How do you get mail to someone with no address or no street?

There are some four billion people in the world who don't have access to regular mail delivery, because they don't have an address. So how do they get a letter or parcel?

Chris Sheldrick, the co-founder and CEO of What3Words, has come up with an ingenious solution to that problem: convert every three-metre-square GPS location on the planet into a three-word phrase.

So CBC in Toronto becomes "property.gent.exhaled." Signal Hill in Newfoundland becomes "reeling.spike.sprays," and so on. 

Chris originally came up with the idea because he got frustrated trying to move rock concert gear into place. He tried issuing GPS coordinates to his colleagues, but it was too easy to mix up numbers -- in one case a truck reversed two digits and ended up dropping off the gear kilometres away from the actual concert site.

Then he realized its full potential. Mongolia, which only has full mail delivery in its capital city, Ulaanbaatar, has just become the first country to adopt What3Word's system officially, and will use it in lieu of street addresses.

It's also being used in Rio de Janeiro's largest favela, where there are also no street names and finding a particular location is difficult, he says.

But its utility isn't just limited to countries where mail delivery is difficult. Because What3Words pinpoints locations with such accuracy, people can also use the service to find their friends at music festivals and campsites.

So far, Chris says What3Words is available in 10 languages and there are plans to add 10 more shortly.

Want to find out what your address is in three words? Just go to the What3Words mapping site and enter your address, or drop a pin -- and you'll know!