GPS Overview Part 4 - Uses of GPS
The original theory behind Location-Based Services - or
LBS - is to help you find out where you are or where something else is.
One part of LBS is the GPS satellite
constellation. The following overview describes the history and workings of
GPS, as well as its uses and the future for it.
GPS technology has matured into a resource that goes
far beyond its original design goals. These days people from a plethora of
professions are using GPS in ways that make their work more productive,
safer, and sometimes even easier. There are five main uses of GPS today:
- Location- determining a basic position.
- Navigation - getting from one location to another.
- Tracking - monitoring the movement of people and things.
- Mapping- creating maps.
- Timing - providing precise timing .
The first and most obvious application of any Location
Based Service such as GPS is the simple determination of a
"position" or location. GPS was the first positioning system to
offer highly precise location data for any point on the planet, in any
weather. Knowing the precise location of something, or someone, is especially
critical when the consequences of inaccurate data are measured in human
terms.
GPS helps you determine exactly where you are, but
sometimes it is more necessary to know how to get somewhere else. Recall that
GPS was originally designed to provide navigation information for ships and
planes. So it's no surprise that while this technology is appropriate for
navigating on water, it's also very useful in the air and on the land.
GPS used in conjunction with communication links
and computers can provide the backbone for systems tailored to applications
in agriculture, mass transit, urban delivery, public safety, and vessel and
vehicle tracking. Therefore , more and more police, ambulance,
and fire departments are adopting systems like GPS-based AVL (Automatic
Vehicle Location) Manager to pinpoint both the location of the emergency and
the location of the nearest response vehicle on a computer map. With this
kind of clear visual picture of the situation, dispatchers can react
immediately and effectively.
Mapping the planet has never been an easy task, but GPS
today is being used to survey and map it precisely, saving time and money in
this most stringent of all applications. GPS can help generate maps and
models of everything in the world , mountains, sea, rivers, cities and help
manage endangered animals,archaeological treasures, precious minerals and all
sorts of resources , as well as accurately managing the effect of damage and
disasters.
For example peace brokers used GPS generated maps to
determine the partitions of Bosnia under the Dayton Peace Accord, and GPS was
used to map Cambodia accurately for the UN stabilisation force introduced
after the civil war ended in 1993. In fact large tracks of Cambodia had never
been mapped at all, due to inhospitable terrain and low population density.
GPS solved this in weeks, whereas it would have taken months prior to the
introduction of GPS.
GPS can also be used to determine precise time, time
intervals, and frequency. There are three fundamental ways we use time:
- As a universal marker,
- As a way to synchronize
- To provide an accurate, unambiguous sense of duration.
As discussed before, GPS satellites carry highly
accurate atomic clocks. And in order for the system to work, GPS receivers
here on the ground synchronize themselves to these clocks. That means that
every GPS receiver is, in essence, an atomic accuracy clock. Astronomers,
power companies, computer networks, communications systems, banks, and radio
and television stations can benefit from this precise timing.
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