Touch your smartphone screen and you get local weather or a street map.
轻触你的智能手机屏幕,马上就能够获取本地天气或者街道地图。
So you might assume that mobile phones know exactly where you are.
所以你想当然的认为移动电话可以定位你的所在。
But get into trouble and you might find your phone isn't watching you as closely as you thought.
如果这样你麻烦就大了,你也许会发现自己的手机压根不是想得那样精准。
Emergency responders recently told the Wall Street Journal that their 911 dispatchers have trouble getting help to the location of cell phone callers.
紧急应答机构最近爆料给华尔街杂志他们的911救援调度人员在帮助手机用户定位问题上陷入了麻烦。
And a report this summer showed more than half of all California wireless 911 calls in certain areas didn't have location information.
而今年夏天的一项调查报告显示,加州地区所有的无线911呼叫电话中有一半以上显示不出具体位置信息。
One way to locate a cell phone is through GPS, assuming the phone has one and it's outdoors.
定位手机的一种方式是通过GPS全球定位系统,前提是手机具备这项功能而且身在户外。
Another is through location-based services.
另一种方法则是通过固定在地面的服务器。
These follow the signals sent between your phone and your wireless network's radio towers.
这些设备会追踪从你的手机到无线网络发射塔距离之间的信号。
But towers can be miles apart, making it hard to pinpoint locations and adding minutes to response times.
但也许离你并不近的发射塔使得精确定位有些困难,而且反应时间会有延迟。
Responders want wireless companies to include location data with each call, something privacy advocates oppose.
救援应答组织希望无线公司提供每通电话的具体位置信息,而其中有些是隐私权倡导者所反对的。
It's a matter of perspective.
而这完全是由看法不同所导致。
Sometimes you want to be off the grid.
毕竟有时你就是想摆脱地图上坐标方格的束缚,
But in a crisis, the grid could be your best friend.
但危险时刻,这些位置坐标可能是你的救命稻草。