June 20, 2008
Tom Tom GPS Methods for Civil Persons
NAVSTAR GPS (Global Positioning System) is a navigation system that is very popular today among various layers of society. The purpose of this arrangement is the defining of the velocity and position of the objects. It can detect the object at any area on Earth, even in polar territories and in outer space to 100 kilometers above Earth in any weather conditions. The developer of Global Positioning System is the United States Department of Defense that has accomplished this system.
The location is defined by the principle of measuring the distance from the point with the fixed coordinates to an object. The distance is defined by the calculating the delay time of the signal spreading from the satellite-transmitter to a GPS antenna which is a receiver. It means that to define 3-D coordinates GPS receiver must identify the distance to 3 satellites and the time of the GPS system. And when we need to detect coordinates and altitude of a receiver we are to apply minimum 4 radio signals from 4 transmitters. Orbital force tracking is implemented from the main control station that is located in Schriever base, Colorado.
A lot of civil persons as well as the police, sailors and rescuers use Global Positioning System for various needs, mostly for navigation, position and speed definition. You may buy GPS systems in different shops. Today it is usually built in mobile telephones, PCs and onboarders. GPS receiver allows a consumer to detect geographical coordinates of the receiver's situation at the present moment. The greatest precision is from 3 to 5 meters and with the correction signal from Earth it is to one millimeter.
GPS tracking software is also suggested to consumers. Such equipment gives you an opportunity to detect your geographical position on the electronic navigation map.
There are 2 types of electronic maps. The first type of raster maps is the most open and the simplest type. This kind of maps is a usual picture of the territory where the coordinates of a receiver are used. There are used various scales but it usually depends on the initial version of an electronic map. It can be either a picture from space or scanned variant of a simple geographical map.
And vector maps are created with their proper data system inside that makes them really helpful. There are all facts about surrounding objects, the territory you are situated in and other helpful data for a traveler. For example the country information includes the streams, lakes, hills and other objects that are located in this area. The similarity among these 2 types of maps is in the data about all the motels, restaurants and filling stations. They have all the data about the areas you will need to relax in. You would receive a real comfort of a travel with the assistance of portable GPS.
And of course as anything that is made by people GPS has its own drawbacks. The main drawback of all radio-navigation arrangements is that radio signal would not come to the receiver due to some conditions. For example it is almost impossible to define your position in reinforced concrete buildings. But today it really is the best system of the geographical position defining in the world.