1. A positioning system including a database that associates, with visually identifiable unique objects in a working environment, position coordinates within an associated coordinate system; one or more cameras of known internal characteristics and unknown positions, movements, or both within the environment, the one or more cameras taking one or more images of the environment from respective positions; a processing subsystem for identifying unique objects within one or more of the images taken by a given camera; determining if at least three unique objects are identified within the one or more images taken by the given camera; based on determining that the at least the three unique objects are identified within the one or more images taken by the given camera; (1) entering the database to extract position coordinates associated with the at least three unique objects that match entries in the database, and (2) determining position and orientation of the given camera in the environment based on the retrieved position coordinates for the at least three unique objects; based on determining that the at least three unique objects are not identified within the one or more images taken by the given camera, processing one or more additional images to identify the at least three unique objects; and updating the database to include one or both of information relating to newly identified unique objects in the one or more images taken by the respective cameras, the information including the position coordinates for the newly identified objects as determined from the images taken by the cameras and more precise position coordinates for previously identified objects.