What is GPS? It’s Working, Features, History and Evolution

GPS – Global Positioning Systems, better known as GPS, has become an integral part of everyday life. From how we move from place to place to how we defend our borders, GPS can be used to enhance our directional accuracy considerably.

 

Close your eyes for a while and now imagine our lives without GPS!

Can’t even try imagining it for a second, isn’t it?

Want to go that popular food corner everyone’s talking about? GPS to the rescue!

Have a birthday party in an hour and not able to locate your friends’ house? GPS to the rescue!

Want to check out that new mall that’s opened in the city? GPS to the rescue?

Want to find the nearest petrol bunk in the middle of a highway? GPS to the rescue!

Lost direction in life? Well, nobody can rescue you now!

That is the kind of impact that this technology has bought into peoples lives. The whole world will come to a virtual standstill if GPS stops working even for a day. The good old school type of asking people direction for places is no more. The good old maps that we carry everywhere with us is no more.

GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System is a revolutionary technology invented by an engineer at US defence, Bradford Parkinson.

Bradford Parkinson, remember this name and thank him every time you get lost in the middle of nowhere and then GPS comes to your rescue!

What is GPS? It’s Working, Features, History and Evolution

The history of GPS begins after the Second World War when the U.S. Department of Defense insisted on finding a solution to the problem of global positioning accurate and absolute. They spent several projects and experiences over the next 25 years including Loran, Transit and others.

All of these systems allowed to determine the global position but were limited in precision or functionality. However, at the beginning of the decade of 70, an idea was glimpsed that would solve all the problems of the previous systems by the hand of a new project called GPS.

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What is GPS capable of?

Well, GPS is capable of much more than we can comprehend. Its usage is beyond just finding out the nearest McDonald’s, which we will be discussing at length in this article.

  • With the use of latitude, longitude and positioning, GPS can find the exact position of an object with an accuracy of fewer than 5 mts.
  • GPS is not just about locating. It is about finding out the distance between point A and point B and the time required to reach there the variable factors like speed and traffic.
  • GPS helps to locate the perfect coordinates of a city, town or even a small village.
  • It can tell you the speed with which you are travelling. Its a highly accurate measurement which can also tell you the average speed with which you have travelled from place A to place B
  • It provides a direction of travel.
  • It can help meteorological departments to find out the timings of sunrise and sunset.

What is the usage of GPS?

GPS units are most commonly found in cars, on cell phones, or as handheld receivers. GPS is used in many different ways.

Here is a list of a few GPS uses:

  • The military uses geospatial technology to navigate. GPS units are carried by soldiers on the ground. Units are also attached to vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft instrument panels.
  • Airline pilots use GPS to fly the most direct routes between airports.
  • Farmers use GPS units, available on newer tractors, to plant fields and to decide how much fertilizer to apply — depending on soil sample data which is entered on a map of the field.
  • Surveyors and Map Makers use GPS for precision positioning such as placing telephone poles, sewer lines, and fire hydrants.
  • Foresters use GPS to check and record forest health —locating diseased trees or monitoring insects.
  • Emergency response crews (police, fireman, rescue teams, etc.) can respond quickly when locations are found by GPS units.
  • Hikers, bikers, boaters, etc. use GPS to mark where they parked their car before they take off on a trip, so they can find their way back. Or if a person wants to return to a special place, a GPS waypoint or set of coordinates, allows them to do so.
  • Campers and hikers sometimes place caches of food or supplies along a long route so they don’t have to carry everything with them. It is important that they find their supplies when they need them, and GPS can mark the supply location.
  • Fisherman use GPS to record a favourite fishing area.

GPS receivers are also used for scavenger hunts all around the world, seeking and finding hidden caches. This sport is called Geocaching. (See “Intro to Geocaching”.) Youth in communities can be very helpful in collecting data with GPS receivers. Many towns would like to collect information about street signs, manhole covers, or high crime areas.

How does GPS work?

The GPS infrastructure, to say the least, is highly expensive. Countries, as well as certain companies, spend millions of dollars in acquiring this infrastructure

In simple terms, the GPS infrastructure consists of 24 satellites, along with spare satellites of 8 or 10 in number, which will be located 2000 kilometres from the surface of the earth, that’s the same as driving from Delhi to Mumbai ten times!

Each satellite has its own functions and transmits different types of signals. These signals are read by GPS receivers and then transmitted to our handheld devices.

GPS receivers are usually cheap and affordable which can easily be found in smartphones, tablets, watches and other forms of electronic gadgets. While GPS signals can propagate through all conditions of the atmosphere, they cannot penetrate through a solid object.

The three main components of GPS

These are the 3 main basic components that one should be aware of

  • Space Segment -the satellites orbiting the earth and transmitting timing and ranging messages.
  • Control Segment – monitors the health and position of the satellites in the space segment and transmits correction information back up to the satellites.
  • User Segment – the handheld or other receivers used to interpret the messages broadcast from the satellites.

GPS Measurements

  • There are different types of reviver, not just our handheld Smartphone devices. Out Smartphone scan detected locations up to 5 mts accuracy but there are certain industries who can’t afford an error of 5mts, for example, agriculture or surveying or airline. Hence these GSP receivers are built for specific purposes are more sophisticated and accurate than the commercial GPS.
  • To improve accuracy, differential GPS measurements are used by engineers across the world. This is a method of elimination of inaccurate data. In this method, there is a base station whose coordinates and location are known. The data from the base station and the one from GPS is analysed the and difference in error is noted for further improvement of accuracy.
  • There are both public (government-owned) and private base stations in the world.
  • These analysis and processing of data from base stations are real-time in nature

How has GPS changes our lives?

GPS has surely changed our lives

GPS position is not perfect. Some errors you have some control over. As a GPS user, you have some control over the first type of error – you can wait for the satellites to move into better geometry or plan your data collection for a good time of day.

GPS is not limited to means of travel but also quite prevalent throughout our society. GPS systems help the individual locate points of interest. For instance, one can seek for desired places to stop in the cities in which you visit. If you need medical care, you can find a hospital through GPS. Searching for points of interest on a GPS is quite a benefit of its own. As long as GPS is not treated as devices without error, this technology makes life easier and a little less stressful when trying to get from point A to point B.

GPS is used for business purposes for many different reasons. It has helped our business world become more successful.  Many tools with GPS facility are being used by businesses and government agencies to track their vehicle locations using wireless communications.

GPS has made a huge impact on our society. It has changed the way people communicate and live. GPS has made our environment a safer and easier place to live. GPS is being used to help parents find and keep track of their children and is being installed as a location device in cars and in cell phones to assist people in mapping and directions.