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Originally designed for military and intelligence applications at the height of the Cold War in the
1960s, with inspiration coming from the launch of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik in 1957, the
global positioning system (GPS) - is a network of satellites that orbit the earth at fixed points
above the planet and beam down signals to anyone on earth with a GPS receiver. These signals
carry a time code and geographical data point that allows the user to pinpoint their exact
position, speed and time anywhere on the planet.
Transit was the first satellite system launched by the USA and tested by the US Navy in 1960.
Just five satellites orbiting the earth allowed ships to fix their position on the seas once every
hour. In 1967 Transit was succeeded by the Timation satellite, which demonstrated that highly
accurate atomic clocks could be operated in space. GPS developed quickly for military purposes
thereafter with a total of 11 "Block" satellites being launched
between 1978 and 1985.
However, it wasnt until the USSR shot down a Korean
passenger jet - flight 007 - in 1983 that the Reagan
Administration in the US had the incentive to open up GPS
for civilian applications so that aircraft, shipping, and
transport the world over could fix their positions and avoid
straying into restricted foreign territory.
Upgrading the GPS was delayed by NASA space shuttle SS Challenger disaster in 1986 and it
was not until 1989 that the first Block II satellites were launched. By the summer of 1993, the
US launched their 24th Navstar satellite into orbit, which completed the modern GPS
constellation of satellites - a network of 24 - familiar now as the Global Positioning System, or
GPS. 21 of the constellation of satellites were active at any one time; the other 3 satellites were
spares; in 1995 it was declared fully operational. Today's GPS network has around 30 active
satellites in the GPS constellation.
Today, GPS is used for dozens of navigation applications,
route finding for drivers, map-making, earthquake research,
climate studies, and an outdoor treasure-hunting game
known as geocaching.
Applications of GPS
Although originally designed for military and intelligence
applications at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, in the 1980s GPS was released for use in
civilian applications. Today, millions of users rely on satellite navigation for finding their way
from A to B and a whole lot more besides.
The most obvious application for GPS is satellite navigation in vehicles, aircraft and ships. It
allows anyone with a GPS receiver to pinpoint their speed and position on land, air or sea, with
incredible accuracy. Drivers can use in-vehicle portable navigation devices to follow a route, find
detours around traffic problems and with additional software receive traffic alerts and warnings
on safety camera locations.
GPS is also available for other uses: hikers and ramblers can
use GPS receivers to ensure they are following their chosen
route and to mark rendezvous points along the way. While
gamers can take part in geocaching, a kind of treasure hunt
for the digital age, which uses precise GPS signals to help
the players track down a hidden stash.
The emergency services, for instance, can use GPS not only
to find their way to an incident quicker than ever before but also to pinpoint the location of
accidents and allow follow-up staff to find the scene quickly. This is particularly useful for
search and rescue teams at sea and in extreme weather conditions on land where time can be a
matter of life or death.
Scientists and engineers also have applications for GPS
receivers, in scientific experiments, and in monitoring
geological activity such as earth tremors, earthquakes and
volcanic rumblings. They can use strategically positioned
GPS devices to assist them in tracking climate change and
other phenomena. Fundamentally, GPS can now be used to
produce very accurate maps.
What is GPS?
GPS or Global Positioning System is a network of orbiting satellites that send precise details of
their position in space back to earth. The signals are obtained by GPS receivers, such as
navigation devices and are used to calculate the exact position, speed and time at the vehicles
location.
GPS is well-known for its military uses and was first developed
by the US to aid in its global intelligence efforts at the height of
the Cold War.
Ever since the early 1980s, however, the GPS has been freely
available to anyone with a GPS receiver. Airlines, shipping
companies, trucking firms, and drivers everywhere use the GPS
system to track vehicles, follow the best route to get them from
A to B in the shortest possible time.
The very first GPS system was developed in the 1960s to allow ships in the US Navy to navigate
the oceans more accurately. The first system had five satellites and allowed ships to check their
location once every hour. Today, portable Navigation device devices can give drivers their
precise location to within a few meters, which is accurate enough to navigate roadways. Military
applications have much higher precision so that a location can be pinpointed within a few
centimeters.
The US NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) is the only fully operational Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) currently providing positioning data with global coverage.
The European Union is currently developing its own GPS known as the Galileo positioning
system, which will be operational by 2013. China has a local system it may expand globally,
while Russia is currently restoring its GLONASS system.
its precise position using trilateration, which is essentially a mathematical formula programmed
into the navigation device.
The same calculations not only provide the position, but also
lock that on to a position on the device's built-in maps; it then
calculates the speed and direction you are travelling.
The Navigation device uses the information obtained from the
GPS to overlay your exact position on to the map for the area
in which you are travelling.The maps used in Mio devices are
regularly updated and can be
added at any time.
Software built into the
set a destination and will
The device can also read data
Channel) and alert you to
and optionally give you a
make sure you have the latest maps for your navigation device, you have to install updated GPS
mapping software regularly.
Map updates are available in two forms: either purchase an expansion card from a retailer or go
online and download the updates to your computer ready for installing next time you connect
your navigation device.
From the outside a navigation device looks like nothing more than a sleek digital device, with a
touch screen, however, within the shell is a host of modern electronics that allows it to pick up
signals from satellites orbiting thousands of miles above the earth and to calculate your precise
position and speed on the planet.
Each component inside a navigation device has a specific purpose and each is essential to the
functioning of the device. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides the power for the screen
and the internal electronics. There are also circuits to control the display and to respond to user
interaction via the touch-sensitive display and buttons. There are circuits too that control the
information, map and route displayed as well as to produce spoken directions and camera alerts
in some models. Some Navigation devices, such as the Mio Moov 580 even have Bluetooth
capability.
In order to carry out its main job of locking on to the global
positioning system (GPS), a Navigation device has an aerial
inside. This receives the microwave signals from the satellites in
the GPS constellation. These signals are then amplified and fed
to the integrated circuits that analyze the signals and calculate
your position. The circuitry uses a system known as
trilateration, which is the 3D equivalent of trilateration on a
map. The trilateration process depends on the GPS device being
able to determine the distance to the satellites by timing the signals using its inbuilt clock. The
clock itself is an electronic circuit known as an oscillator.
What is trilateration?
A GPS receiver uses trilateration (a more complex version of
triangulation) to determine its position on the surface of the
earth by timing signals from three satellites in the Global
Positioning System. The GPS is a network of satellites that orbit
the earth and send a signal to GPS receivers providing precise
details of the receiver's location, the time of day, and the speed
the device is moving in relation to the three satellites.
Each satellite in the GPS constellation sends out periodic signals along with a time signal. These
are received by GPS devices, which then calculate the distance between the device and each
satellite based on the delay between the time the signal was sent and the time when it was
received. The signals travel at the speed of light, but there is a delay because the satellites are at
an altitude of tens of thousands of kilometers above the earth.
Once a GPS device has distances for at least three satellites, it can perform the trilateration
calculations. Trilateration works in a similar way to pinpointing your position on a map knowing
the precise distance from three different landmarks using a pair of compasses. Where the three
circles centered on each of the landmarks overlap is your location given the radius of each circle
is your distance from each landmark.
In the GPS version, the calculations are carried out in threedimensions with an imaginary set of 3D compasses so that your
location is where three spheres of radius given by the distance to
each of three satellites overlap. If the GPS device can see a
fourth satellite, then the measurements can be double-checked.
The calculation process happens very quickly, allowing the GPS
device to pinpoint its location, altitude (if it is in an aircraft),
speed and direction.
The transmissions are timed to begin precisely on the minute and the half minute as indicated by
the satellite's atomic clock. The first part of the GPS signal tells the receiver the relationship
between the satellite's clock and GPS time. The next chunk of data gives the receiver the
satellite's precise orbit information.
The main GPS error source is due to inaccurate time-keeping by the receiver's clock. Microwave
radio signals travelling at the speed of light from at least three satellites are used by the receiver's
built-in computer to calculate its position, altitude and velocity.
Tiny discrepancies between the GPS receiver's onboard clock and GPS time, which synchronizes
the whole global positioning system, mean distances calculated can drift. There are two solutions
to this problem. The first would be to use an atomic clock in each receiver costing $100,000. The
second is to use some clever mathematical trickery to account for the time-keeping error based
on how the signals from three or more satellite signals are detected by the receiver, which
essentially allows the receiver to reset its clock. The latter is the less expensive solution used by
Navigation device manufacturers.
There is also an intrinsic error source in GPS associated with the
way the system works. GPS receivers analyze three signals from
satellites in the system and work out how long it has taken each
signal to reach them. This allows them to carry out a
trilateration calculation to pinpoint the exact location of the
receiver. The signals are transmitted by the satellites at a
specific rate.
Unfortunately, the electronic detector in standard GPS devices is accurate to just 1 percent of a
bit time. This is approximately 10 billionths of a second (10 nanoseconds). Given that the GPS
microwave signals travel at the speed of light, this equates to an error of about 3 meters. So
standard GPS cannot determine position to greater than 3-metre accuracy. More sophisticated
GPS receivers used by the military are ten times more accurate to 300 millimeters.
Other errors arise because of atmospheric disturbances that distort the signals before they reach a
receiver. Reflections from buildings and other large, solid objects can lead to GPS accuracy
problems too. There may also be problems with the time-keeping accuracy and the data onboard
a particular satellite. These accuracy problems are circumvented by GPS receivers which
endeavor to lock on to more than three satellites to get consistent data.
GPS Glossary
GPS - Global Positioning System, a satellite based navigational aid available to the public
GPS receiver - a device that can lock on to signals from navigational satellites and use them to
provide location, altitude and velocity to the user
Navigation device - Satellite Navigation device, a type of GPS receiver used for routing and
mapping
Touch screen - the LCD display on Navigation device devices that responds to fingertip pressure
to change settings
GPS time - the standardized time to which GPS satellites are synchronized, it is not tied to the
rotation of the earth so there are no "leap seconds" in GPS time
GPS constellation - the group of approximately 30 GPS satellites orbiting the earth that
broadcast microwave signal to be received by GPS receivers
Oscillator - an electronic circuit built into a GPS receiver that provides timing for the
microwave signals from the satellites
Microwave signal - a high-energy radio signal that carries a burst of data from the GPS satellites
at the speed of light to receivers on earth
Nanosecond - one billionth of a second
Geocaching( aka GPS treasure hunt) - an outdoor game for the digital age in which someone
"hides" the treasure or "geocache" and the gamers, "geocachers" use their GPS receiver to try to
find it
POIs - Points of interest, restaurants, gas stations, emergency assistance, hotels and more, often
embedded in the Navigation device mapping software
Traffic Pack - optional add-on for Navigation devices that taps into traffic news and provides
incident alerts and optionally gives you a new route
MP3 player - audio compression format offered in some navigation devices that allows users to
listen to music, audio books and podcasts on the go