What It Is and How It Works – For the uninitiated, GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It’s a method of finding a receiver anywhere on earth or in orbit, and it’s arguably one of the most important inventions of our time. GPS has so many different applications that many technologies and ways of working are continually being improved in order to make the most of it. Now why is GPS so important and useful? First, we have to understand how it works. In order to work, a satellite network orbiting the earth is used. These satellites each broadcast a specific signal, which is received by inexpensive aerials and passed on to GPS devices where it is then decoded and used by dedicated software. The information is specific enough that the GPS software can identify the satellite, it’s location in space, and calculate the time that the signal took to travel from the satellite to the GPS receiver. Using different signals from different satellites, the GPS software can now analyze the position of the receiver, in terms of latitude and longitude. Mapping It Out – Even getting the information about the receiver’s location will be useless without something to compare it with. This is where the mapping comes in handy; thru this, GPS can analyze our location and maps out possible routes. Actually, the mapping data is what makes a GPS device expensive. It must be accurate and updated reasonably frequently. Several kinds of maps are created for different users. Road users need maps containing accurate data about the road systems in their particular region, but they won’t need data about the lay of the land. On the other hand, hiking GPS users might wish to have a detailed map of the terrain, rivers, hills and so forth, and perhaps tracks and trails, but not roads. Marine users need very specific information relating to the sea bed, navigable channels, and other pieces of maritime data that enables them to navigate safely. And what about fishermen? They also use marine GPS to keep track of the movements of fish in real time and to predict where they’ll be the next day. The advent of GPS fixing has also meant that co-operative fishing has become much easier, where several boats relay their locations to each other while they locate the best fishing waters. There are also GPS devices called “fish finders”, which combines GPS and sonar functions to track and store detailed fishing and maritime information. Get Started with GPS – Consumers can avail of several GPS devices that are specifically designed for a variety of uses and functions. Sophisticated in-car GPS systems, which feature voice guiding, powerful dynamic route calculation, and the possibility to update the map from a CD, are now available. Then there are handheld GPS devices, such as those from Magellan and Garmin, which store a map inside, and are usually designed for outdoor use. They do not have detailed road information and the user has to find his own way from point A to point B without any route calculations. A more recent solution has appeared on the market which uses the power of a PDA to run the actual GPS software. A GPS receiver can be easily attached to these devices, so these tend to be the cheapest, easiest to use and most flexible solutions. Bluetooth technology has also started to make use of GPS, using a single PDA device wirelessly connected to several receivers.
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What It Is and How It Works – For the uninitiated, GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It’s a method of finding a receiver anywhere on earth or in orbit, and it’s arguably one of the most important inventions of our time. GPS has so many different applications that many technologies and ways of working are continually being improved in order to make the most of it. Now why is GPS so important and useful? First, we have to understand how it works.
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