Did you know that getting a GPS device is another way to go green and help the environment? If you already have a GPS, pat yourself on the back, because your car is less cluttered with the wasted trees of printed directions. As you know, most online map services serve up lots of printed ads along with the directions, so what often times should be one page of printed directions usually ends up as two or three.
Apply some simple math, and the environmental waste quickly compounds based on the above factor of ad-intensive print outs, and the number of steps it takes to get from your starting point to the destination. With the high cost of petroleum these days, taking the shortest route is a common practice, and one that reduces or completely limits the amount of highways included in your directions. This means lots of backroads, and turn after turn. Each left, right, or “follow” is an additional printed line of output. You’re saving gas, but 50 miles of shortest-distance directions might take more than five pages to print.
Sure, there are ways to get around printing long sets of directions. A common way is to print multiple pages on one sheet, but that really isn’t the safest practice. Squinting to read your printed directions while on a dimly-lit back road is a recipe for disaster.
The simple fact is that GPS is extremely affordable. Much like the paperless offices of today, we are now entering the world of a paperless car. With less paper and printing, we are helping the environment by not using a medium that is too often crumpled up and thrown away. Even the best and most often used directions end up getting coffee spilled on them, but a GPS device, well-positioned on your dashboard won’t have that problem. If it ever does, just wipe it off. To help save the environment one less sheet of paper at a time, check out some Great GPS Devices. Whether you are looking to buy your first GPS, or thinking about upgrading, it is worth your time.
By: Jeremy Lakota
Posts Tagged ‘Dashboard’
GPS Deals a Green Hand to the Environment
March 5th, 2010What is GPS Used For Today and How Does a GPS Receiver Work?
December 2nd, 2009
When you hear about General Positioning System (GPS) system, you should first consider the GPS receiver. It is the part of the device responsible of processing the signal sent by the satellite in the space to find out your actual location. The receiver is usually placed on the dashboard of your car or underneath it. It renders on a dedicated output device your screen your destination.
The entire GPS is a constellation of about 27 satellites rolling around the center of the Earth at a steady speed. Amongst these satellites, 24 of them are responsible of processing signals emitted by the receiver and the remaining satellites are used for storage purposes on case of an unplanned event. The GPS receiver is responsible of hooking up with satellites used for storage purposes and working out its position from that satellite by computing their distance. The mathematical tenet used for this purpose is named trilateration.
Trilateration can be achieved in two dimensions and also in three dimensions. The rationale of this mathematical principle is to work out a triangle where you are located at the center of it. As soon as the GPS receiver emits its position and makes a connection with other satellites, it immediately works out three nearest points and computes your position.
Three types of GPS receivers can be noticed: those which can be installed in a car, lightweight and mobile GPS receivers and tracking GPS receivers. It is obvious that portable receivers are a huge boon for outdoor activities.
Finally, it is good to know that the actual process of GPS receivers is a little bit more intricate than what was described in previous sections. However, throughout this article, although the main objective was to give a broad overview how they work in theory the next paragraph will delve into advanced details about GPS computations.
From previous sections, we learned that the GPS receiver computes its distance to the nearest available satellites in space by noticing the time spent by the emission of a given signal from the receiver to the satellite. There are another category of GPS receivers that you have not mentioned throughout this article. In order to overcome the lack of precision of the traditional GPS receiver, differential GPS receivers were born. Their rationale is to estimate the level of GPS errors at a stationary receiver station with a location that was already computed before. Since the Differential GPS hardware at the station is already aware of its own location, it can work out its receiver’s level of errors in a straightforward way. The station then broadcasts a radio signal to all Differential GPS-equipped receivers in the nearby area, providing signal correction information for that area. In general, accessing this correction information makes Differential GPS receivers much more correct and precise than traditional GPS receivers.
The most essential function of a GPS receiver is to pick up the transmissions of at least four available satellites and combine the information in those transmissions with information in an electronic almanac, all in order to figure out the receiver’s position on Earth.
By: John B Mayall
