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History tells us Magellan was the Spanish conquistador who traveled
halfway around the globe to discover the Philippines. Hundreds of
years ago, Magellan and his crew only had the moon and stars to help
them navigate from Europe to Asia. Today, drivers here in the US
know a different Magellan.
While vacationing in California, my college
friend from UST, Ami McCrory, took Cecile (my wife) and I to Napa
Valley from Danville. That was a two-hour drive with her car logging
in around 200 miles. (Sorry, they still use the English system of
measurement here.) Ami relied on a Magellan GPS device to lead us to
Napa Valley. She entered an address and got turn-by-turn visual
and audible directions to our destination. Yup, this Magellan GPS
device talked to us!
The origins of GPS
GPS stands for Global Positioning System, the
world’s first man-made satellite navigation system. It was
launched in 1978 by the US Department of Defense. During the cold
war, GPS was used primarily for military purposes.
After the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot
down in 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making GPS
available for free for civilian use, specially, for the aviation
industry.
By 1996, President Clinton authorized Selective
Availability phased out in NAVSTAR (Navigation Satellite Timing and
Ranging), the official US government name for GPS. Selective
Availability was used to limit GPS accuracy for civilian users. With
Selective Availability out, civilians can now achieve 10 to 15
meters accuracy, compared to the previously available 100-meter
accuracy. This is a major win for the manufacturers and marketers of
GPS devices.
By the way, there is no set-up charges or
subscription fees to use GPS! A GPS device receives signals and
information transmitted by 24 satellites. They are arranged in their
orbits that allow a GPS device to receive at least 4 signals at any
given time. They are then turned into more user-friendly
calculations in terms of latitude/longitude or location on a map,
and then displayed on to the device.
GPS and mobile lifestyle
Today, GPS is fast-becoming a part of daily
lives in many developed countries. It is widely used to aid
navigation worldwide, land surveying, map-making, synchronization of
telecommunications networks and scientific purposes including the
study of earthquakes.
In an article published at Ad Age magazine in
December 2007, according to NPD Group, a market research company,
unit sales of GPS devices were up an incredible 488 percent from
last year. Growth was brought about by better marketing strategies
through more affordable prices and availability in more consumer
retail outlets like Best Buy and JC Penny.
According to the GPS World website, GPS unit
sales last Christmas if lined up together would stretch from New
York to Philadelphia, estimated between 1.28 million and 1.47
million units!
My cousin, Ben, lent me his portable Garmin GPS
device. It helped us find our way to museums, bars and shops around
the streets of Manhattan. And led us to Cucina Stagionale
Restaurant and Bar, along Bleecker Street at the corner of 7th
Avenue, where Annie Brasil was performing for the last time. She is
the mother of Richard Merck and Rachel Ann Wolfe, based here in the
States. Must admit, she can still charm her audience!
While here in New York, Ben’s portable GPS
helped me meet up with my friend, Kaye Tyapon-Bay at Starbucks at
the corner of Lexington and East 40th Streets. She said, “Without
a GPS device, it is hard to go around the city driving. There
are many one-way streets. One could easily miss a turn and spend the
next 15 or 20 minutes trying to find your way.”
I also met up with my college buddy, Paul Albano,
now a senior sales associate of Corcoran Real Estate Group. Paul
said, “My portable GPS recalculates in real-time the easiest
route, and gives me traffic updates. It helps me get to my
client meetings on time.”
Accuracy? Factors such as dense foliage, tall
buildings, electronic interference, and other atmospheric factors
affect accuracy. And these devices will not work underground,
underwater and indoors. Still, GPS receivers are extremely accurate
to within 15 meters.
Pre-installed or portables? A GPS pre-installed
“in-dash” navigation systems in cars would cost around $1,500 to
$2,000. Cost of a portable device? Around $300.
Chrysler’s GPS navigation package on the Jeep
Grand Cherokee uses technology from high-end audio developers like
Alpine. It has a touch-screen display, voice-recognition,
20-gigabyte hard drive, DVD player, digital jukebox and photo
storage capability. And real-time traffic alerts from satellite
radio.
Other systems would have auxiliary inputs for
MP3 players that allow users to listen to their own music and see
their playlists on the touch-screen. Auto brands like Ford,
Mercedes-Benz, and Mitsubishi have already integrated hard drives
and entertainment features with navigation systems.
Whether it is a Garmin, Magellan or a Galileo
GPS, technology behind these devices would continue to change the
mobile lifestyle here in the US and other parts of the world. Maybe
soon, beyond being receivers, GPS devices would send out signals and
“talk” to satellites!
Ami jokingly said, “Maybe, if there was a
Lapu-lapu GPS device, I would get to listen to songs by VST and
Company!”
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