When GPS was contrive for military use , the designers could scarcely have imagined some of the applications civilians would finally come up with for the technology .
TheGlobal Positioning System(GPS ) is a orbiter - based pilotage system , a connection of two dozen orbital spacecraft that was put in position between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s by the U.S. Dept . of Defense [ sources : Garmin , GPS.gov ] . But the Pentagon presently allow civilian to take reward of the system ’s power to pinpoint precise locations . Today , GPS - equipped gadgets– from those cheery talking maps mounted on our dashboards to chips in our smartphones that help us to find nearby eatery – have become a part of our unremarkable lives .
And those U.S. were just the commencement . The tangible transformational power of GPS is show by the countless upbeat United States of America that people have dream up for it . grocery store retailer use GPS - equipped shopping carts to track consumer ' motion inside supermarket , to inspect their shopping habits [ rootage : Lindstrom ] . Farmers use GPS tracking to determine which areas of farming take to be fecundate [ source : Crop Nutrition.com ] .
Here are 10 of the more unconventional uses for GPS technology .
10: Preventing Shark Attacks
Ever since the movie " Jaws " came out , beachgoers have been terrified by the idea of a peachy white shark showing up and take on a bite , even though such attack actually are rare [ source : Lee ] . But hopefully it will ease their mind to lie with that most 50 big sharks have been trail with GPS devices , so that an organisation called OCEARCH can nail each of their locations at any give second .
When the sharks get close to shore , an alarm is sent to lifeguards , who then tell people to get out of the water . But the tagging also is yielding fresh information about the mysterious species ' campaign and behavior . For instance , researcher have learn that shark do n’t only stay in cold water , as look ; some go as far the Gulf of Mexico in the summer . you may track the movement of the tagged sharks by go to theOCEARCH website[sources : Mearian , LiveViewGPS.com ] .
9: Tracking Stolen Prescription Drugs
Robbers andburglarshave been targeting drugstores in an effort to obtainoxycodone , a muscular and addictive painkiller popular on the opprobrious market for non - medical use and sell under mark names likeOxyContin . In an travail to foil drug thieves , New York City police came up with a technologically advanced fluctuation on explode dye packs that are sequester to immediate payment camber hand to robber . The police force stocked pharmacies with decoy oxycodone bottles conceal GPS trailing devices , which detectives use to track criminals .
The bottles are burthen and rattle when stir , so that thieves wo n’t realise that they contain tracker . " We would anticipate the burglar and robber will take legion bottles , and among them will be the come-on bottleful , " the police section ’s main spokesman , Paul J. Browne , explicate to theNew York Timesin 2013 .
8: Mobile Performance Art
Baltimore creative person Michael Wallace has come up with a way to reverse his urban center into a sort of giant Etch - a - Sketch for his electronic lottery . Wallace , who uses the moniker WallyGPX , rides around on a bike equip with a GPS tracker and single-valued function computer software , drawing on the computerized map with his bowel movement . He uses the grid social organization of urban center street in southeast Baltimore , and rides through a large local park to create curved lines .
Wallace ’s work varies from an intricate depiction of theTitanic , which commemorated the 100th day of remembrance of the ocean ocean liner ’s sinking feeling , to a gargantuan map - portrayal of Omar , a character from the Baltimore - based TV series " The Wire . " He ’s also done simpler stuff , such as a view from the plot " Angry Birds " [ source : Jauregui ] .
7: Investigating the Secret Lives of House Cats
Ever wonder what your computerized axial tomography does when you lease him or her outside ? A group of investigator from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University are eager to answer that question for you . They ’re hoping to fit out more than 1,000 hombre — some in the Charlotte area , others as far away as Australia and Germany — with GPS - enabled transmitters on harnesses , which will allow them to get across the motion of outdoor African tea in 2014 . They ’re augmenting the GPS data with other info , including analysis ofcat fecesthat they ’re encouraging owners to pull together . Just so that they wo n’t cause a privacy scandal like the National Security Agency experienced , they ’re allowing proprietor to lean their cats under aliases [ source : Price ] .
The research may elucidate the extent to which cats pose a threat to birds . But it also may yield other surprises . When a British tv set program tagged big cat with GPS , it discovered that they expend much of their time at other computed tomography owners ' houses , trying to steal Caterpillar food [ reference : Rice ] .
6: Staging a Treasure Hunt
Since the other 2000s , GPS partizan have used the devices to set up high - tech treasure hunts . Geocachinghobbyists hide cache of fallal such as token coin or toy credit card animals in various positioning that they ’ve plot on hoarded wealth map , and then send the single-valued function online on sites such asGeocaching.com , so that others can research for the prizes .
SomeGeocachingevents are staged in parks , but there also are treasure secreted in urban neighborhoods as well . Geocaching participants can expend mobile phones or iPads in their search , but the really serious invest several hundred one dollar bill in hand - nurse GPS unit of measurement that have with child accuracy [ germ : Caldwell ] .
5: Mapping Your Daily Run On a Cruise Ship
These Clarence Day , there are a ton of websites where you could track the movements ofcruise shipson various ocean trip . But how about tracking your own movements on a ship as its provide the seas ? Atriathleteand blogger who calls himself DC Rainmaker write in 2011 that , while on his honeymoon cruise , he became queer about how his dailyrunson the ship ’s round 10 - laps - to - a - mile running path would look on a GPS mapping , since the ship also would be moving .
When he did a 3 - Admiralty mile ( 5 - kilometer ) run and then plotted the results on Google Maps , he chance that he could see a special wavy radiation pattern , almost as if he was running in one direction but veering from side to side , alternatively of in a set . But the ship ’s forward motility also augment the swiftness displayed on his Garmin wrist running tracker . " The way of life I see it , I just fructify a new 10 - mile [ 16 - kilometer ] praseodymium [ personal record book ] at 26 minutes and 12 arcsecond , " he joke [ source : DCRainmaker.com ] .
4: Safeguarding Nativity Scene Figures
Who could forget that distressingly funny scene in the 1982 movie " Diner , " in which Kevin Bacon ’s inebriated character happens upon a nativity scene from which thief have stolen the babe Jesus figurine , cue him to uncase and climb into the crib ?
as luck would have it , we may not have to see a existent - life repeat of that , thanks to the GPS tracking devices that Brickhouse Security , a New York - ground firm , has been providing to churches and other spiritual governing body free of charge since 2005 . If the Jesus figurine isstolenfrom the manger , the equipment will either send a textual matter message or email the figurine ’s owner to let her make out , as well as give off a sign so that law can track down the thieves [ source : Schapiro ] .
3: Guiding Driverless Cars
visionary have been imaginingdriverless robotic carsfor decades , but one prominent , difficult doubtfulness was how they would navigate the roads safely . Google ’s program to recrudesce driverless cars , which set about to wobble into mellow gearing in 2014 , depends upon a synergism of GPS , sensor and camera to accomplish that feat .
The GPS equipment plots the car ’s emplacement , stop number and direction relative to the destination , while a laser on the roof facilitate create a digital 3 - D modeling of nearby objects to go after possible hazards . Cameras read dealings light , road signs and other visual markers . The technology has one significant restriction — it ’s only secure to use on road that Google has mapped digitally in careful detail . And the car can go no quicker than 25 mph ( 40 kph ) to ensure they ’re scanning that information [ root : Sun ] .
2: Keeping Watch on People with Dementia
As the U.S. universe long time , there are grow number of elderly people withAlzheimer ’s diseaseand other physical body ofdementia . But their caregivers may have an easier fourth dimension going forward , thanks to an ingenious practical program of GPS technology that conceals trailing devices in insert in patients ' shoes .
GPS SmartSoles , developed by footgear company Aetrex and technology firm GTX , be $ 200 to $ 300 per distich and were scheduled for sales agreement in summertime 2014 . The gimmick allow caregivers to call any clip and get a wearer ’s localization , or even to set upgeo fencesthat will send an alarm if the wearer leave a designated arena [ rootage : Schiller ] .
1: Birth Control and STD Prevention
Public wellness official in most countries are eager toget young people to use condoms , as a means of preventing both unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease . They also eff that untested people are really , really into their smartphones . So it ’s only natural that official would attempt to apply Global Positioning System - enable earphone apps to reach them .
The English county of Kent , for deterrent example , set about offering an iPhone app in 2012 called Kent C Card , which guide localteenagersto the nearest clinics where they can get bothcondomsand advice on how to preserve their sexual wellness [ source : Todd ] .
Lots More InformationF
For much of my journalism career , I navigate around the country using older - fashioned newspaper road map , the sort that would gradually turn over into deep brown - stain , crease origami sculptures from being crumble and stuffed into my briefcase or tossed under the rider ’s seat enough time . I grew surprisingly practiced at reading the tiny print and tracing faint drear line , and retaining an effigy of that information in my working memory board as I drove . These years , though , I use the GPS poker chip and a map app on my iPhone , which instruct me on each turn in a calm yet authoritative distaff voice . That usually lick pretty well , but somehow , I felt more in control when I was read the maps myself .
