Archive for March, 2007
The GPS has many uses
Thursday, March 29th, 2007 by TimThe GPS has many uses.
The GPS, or Global Positioning Satellites, have made their appearance in the last few years and have taken the world by storm. It was developed by the US Government in the 1970’s.
The GPS network consists of at least 24 satellites circumnavigating the earth. The GPS receivers, here on earth collect information from several satellites at a time. With this information, the receivers can, by a process similar to triangulation, tell the user his or her exact location in latitude, longitude, and sometimes altitude too.
For the Military
The armed forces of a country can obviously put such information to very good use. Before small GPS receivers were available, troops in the field depended on the same technology for generations: the compass, sextant, maps and hand calculations.  Radios and reconnaissance aircraft were great leaps, but a GPS calculates position in real time, down to three foot accuracy!
For Civilians
The data from these satellites are free to use if you own a GPS receiver. The US Government owns the satellites of the GPS network, but leaves the broadcasts unencrypted. . Both companies and hobbyists have started to use receivers in many different applications.
Track Anything
When young people start driving their parents usually become quite concerned about them. Auto shops have started offering instillation of small, hidden GPS receivers in kids’ cars. Parents can then use simple computer software and have their kids’ movements plotted on a map. Many parents don’t even tell the kids about this ‘little extra’.
All over the world many valuable cargoes are shipped every day. Shipping a load of, say, televisions, from East Asia to North America is a long way, on ships, trains, and trucks. Now, it is possible for shippers to tuck a small GPS receiver into their cargo and know exactly where it is, how far it is from the destination, and where to find it if it is stolen.
GPS Hobbies
People have always liked searching for hidden things or participating in scavenger hunts. With GPS, comes the new twist: geocaching.
Geocachers hide a little treasure in a box public place, for example, a shoe box with a used book inside, taped under the seat of a bus stop. They then go to geocaching websites and post simple latitude and longitude, to as much accuracy as they like. Then other geocachers search for these boxes with their GPS data. The fun is looking for a strange box in what could be an area with a 25-foot radius. When the successful geocacher finds the box, he or she keeps the little treasure and replaces it with another, for the next searcher.
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