subject: Advanced Gps Tracking Technology [print this page] Today, GPS tracking technology is used throughout the world. It has enhanced all aspects of global economy with its military, civil and commercial uses. In every day life, through personal devices such as cellular phones or road navigational equipment, individuals are able to access countless amounts of valuable information regarding their location, surroundings and can even find out instantly their local weather report or if they so desire, the weather conditions around the world.
It has come to be used so frequently that many people no longer stop to take the time to think about the process behind how it works. Able to provide such accurate results so conveniently, one could easily forget that it is quite complex. Understanding modern technology can provide any individual a deeper insight and greater appreciation to the incredible advancements of our modern world.
In the last few decades, many nations have sent satellites and space stations into orbit with the aim of studying space and the earth. GPS is a space-global navigational satellite system. Originally simply a project used to track prior navigational systems, it was soon decided that it should take over the performance of those system.
Once the program was launched, it proved itself so useful that and with few restrictions became allowed for public use. The GPS satellites are placed in specific locations in orbit so they might have the most unblocked accessibility to the planet. They work by constantly sending signals down to the planet surface.
These transmissions also include valuable information. The messages tell the time the signal was sent and where the device location is in orbit as well as the other satellites. It is also able to detect if it and the other orbiting devices are working properly.
On the planet the signals are detected by a receiver run by a human user who has requested to be sent this transmission. Something as large as a military computer or as small as a hand held device equipped with GPS capabilities could be the receiver. Every day people have perhaps become the biggest users.
The receiver is a computer capable of complicated calculations. It measures by using the information on the location of the satellite in orbit how much time since first sent, that the signal took to reach the receiver. With that data, it then computes both the location and distance the orbited device is from the receiver to detect exactly where in the world that the person using the receiver is.
The user can see exactly where they are depending on what program has been installed on the portable device and it's ability to display it. A commonly seen portable road navigational device equipped in a motor vehicle or something similar installed in a cellular phone application displays an interactive map. The individual can see either a detailed view of their surroundings as it appears through the satellite, or a view that shows only a sketch but includes street names and nearby businesses. If they so choose, they can use their GPS tracking receiver to see as far as that particular space satellite at that moment of time is able to detect.
