the circles you draw should overlap at only a single point. If they overlapped twice, it would mean one or both of the distances were further than they actually were.
I'm assuming that you're relatively close to the target, if the target was half way 'round the world the circles might even overlap at 3 points or maybe more. I don't know, trying to imagine giant circles superimposed on the surface of the Earth is kinda hurting my brain.
OK, maybe not. I'm sorry T_T
NeoJew - please refresh your geometry. Circles intersecting in 3 points? that would be interesting to see. Most circles will intersect in 2 points of course, unless both of them and the target point are on the same straight line.
Alex Alegado - yea it's not triangulation, I stand corrected.
"one or both of the distances were further than they actually were"
This hurts my brain more than anything else.
Langdon peered at the box. It was made of wood, with a small electronic screen set within a carved motif. "This!" he said, stabbing at the motif - "This symbol... I can't believe I'm looking at it.. what you're holding there, Penelope, is an Arduino Puzzle Box!"
I can see in the future they will make movies with this box as the Ancient Treasure. Someone better start making a cave full of traps !!
And as you step into the wrong county it decides to tell you that "You have been eaten by a grue."
This puzzle box is solveable in four button presses.
First, you record your current position, and mark it on a map. Then you press the button and get a distance. Then, use a compass, and with the distant set as the radius, and your current position as the center, you draw a circle. Then, you move some random distance away from the first point, and again record your location. Press the button again, and with a compass, with your 2nd location as the center, scribe another circle with the new distance as the radius. At this point, you will have two circles on your map, intersecting at two points. You could go to the location of either of those intersections, and one of the two will be your final location, where the box would open. Or you could just move some distance away, and press the button a third time, scribe the 3rd circle, and where all 3 cricles intersect is the place on the map which will open the box.
Way to overcomplicate what GreatWizard said 4 posts ago,
I suppose some people need assistance in understanding some of the simplest things though,
Carry on then.
I now understand why you received your doctorate
Way to totally be rude for no reason, Leo161. He explained it in a very concise way, helping even those who did not fully understand. For example, I did not realize there would be two points where it intersects, even though I realized the whole two circles thing.
Oh wow! I was surprised to see this here, i actually work with Mikal and he brought this in while he was demoing Arduino and all of the things you can do with it to our engineers(and some of their kids)...this was like a month ago and it was barely started...looks great now that hes finished. He did tell us the location this individual needs to goto as well, but i wont ruin it here :)
Oops feel stupid now that i read the whole thing it says where it is!