how GPS works
It is somehow hard to understand how technology has come up with solutions to problems which otherwise seemed impossible to solve. For instance, gone are the days when getting lost was a major issue. Whenever a person found himself in such a situation, the only way out was to seek help from local folks or observe the patterns of stars to be able to find directions. However, getting stranded in places without signs of life remained a dilemma. This was pretty desperate condition in the past. Fast forward to date, however, falling into such a situation is not a big deal. All to do is to whip out a smartphone or any GPS enabled gadget. Just that and get a direction.
With such wonderful technologies, the issue of concern is to understand how such small gadgets like mobile phones have the ability to pinpoint locations with such shocking accuracies. In other words, how GPS works.
GPS, a common term used these days, refers to a feature that has been incorporated in many electronic devices like tablets, mobile phones as well as hand-held GPS units. It is a short form of Global Positioning System. It is a technology that helps in pinpointing locations as well as providing information about the locations. Generally, GPS is comprised of three segments: space segment, ground segment and the receivers.
Space segment
In this segment, there is a network consisting of more than 30 satellites orbiting the earth at an approximate height of 20,000 kilometers. They contain ultra-accurate atomic clocks synchronized to each other as well as the ground clocks. These satellites constantly emit microwave signals which can be captured by the receivers operating all over the world.
Ground segment
This segment is also referred to as a control segment. Basically, it is responsible for proper functioning of the satellites as well as the entire GPS system. It consists of several facilities; one Master Control Station (MCS), a backup MCS, 11 commands and a control antennas, and some 15 monitoring sites. These components of control segment work together to track satellites, monitor transmissions, make analyses, send commands and data to satellites. They use a number of machinery to ensure the information conveyed from satellites remain efficient and accurate to the highest degree possible.
Receivers
Receivers are simply gadgets made of highly stable clock, receiver processors as well as an antenna tuned to the frequency of the satellite transmitting signals. A good example of receivers are the Smartphones.
Working of GPS technology
GPS receivers like smartphones have been made in such a way that at any particular moment in time, they are visible to at least four satellites. Each of these satellites convey signals containing information about the location of the satellite as well as the time when the signal was conveyed. When the signal is received by GPS enabled gadgets like smartphones, the information in those signals is used to calculate the distance from the four satellites to where the gadget is using the basic formula;
D=VT
Where;
D= the distance in meters between the receiver and a satellite
V= the speed of the signal (approximated as 300,000,000 m/s)
T=the time taken by the signal to move from the receiver to satellite
Making use of this formula, the distance between one satellite and the GPS enabled gadget can be calculated. The process is then repeated to get the distance between the device and the other three satellites as well. Once the GPS enabled device computes the distance, it is possible to pinpoint its exact location on earth through trilateration process (process of determining absolute or relative locations of points by measurement of distances, using the geometry of circles, spheres or triangles) and then display it in coordinate form involving longitudes and latitudes.
Among the four satellites which are associated with the receiver while pinpointing its location, only three of them are used in the distance calculation. The fourth satellite is only used to confirm the results which are obtained using the first three satellites.
The Innovative Ways GPS is being used today
After its launch in the U.S. military mid-1990s, GPS has expanded at a considerable rate to date. Just like any other tool, human beings have tried to use it for everything they can. Its increased availability to the public has led to many insights, with emerging applications every day. Some of the innovations using the GPS technology are;
Vehicle monitoring
Attaching a GPS transmitter on vehicles has become a relatively cheaper way of deterring vehicle crimes. This technique is mostly used on public vehicles to discourage misuse or on company trucks to monitor them against taking detours to pick up illegal goods. Plug N Track transmitters are the common in this scenario. They are attached to the vehicles computer system through ODB-11 port on the dashboard. This has greatly saved taxpayers money as well as ending illegal trade deals.
Tracking the endangered species
National Geographic has adopted GPS technology in order to save endangered species like elephants. They achieve this by producing and circulating artificial ivory embedded with GPS enabled devices for the purpose of investigating and end criminal organizations responsible for ivory trade. Tracking collars worn by rare species helps zoologists to discover the effects of environmental changes on species.
Improvement of agriculture
One way the farmers have majored on to keep food prices low and its supply up is the use of GPS technology. It is applied in guiding their tractors as well as providing precise data for crop plantation and harvesting. GPS has also been combined with other technologies such as GIS to optimize factors like proper irrigation and soil treatment.
Critical Success Factors of GPS technology.
Critical success factors are simply the limited areas of an innovation that must be kept on the right direction for it to be successful. Particularly in this sub-section, critical success factors of the GPS technology are the factors that made this technology shine from the discovery and has still kept the pace. Basing the argument on the past research and literature review, several factors have played considerable roles in the expansion of this technology up to where the technology stands today. These factors are and not limited to Map literacy, Device availability, Reliability of the technology, Scope of the technology etc.
Factor 1: Map Literacy
The reason for the selection of this topic is because map literacy is one of the major factor that has made GPS Innovation successful. In GPS map literacy about able to read and learn the basic of maps and to be able to navigate yourself by looking at the map. The way users read and learn the map has changed over the decade as the paper based map isn’t really used by anyone in terms of finding location or navigating themselves. The technology has taken us into a place where everything can be viewed in the smart devices with the help of Internet technology. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Financial benefit
The financial benefit of Map literacy is that we don’t have to keep buying additional maps for journey or for the use of education. Since the technology has been growing rapidly, we can now use maps in our Smartphones and electronic device for the purpose making journey, reading and learning the maps. The way we read and write maps has been changed over the years as there are Maps available on the Internet, Smartphones and Navigation device. This means not a lot of people will spend money on buying Map to read and write as this can be done in other technology devices.
Importance to economy
Over the years, map literacy continues to change. The dependency for maps has become increasingly high as people all over the world require GPS for navigation. GPS has many economic benefits, one being that the integration of GPS with other technologies has become vastly infused into applications. People are able to travel without the use of a maps and instead use multiple devices. As these technology is rapidly increasing and able to integrate, this is a great economic benefits as these technologies is much faster, reliable, and low cost and saves time which is a great factor.
Number of devices
Since the increase in technology development in rising, every device is starting to adapt to the use of map literacy. Map literacy has evolved in such a way that users can now use on multiple different devices, whether it is a smartphone, tablet or smartwatch. The up rise in the use of map literacy in these devices allows people to browse and read maps easily whenever necessary. The development in smartphones has also increased accessibility to view maps and learn how to read directions. It has also become easy for users to read maps as it not only helps them to locate an area but also view the street to see what it nearby and how it looks.
The use of multiple device has made it easy and simple for users to view maps as long as their device is connected to the internet. Maps literacy in multiple devices has made easy for people to navigate as they don’t have to carry paper maps or books which can become a hassle. An example of this could be, if a tourist is using London underground train they can certainly use their smartphones to select the destination they want to go and receive directions on how to get there. As long the device is connected to the internet it will show exactly which train lines to take and the time to reach each destination.
Description of Technological Innovation
Before technology took over people used to read and learn maps differently than we do in today’s world. Paper maps such as drawing were used by people to read and learn in order to get familiar with the places. Paper maps were also carried by people so they could navigate themselves from one place to another. Maps has become an important aspect in geography to learn these things such as what lies between them. Although old maps were not perfectly drawn in size it pretty much gives people the concept on these things are located such as countries, ocean, rivers, and island. There wasn’t any technology before as people would rely much on paper based maps to read, learn and navigate.
(https://www.esds.co.in/blog/an-introduction-to-gps-global-positioning-system/#sthash.PWKQ5us4.dpbs)
It is not likely that you see someone carrying or using paper maps to navigate as technology has made it even easier for us to read and navigate using various devices. People still keep hold of maps with drawing as they are looked at as momentums of locations and what they looked like. Old maps were not as accurate because at that time there wasn’t any technology available to measure the size of land or distance in-between. They were drawn by people on what they have seen with their eyes and capture them on paper for people to learn and remember. Old maps are still as important now as they were used to be although but were not entirely accurate. For example, when flat maps were drawn in 1500, Iceland was shown to be larger than Africa which is actually a much smaller country in reality. These didn’t affect people from actually reading the map and measuring distance of land or ocean wasn’t a big concern. In today’s world, old drawn maps are used to teach kids in school to give them knowledge on how they looked like.
The use of map literacy has rapidly grown since 3g was first introduced in iPhone in 2007. This changed the way we use map to learn, look out for certain location and use our phone to navigate. This is because from this moment we could actually use internet in our smartphones and tablets. There was a technology for navigation such as Sat Nav which was mainly used for the purpose of transportation for bikes and cars. The introduction of gps in smartphones has made it easier for people as users can track their current location. Introduction to 3g in smartphone has actually changed the way people live in today. With GPS people can pinpoint their location and with 3G users can search for a location in their smartphone with the help of internet and it guides them on how to get there.
( https://blog.oup.com/2017/01/map-reading-1600s-gps-literacy/)
Context and environment of use
The evolution of technology and the impact it has had plays a huge role in one of the main reasons GPS is so commonly used today. Being able to read and understand maps is incredibly important as it aids in assisting people to reach their locations. The cost of some paper maps can be quite costly when having to continuously purchase them to travel and not only costly but there is also possibilities that certain areas on the maps showing restaurants or events maybe either outdated or no longer available. As well as cost, for some people maps can be quite confusing and difficult to read or pinpoint certain locations and so this can become an issue as they may have trouble in reaching their destination.
Devices such as smartphones and tablets consists of the best hardware allowing application such as maps to be installed on to it. Devices such as these, allow maps to be viewed and also provide options for faster routes. If a person were to get lost, they would easily be able to pinpoint their location and view the different options to see how long it will take them to reach their destination. One of the best features about the map applications is that people can easily travel from one destination to another without any difficulties and also be able to plan journeys with time management.
Factor 2: Availability
The coverage certainly plays a huge role in making GPS so successful. GPS has its history recorded from the era of Sputnik when the scientists first tracked a satellite with shifting radio signal ability also known as Doppler Effect. The Navy body of US military carried out a navigation experiments based on this satellite in the mid 1960’s with an aim of tracking submarines which were carrying missiles. The experiment was launched with only six satellites. The submarines were in a position to observe the changes in Doppler and pinpointed the location of submarines in a matter of seconds. Today, GPS has become a multi-use and a space based radio navigation system which is a property of US Government and overseen by the Air Force for national defense, civil, commercial, homeland security as well as scientific needs. Currently this technology has two levels of service: Precise Positioning Service (PPS) which makes use of P(Y) code on L1 and L2 frequencies. The second service is Standard Positioning Service (SPS) using the coarse acquisition (C/A) code.
In 1980’s GPS was publicly released for civilian applications. Today, millions of applications are using this technology for finding their direction from one place to another. The most common applications of GPS is the satellite navigation of Vehicles, ships and aircraft. It allows anyone who has an access to a GPS receiver pinpoint positions on land, sea and air with incredible accuracy. Vehicle drivers use the inbuilt navigation devices to trace routes, find detours on traffic problems and in a case where the vehicles have additional receivers can be used to get warnings and alerts on the locations of safety cameras.
Financial benefit
Critical to many user innovations and applications, GPS brings a lot of financial benefits. The benefits have registered a rapid growth with the easy integration of GPS with other technologies as well as its deeper infusion into other applications. The financial benefits of GPS have however been enhanced by the availability of GNSS systems, even though GPS has a smaller portion of the GNSS benefits. GNS and GNSS have both combined to raise productivity, reduction and avoidance of costs, saving time, enabling improvement and coming up with new methods of production, improving health and well-being sector, reducing injury and deaths, improving the environment as well as improving security.
Importance to economy
Contrally to the case before introduction and widespread of this technology, today the emergency services uses GPS not only to get to an area of incident fast than before but also locating sites of accidents and enable the staff involved find the scene with accuracy. Before, a lot of time could be spend before the rescue teams could get into those sites, excessive resources were also spend before the mission could be accomplished. This technology is therefore very useful for search and rescue teams based on the sea as well as in extreme harsh weather conditions on the surface of the earth where time is a matter of life or death. Scientists and engineers have started to utilize this technology in experiments and monitoring the geological activities such as earthquakes, volcanic rumblings and earth tremors with ease compared to the case before the launch of this technology. These natural calamities could happen unexpectedly and cause a lot of destruction and to recover to the normal operations, the economy could be highly affected. This is not the case under GPS technology in place since precautions can be taken early in advance to mitigate the occurrences of these calamities or reduce their impacts to the normal economic activities. This an importance to the economy under this technology.
Number of devices
Since the increase in technology development in rising, every device is starting to adapt to the use of GPS. GPS technology has evolved in such a way that users can now use on multiple different devices, whether it is a smartphone, tablet or smartwatch. The up rise in the use of GPS technology in these devices allows people to browse and get directions easily whenever necessary. The development in smartphones has also increased accessibility to learn how to read directions. It has also become easy for users to use GPS technology as it not only helps them to locate an area but also view the street to see what it nearby and how it looks.
The use of multiple device has made it easy and simple for users to use GPS as long as their device is connected to the internet. Availability of this technology in multiple devices has made easy for people to navigate as they don’t have to carry paper maps or books which can become a hassle. An example of this could be, if a tourist is using London underground train they can certainly use their smartphones to select the destination they want to go and receive directions on how to get there. As long the device is connected to the internet it will show exactly which train lines to take and the time to reach each destination.
Description of Technological Innovation
GPS receivers like smartphones have been made in such a way that at any particular moment in time, they are visible to at least four satellites. Each of these satellites convey signals containing information about the location of the satellite as well as the time when the signal was conveyed. When the signal is received by GPS enabled gadgets like smartphones, the information in those signals is used to calculate the distance from the four satellites to where the gadget is using the basic formula;
D=VT
Where;
D= the distance in meters between the receiver and a satellite
V= the speed of the signal (approximated as 300,000,000 m/s)
T=the time taken by the signal to move from the receiver to satellite
Making use of this formula, the distance between one satellite and the GPS enabled gadget can be calculated. The process is then repeated to get the distance between the device and the other three satellites as well. Once the GPS enabled device computes the distance, it is possible to pinpoint its exact location on earth through trilateration process (process of determining absolute or relative locations of points by measurement of distances, using the geometry of circles, spheres or triangles) and then display it in coordinate form involving longitudes and latitudes.
Among the four satellites which are associated with the receiver while pinpointing its location, only three of them are used in the distance calculation. The fourth satellite is only used to confirm the results which are obtained using the first three satellites.
Factor 3: Tracking
Selection of Research Topic – this needs to link to statistical evidence (on financial benefit, number of devices, importance to economy, etc).
Tracking – The reason for selection of this topic is because tracking has given a real-time information. An example could be if a user buys a product from a company then they are issued with a tracking number. The help of tracking technology allows user to find out and get information on exactly where their items are and when they will receive it.
Financial benefit – Financial benefit could be for an organization who are distributing products they are able to track all the product and find out whether it has been shipped or not. This means company are less likely to lose any product as every product has been tracked. If a company is to lose parcel, then with the help of tracking technology they are able to find out which item they have lost, where they have lost and why they have lost it.
Importance to economy – With the tracking system the company are able to track where their drivers are. The tracking technology has also given users able to track their products in terms of where it is. If a user has missed their parcel when they are not home, then they are notified with an email or text saying you have missed it and able to schedule a delivery again.
Number of devices – There are number of devices
Description of Technological Innovation – This section should describe what it is and how it works (and therefore what devices it runs on or interacts with).
Context and environment of use – In this section explain how the factors (or issues or points) factors made it useful for particular examples. Also the context and environment will include
the network, hardware, software etc etc etc.
Description of way in which technological change was implemented – you should have some or most of the factors (or issues or points) that made it succeed from the two previous sections – so use those as the sub headings. This is going to be a long section where all possible factors that enabled the success of the innovation to succeed will be considered. I would suggest that this section and the following one require you to work together as a group to identify what you need to write about (see idea for table above).
Critical evaluation of way in which stakeholders’ needs were fulfilled – This will require you to pick the key factors (or issues or points) that may make it succeed.