A retired Chinese worker has invented a new global positioning and navigation device which experts say may break the monopoly of satellite-based GPS technology developed by the West.
Cao Zengjie, a former shipyard worker in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, has received a patent certificate from the Patent Office of China for his invention.
After examining the device, experts said it is the first global positioning and navigation instrument in the world that needs neither satellite, radio, nor any other information from outside to do its job.
The instrument can work automatically in any place in the world and under any weather conditions, the experts said.
He Chenguang, a member of the China association for the application of GPS technology, said the invention could have very wide applications, as it occupies no radio frequency and needs no base stations, a fact that makes it much cheaper than the current satellite-based GPS technology.
Cao, with only a high school education, was admitted to the China Society of Mathematics after his work on linear geometry won the high praise of noted Chinese mathematician Su Buqing in 1985.
Cao said he started his research on positioning and navigation in 1986. He came up with the prototype in 1993 and has since been working to improve it.
(People's Daily July 12, 2002)
