If you watch a lot of action-packed movies or TV series these days you must have been awed by how technology can be applied in so many things like crime investigation and tracking. One technology that is often inserted in so many modern movies is the GPS or Global Positioning System. This is one huge project of the US Department of Defense that is fully functional and indeed very useful. The most common application is the GPS tracker that is now installed in most modern cars.

GPS Technology

A GPS unit is mainly made up of three segments: the satellites, the control system, and the user.

There are over two-dozen satellites stationed just outside the earth's atmosphere. These machines are about 11,000 nautical miles above the surface and they are funded and controlled by the US Department of Defense. In order to control these satellites, there are control or monitoring stations in several strategic locations across the globe. These are the units that get the information from the satellites, monitor, and analyze them for any significance in government operations. The user holds the receiver of the radio signals from the orbiting satellites. It can compute its distance from the satellite by using the time stamps on the radio waves that were sent.

To zoom in to a specific location, four satellites are needed. The accuracy is around 10-15 meters so it doesn't really help if the object being tracked is a car that is about 3 meters long. This is why there have been upgrades like the Differential GPS, which helps give more accurate information on the precise location of a vehicle.

Application in cars

The GPS tracker technology has found a lot of use in so many things that need to be tracked. The primary application is in vehicles. With the GPS tracking device installed in the car, the owner is certain that he won't get lost even in places unknown to him. The screen that is hooked on to the GPS system of his car will help him find his way onto the nearest main road leading to his destination ? that is, if he got lost.

The best use for the GPS tracking system is in the unfortunate event that the car gets stolen. If you only have the ordinary alarm system installed, you can't be sure about your car's total safety. This is because any skilled car thief can easily override your alarm system and get away with your car ? and you will never hear from it again.

The GPS tracker system is a genius of a tracker so your thief can't really go far with your car. The minute you suspect that it's been stolen, you can just report to the authorities immediately and they can tap into the GPS system so they can instantly check where your car is at that very instant.

The GPS tracker is also useful in many other ways like:

?Investigating on a cheating spouse

?Monitoring where your teen kids are

?Keeping track of your pets

?Guarding people on parole

?Tracking small units like cell phones