GPS History: Now and Then

GPS tracking has become quite an essential part of today’s society. Whether it’s being used to navigate across the country, Monitor valuables, or simply to keep tabs on our kids, its undeniable that we rely on this service far more than we’re aware of. But when did this GPS technology come to be? How did it happen? According to Nasa, GPS has its origins in the Sputnik era when scientists were able to track the satellite with shifts in its radio signal known as the "Doppler Effect."

"Since then, global positioning systems have had a major impact on the way society lives." Says AJ Agrawal at Business.com. "The technology is relevant in every industry in the world in some capacity. Social media platforms have integrated GPS software to allow for geotagging and location posting. Essentially, GPS technology is making the happenings of the world detectable, capable of being tracked and more preventable. "

What Are GPS Systems Used For?The applications of global positioning system (GPS) technologies are only limited by our imagination. GPS systems are extremely versatile and can be found in almost any industry sector. They can be used to map forests, help farmers harvest their fields, and navigate airplanes on the ground or in the air. GPS systems are used in military applications and by emergency crews to locate people in need of assistance. GPS technologies are often working in many areas that we do not normally consider.Matrack devices easily track when drivers are on or off duty and provide an instantaneous view into driver’s total hours to make sure that there are no violations in exceeded hours of service.Our fuel level sensor works with our GPS tracking device to send live fuel monitoring data to our server and help us to real time monitoring of fuel volume and fleet tracking. Cut expenses on fuel by about 25%.

Global positioning system applications generally fall into 5 major categories:1. Location – determining a position2. Navigation – getting from one location to another3. Tracking – monitoring object or personal movement4. Mapping – creating maps of the world5. Timing – bringing precise timing to the world

Who Uses GPS?Some of the applications that GPS systems are currently being used for around the world include mining, aviation, surveying, agriculture, marine, recreation, and military. These days doctors, scientists, farmers, soldiers, pilots, hikers, delivery drivers, sailors, fishermen, dispatchers, athletes, and people from many other walks of life are using GPS systems in ways that make their work more productive, safer, and easier.With Matrack’s Tracking App you will get 100% driver transparency with HOS, geofencing, aggressive braking, and speeding alerts and you will be able to follow the vehicle in real time.GPS is often used by civilians as a navigation system. On the ground, any GPS receiver contains a computer that "triangulates" its own position by getting bearings from at least three satellites. The result is provided in the form of a geographic position - longitude and latitude - to, for most receivers, within an accuracy of 10 to 100 meters. Software applications can then use those coordinates to provide driving or walking instructions.

Getting a lock on by the GPS receivers on the ground usually takes some time especially where the receiver is in a moving vehicle or in dense urban areas. The initial time needed for a GPS lock is usually dependent on how the GPS receiver starts. There are three types of start - hot, warm and cold.

The hot start is when the GPS device remembers its last calculated position and the satellites in view, the almanac used (information about all the satellites in the constellation), the UTC Time and makes an attempt to lock onto the same satellites and calculate a new position based upon the previous information. This is the quickest GPS lock but it only works if you are generally in the same location as you were when the GPS was last turned off.

The warm start is when the GPS device remembers its last calculated position, almanac used, and UTC Time, but not which satellites were in view. It then performs a reset and attempts to obtain the satellite signals and calculates a new position.

The receiver has a general idea of which satellites to look for because it knows its last position and the almanac data helps identify which satellites are visible in the sky. This takes longer than a hot start but not as long as a cold start.

And finally – the cold start is when the GPS device dumps all the information, attempts to locate satellites and then calculates a GPS lock. This takes the longest because there is no known information.

The GPS receiver has to attempt to lock onto a satellite signal from any available satellites, basically like polling, which takes a lot longer than knowing which satellites to look for. This GPS lock takes the longest.

In an attempt to improve lock times, cellphone manufacturers and operators have introduced the Assisted GPS technology, which downloads the current ephemeris for a few days ahead via the wireless networks and helps triangulate the general user’s position with the cell towers thus allowing the GPS receiver to get a faster lock at the expense of several (kilo)bytes.

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Gps tracking has become quite an essential part of today’s society.