GPS Applications
Explained
by
Hunter Crowell
Talk about a more exciting and more challenging Easter
egg hunt - or a variation of it!
Wouldn't
it be a rip-snorting exercise to engage some people's
geographical and navigation skills so they can find
a cache or two? We're talking about one GPS application
- a recreational one - that has quite a large following
of Internet fans.
Geo-caching
is only one of the leisurely applications of the global
positioning system which can be added to the list of
GPS uses. And the list keeps getting longer.
With
the GPS capabilities for air, land, and sea navigation,
inventive GPS techno-buffs are churning out ways to
turn GPS fans into obsessive treasure hunters.
Geo-caching
involves a hand-held GPS device that owners can use
to travel to a specific longitude and latitude to find
objects (treasures) deliberately hidden there by geo-cachers.
Don't
start thinking of geo-caching in terms of the California
gold rush. Given its recreational nature, these cache
objects are truly valueless - they may contain inexpensive
trinkets, two-dollar bills, coins, memento or "antique"
jewelry that doesn't work. Sorry, folks, no economic
opportunities to be harnessed here. It's all for the
sake of sheer, wholesome fun. As one poet so very well
articulated, it isn't the destination that counts, it's
the journey!
That
is the geo-caching principle. People go into the Internet
and get these treasures' coordinates and set out to
find them. Then they go back to their computers and
relate their experiences. One variation of geo-caching
is actually not to lay claim to the object, but to leave
something else or move it to another location, so that
there is "fodder" for the next hunter.
That's
the light side of GPS. Moving now into a more serious
discussion, these applications can be classified into
four or five categories:
-Military
-General aviation and commercial aircraft -General navigation
-Precision-time reference -Visually impaired individuals
With
respect to the military application, this was the original
intention of the $12 billion investment of the United
States government. The military objectives relating
to cruise missiles and smart bombs were at the core
of GPS technology (if you want to sound even smarter
than a smart bomb, you can say "precision-guided
munitions" to impress your listeners). Military
strategists also rely on it for monitoring the U.S.
Nuclear Detonation Detection System.
Precision-time
reference applications refer to the use of a GPS reference
clock for time-sensitive generators or network time
protocol (NTP) clock. An example would be the seismologic
endeavors of both the public and private sectors. GPS
can also be used for the synchronization of clocks in
computer systems.
As
for general navigation applications, GPS is used by
people here and abroad as an aid in cars, airplanes,
and ships.
The
application for visually impaired individuals is an
interesting field of study because people have recognized
the capabilities of GPS to help the blind. Collective
efforts to devise tools for the visually impaired are
continuing, and GPS technology will fuel those efforts
further.
One
little detail that we want to mention is "tracking
logs." Hypothetically, if we had a compulsive and
obsessive adventurer who likes to wander off to remote
islands, thickly wooded forests and unheard of safari
jungles in places whose names you can't even pronounce,
that adventurer would never have to panic if he felt
disoriented or lost. Before setting out into uncharted
territories, he simply has to activate his GPS tracking
log capability, and it will record every detail of a
turn, a detour, or a reverse motion. This information
is stored in his GPS computer, and if he wants to take
the same route on the return voyage, the data will be
there for him.
Hunter
Crowell is a researcher, marketer, a geocacher, and
also the creator of GPS Systems, a web site setup to
help people find useful and accurate information related
to global positioning systems. Visit his site at http://www.GPS-explained.info (url not available)
