Research & Development Group

It it the work of a lifetime to push the message that GPS is not just about driving the wrong way because a computer tells you to, rather than because a piece of paper tells you to.

But satellite or pseudolite data is used in a vast array of disciplines, not just the business of getting relatively safely from A to B, and if you're very lucky, back again. Precise drilling, for instance, or precise cutting, can be guided by satellites.

Now, make way for the most unlikely, but possibly most human, application for GPS data - precision gaming.

Regular visitors to the RIN website, or the pages of Navigation News magazine, will know of the Galileo Masters competition - the European competition to develop rapid-earning business ideas into rapid-earning business realities.

One previous winner is now almost ready to hit the market. iOpener media uses real-time GPS data of famous Formula 1 race tracks during actual races to recreate the experience of driving those courses in competition conditions for Europe's sedentary adrenaline-junkies.

Differential GPS technology is at the heart of iOpener's real-time games, the first of which is due to hit game shops in September 2008. It will probably be the closest thing you'll ever get to real racing without leaving your living room.

For more information on how the game will use real GPS data, visit BBC News.

To enter this year's Galileo Masters competition, submit your entry at the Galileo Masters website.