In the 1970s the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) conceived the idea of GPS out of a need to accurately determine the position of ballistic missile submarines prior to launching missiles. All the old methods of determining position had their flaws. Those methods were affected by atmospheric conditions, limited in range, subject to enemy jamming, or degraded by interference. See more on
how GPS works.
GPS became common for commercial use in the mid 1980s for the surveying industry. For an in-depth history of GPS, click here.
Uses of GPS
There are many uses for GPS. In addition to military and surveying use, it is used for air, land and sea navigation.
Vehicle tracking
for commercial and personal vehicles and law enforcement purposes is another use.
GPS for All Occasions
For the many different ways and situations in which GPS is used, GPS receivers take on many forms. For your wrist, there's the GPS watch. How about a GPS cell phone? Could you use a laptop GPS or a GPS PDA? Also available are wireless GPS receivers and units made just for automobile use.
The advent of the GPS receiver has given rise to the popular new sport,
geocaching.
