Your exact location

Navigation app hones in on addresses all over the world

IF a friend told you, “I’ll meet you at the Desperate Dan statue”, you would probably be pretty clear where they meant if you were from Dundee.

But what if they said to you, “I’ll meet you at wizard.degree. shot”?

Interestingly, they mean the same location – the statue of the Dandy character on High Street.

The three-word code “wizard. degree.shot” which pinpoints the location of the statue is created by an app called what3words.

It has divided the world up into 3m square sections and given them a three-word address, which will never change.

That means wherever you stand in the world, within that 3m square section, you can be located.

For example, if you were to stand at the edge of the cliffs at Dunnett Head, which is the most northerly point of Great Britain, you are standing in “rewriting. nozzles.passage”.

Conversely, if you were to stand at the bottom of Lizard Point i n Cornwall, the most southerly point on the British mainland, you would be at “available.beans.class”.

The style for the code used by the app is to write each word lowercase, joined together with a full-stop in between each.

While quirky, interesting, and in some cases amusing, the technology can also be lifesaving.

In August, it was reported the app had saved the lives of a group of friends lost in woods in England.

They were at the l ocation “kicked.converged.soccer”.

Such is the precision of the app, the police could pinpoint where in Hamsterley Forest the group were.

The app was launched in 2013, but has grown in popularity and prominence in the past two years.

In May 2018, the Mercedes A-Class became the first vehicle in the world with what3words on its built-in navigation system.

As of October this year, 75 English and Welsh emergency services have also signed up.

With that in mind, The Tele decided to find out what3words are used to describe some landmarks in and around Dundee:

The Tay Road Bridge

The iconic bridge which links Dundee and Fife was built in 1966. If you were to stand exactly halfway along the bridge, heading southbound towards Fife on the left of the road, you would be standing in the square known as diverts.hurricane.under.

Desperate Dan statue

The former cover star of the Dandy was immortalised with a bronze statue, alongside his sidekick Desperate Dawg, in 2001. Type in wizard.degree.shot to find the statue on the app.

RRS Discovery

If you stand at the furthest 3sqm forward point of the famous Antarctic research boat, first launched in 1901, your location is sloping.insisting.dress.

V&A Dundee

At the point where the arches of the two halves of the building meet, you are standing in quaking.output.brink.

Dundee Law

The monument in the centre of the highest point of the City of Discovery is referred to as placed.angle.dizzy by the what3words app.