Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
that are the backbone of GPS will be integrated with the GALILEO satel-
lites of the equivalent European system. The next generation may see GPS
replaced by GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). Businesses will
increasingly employ smaller and smaller GPS receivers to track their vehi-
cles and monitor their employees and as anti-theft devices. GPS receivers
will be attached to wandering children in day-care centers and to confused
retirees in hospitals. There will be privacy and civil liberties issues as we
deplore the Big Brother applications of our employers, while checking
online to see just where that pizza delivery guy is.
Let us not lose sight of the marvel of GPS, as the apex of thousands of
years of striving to improve our navigational capabilities. For a few hun-
dred dollars (or pounds, euros, yen, yuan, or rupees) we have at our finger-
tips a device that performs far, far better, and is much easier to use, than the
high-tech navigational instruments of the past. Think of the vast fortunes
that were o√ered for the inventor of an instrument that could measure
longitude to within one nautical mile (1852 m). Now for a small fraction of
the cost of John Harrison's H4 marine chronometer, we have a receiver that
tells us both our latitude and longitude to within 1% of that distance.
