By Edwardo Mascasas
Where am I? Where am I going? Where have I been? These were some of the few questions involved in our day-to-day activities especially if you are involved in an activity where you are required to travel or go to secluded places.
Today with our advancing technology, navigation and positioning has never been this easy. If you feel lost then GPS technology can shine some light on your location. With the use of satellites and ground stations the ability to track aircrafts, cars, cell phones, boats, and even individuals has become a reality.
GPS technology comes in many forms for various needs and industries. With miniaturized GPS units and fewer integrated circuits this makes GPS technology economical and accessible almost to everyone. GPS technology is a navigational system that has changed the way we work and play .
A Global Positioning System or GPS is a satellite navigation system that works by continually transmitting high-frequency radio signals containing the time and location of the satellite in relation to earth. This information is obtained by a GPS receiver on the planets surface from three of more satellites and the GPS receiver has calculated the users position on the planet.
The receiver pinpoints, between 3 and 15 meters, where the device and thus the user is located. With multiple measurements, the receiver can also calculate speed, trip time, distance to destination, altitude, sunrise and sunset, and more. On average, eight satellites are always within sight of wherever you are on Earth. The more satellites your GPS receiver can contact, the more accurate your readings will be.
If you are thinking about getting a GPS for mobile use, make sure you have a laptop, probably the one you already use, a GPS receiver and software. Installation is the same for almost all GPS models.
To install GPS on a Windows XP-Based laptop, you just need to start your Windows XP-based laptop, install the software, and plug the GPS receiver into the laptops USB port. With Windows XP and Plug and Play hardware, you really cant go wrong. Most GPS systems come with extensive mapping software and the installation is as simple as inserting the CD into the appropriate drive.
After you configure a GPS, install software, and fully charge the laptops battery, its time to take off on an adventure, right? Well, almost. You need to configure the laptop for optimal settings before you go.
To configure battery alarms:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
2. On the Alarms tab, under Low battery alarm and Critical battery alarm, specify the settings you want by dragging the slider.
3. Click Alarm Action to select the type of alarm notification and power level you want.
To configure a power scheme:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
2. On the Power Schemes tab, in the Turn off monitor, Turn off hard disks, System standby and System hibernates lists, configure the time settings you want. (See the list below of how to configure them.)
3. Click Save As, and in the Save Scheme dialog box, type Travel.
4. Click OK twice.
Running your laptop on batteries, configure the settings as follows:
* Turn off monitor: After 2 minutes * Turn off hard disks: After 8 minutes * System standby: After 3 minutes * System Hibernates: After 10 minutes
So thats it, youre ready to go. With your powerful laptop-enabled GPS and your road experience will never be the same again.
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Portable units, such as our Editors' Choice TomTom GO, attach to the dashboard via Velcro or other means. They have good form factors for driving, including easily viewable displays and accessible interfaces. For power, portables include plugs for 12-volt outlets or cigarette lighters. Although portables are convenient in that you can move them from one car to another, they don't exactly blend with the car's interior. A portable GPS unit will make an unsightly bump in the clean lines of a well-designed dashboard.
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Global Positioning Systems offer everything from hole overviews to Internet access "Shortgrass Technologies' Internet-based sports information system and financial ticker enables golfers to check college football scores on a Saturday afternoon or the price of stocks any weekday. Global positioning systems can track golf cars no matter where they are on the course, thus discovering bottlenecks and slower play. Golfers can order beverages and food en route to the turn, so golf clubs can offer more than a quick hot dog - a higher priced chicken sandwich, for instance...."
I always thought that GPS would go mainstream in automobiles first, and in a way I suppose it has, but maybe golfers will lead the real charge. I could have used a portable, library-centered GPS system myself to navigate the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library when I was there last fall!
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By Jack Morris
If navigation is the process of getting something from one site to another, then tracking is the process of monitoring it as it moves along. Global positioning system and its tracking systems that is suitable for GPS vehicle tracking and general GPS asset tracking applications is one of the best things that the GPS has to offer.
There are lot of commerce and industries that rely on fleets of vehicles to deliver goods and services either across a crowded city or through nationwide corridors. So, effective fleet management has direct bottom-line implications, such as telling a customer when a package will arrive, spacing buses for the best scheduled service, directing the nearest ambulance to an accident, or helping tankers avoid hazards.
Global positioning system used in combination 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.
So its no surprise that police, emergency, and fire departments are adopting systems like Trimbles global positioning system-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 confidently.
Chicago developed a global positioning tracking system to monitor emergency vehicles through their streets, saving precious time responding to 911 calls. And on the commercial front, two taxi companies in Australia track their cabs for better profit and improved safety.
A GPS-based automated vehicle tracking system helps a Boulder, Colorado transportation company to keep its high-frequency commuter buses on schedule in varying traffic and road situation, buses are the only possible alternative for short-route public transit systems.
They are relatively inexpensive, can be quickly deployed, and are easily rerouted to provide accommodation changes in usage patterns. Introduction of a GPS-based automated vehicle tracking systems has helped the local transportation provider to keep its high-frequency HOP route on schedule.
Once you install a personal-GPS unit into your vehicle, you can monitor its position yourself from your PC or laptop and enjoy the great accuracy and simplicity of this system. The GPS Unit installed in any vehicle will only consist of a small box with an antenna. But this unit will be getting info from a high-tech moving lab in outer space.
There are a range of battery powered GPS systems designed using state of the art GPS technology to maximize battery life while giving the highest possible performance and flexibility. Unlike GPS units from before, there are now complete standalone GPS tracking units integrating a 16-channel parallel global positioning system receiver and are offered in both GPS data logger and GPS real-time tracking configurations.
Most are weatherproof, small in size and feature magnetic mounts making them ideal for covert GPS tracking and law enforcement applications. They are also ideal for any commercial GPS tracking application where external power is not available such as GPS location of shipping containers, industrial equipment and stolen asset recovery.
Some companies allow demand for customization of their GPS tracking and embedded system development and can draw on considerable in-house expertise to make sure the new GPS product reaches market on time and within budget.
Gps Tracking can make a world of difference in how a company operates. It is a worthwhile investment that makes tracking a fleet or a person a lot easier.
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Marine GPS based devices are a boon to all seafarers. It is based on the Global Positioning System or GPS. It is a constellation of satellites which orbit the earth twice a day, transmitting exact time and position information. With GPS, you can spot your precise location and get back to your original destination. A marine GPS can be of a great help should you get lost in any large body of water - lakes, seas or oceans.
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How to get text-to-speech and 6 million POIs on a Magellan Maestro 3100...Magellan's Maestro 3100 ships with a small 750,000 POIs database and doesn't have text-to-speech. If you've got an SD memory card and are willing to void your warranty, here's how you can upgrade the Maestro 3100 to a full 6 million POI database and get text-to-speech too.
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Topografix's free Easy GPS software makes it simple to create, edit, and transfer waypoints and routes between your computer and your Garmin, Magellan, or Lowrance GPS device.
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Write Here, Write Now: And you thought you were overloaded with information now, just wait. Hewlett Packard is working on a technology to let folks print messages in mid-air based on their location incorporating GPS technology. I find this stuff fascinating, even if no one seems to have thought of a good use for it yet. The first sentence of the article is right, though: "The kids are going to love this." in New Scientist via RCPL's Liblog]
When the ALA summer conference was in San Francisco in 1997, the SF Museum of Modern Art had a fascinating exhibit called Icons: Magnets of Meaning. I spent hours browsing through it, but one of the pieces that has always stuck in my mind was called @: Marking the Electrosphere . It talked about the meaning of that one little symbol. How it can define, place, and root you in the world, but at the same time let you be found anywhere. Integrated, widespread use of GPS is going to take this to a whole new level.
Lots of interesting articles from today's PC World. First up, Microsoft Takes on MapQuest: "MSN launches MapPoint online mapping service, offering maps, directions, and more."
Apparently this is going to be yet another component of MS' push for .Net services with hooks into other MSN services. MapPoint is XML-based, which makes it interesting in other ways, and there it launches with a phone-based direction service. The articles notes that this is another step towards location-based services. "For example, you might someday be able to click on a Windows Messenger buddy's name and retrieve a map showing the location of his or her home."
Good or bad? You make the call. I like parts of this, but I'm incredibly wary of .Net.
Write Here, Write Now: And you thought you were overloaded with information now, just wait. Hewlett Packard is working on a technology to let folks print messages in mid-air based on their location incorporating GPS technology. I find this stuff fascinating, even if no one seems to have thought of a good use for it yet. The first sentence of the article is right, though: "The kids are going to love this." in New Scientist via RCPL's Liblog]
When the ALA summer conference was in San Francisco in 1997, the SF Museum of Modern Art had a fascinating exhibit called Icons: Magnets of Meaning. I spent hours browsing through it, but one of the pieces that has always stuck in my mind was called @: Marking the Electrosphere . It talked about the meaning of that one little symbol. How it can define, place, and root you in the world, but at the same time let you be found anywhere. Integrated, widespread use of GPS is going to take this to a whole new level.
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