The GPS Update
The origins of GPS date back to the Cold War when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik I satellite, heralding the beginning of the space race. What started off as a method of studying the Earth from space quickly grew into a universal technology utilized by nearly every country in the world. It was originally designed to help soldiers and military vehicles such as planes, and ships accurately determine their locations worldwide. GPS uses the concept of trilateration to provide your location but relies on Differential GPS and atomic clocks to vastly improve the accuracy. With such precision, GPS is being used in myriad applications including personal navigation and military missile guidance systems.
The GPS has always been an intriguing topic taking into consideration in terms of how and why it started and how it has evolved. I think it is a revolutionary classic example of a ubicomp system. I will only be going through how GPS navigation in terms of portable devices has become a part of our daily lives as the GPS has a huge variety of uses and is dispersed in different systems.
· Profiling the GPS on the basis of portable devices like mobile phones
I think we have all been there where you are cruising down the street, trying to peer out your window and read the street numbers. Did you make a wrong turn?
Soon, you come to a realization that you have been dreading: you’re lost. In the past, this was a very common occurrence. But since the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), an increasing number of people are able to easily navigate to their desired destination. GPS technology allows users to pinpoint their exact location through a small GPS receiver. Today, GPS receivers are found in phones, cars, boats, planes, laptop computers, tractors, and countless other applications.
The Magellan NAV 100 GPS receiver was one of the prime examples of the first consumer hand-held GPS device weighing 1.5 pounds, measuring 8.75 x 3.5 x 2.25 inches, and having a cost of $2,000. The GPS system was not even ready for full-time coverage. The NAV 1000 had a satellite schedule function. The user could check if there would be a 2D or 3D positioning possible at a specific time and place.
The NAV 1000 is meant to be a marine navigation tool. The functions are very basic. A text display with a few symbols is showing plain navigation data. 100 waypoints can be stored in the memory. There is only one active route possible.
The NAV 1000 is a single-channel receiver. Data is received from one satellite, then from another, and so on. It is very interesting to watch a NAV 1000 initializing. First, the satellite almanac has to be loaded. A satellite can be chosen or the receiver will search for one. After an initial position has been entered the NAV 1000 searches for satellites, one after another. Then it will receive data, one after another. Then “computing” is displayed for a while and with luck, a position is calculated. After the initial fix, the position is updated every few seconds.
Now that is how complex getting to know your location using a portable device was, not to mention expensive.
CRITIQUING
GPS in phones uses It uses radio waves between satellites and a receiver inside your phone to provide location and time information to any software that needs to use it. AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) adds cellular location data to assist geolocation. Your phone carrier knows where you are since your phone “pings” cell towers. How precise this is will depend on the strength of the signal between your phone and the tower, but it’s usually good enough to be used for location data.
The Software on your phone feeds this raw cellular location data to the GPS receiver, which will periodically switch between GPS data and cellular location to get a very close approximation (within 50 meters or so) in real-time. In other words, GPS can use data collected by your phone from the cell site it is connected to in order to work faster and more accurately.
When we compare Historic GPS portable devices to the technologies which we have today, we have come a long way in terms of portability, efficiency, reliability, and performance. the map data is always as fresh as possible. As long as you’re connected to the internet, you have instant access to the latest map information used by Apple Maps, and Google Maps.
THE BENEFITS OF MOBILE PORTABLE NAVIGATION ARE:
1. Network: The navigation collaborated applications keep you informed and also connected. It’s also a safety measure as someone is always in the know of where you are or where you are heading to.
2. Convenient: Anyone can get the location to feed them in their apps and with no hurdles, they are there.
3. Time-Saving: Everyone is rushing to reach somewhere or get back from somewhere. Time and luxury are priceless. Where to go, how to go, the best way to go, the time needed to go, traffic highlights at the best way to go, and so on.
4. Anytime and Anywhere: Right in the middle of the night or early in the morning, you have it right on your phone. Smartphones these days integrate inbuilt apps which cater to the same function as that of independent navigation apps.
The way I see it, GPS has come a long way; from using them according to satellite positions depending on location, time, day, and time to knowing where we are and where we want to go without the slightest doubt, that speaks the Evolution of a Historical ubicomp system like GPS.
