New Technology Improves GPS Accuracy In Cities

Environmental factors such as urban canyons can impact the accuracy of any GPS-enabled device. This is the reason that navigation devices and tracker devices can sometimes offer up inaccurate locational information or provide "spotty" signal reception in many large cities. What ends up happening is that the GPS monitoring device loses communication with orbiting satellites because signals can get lost bouncing and reflecting off tall buildings resulting in a significant loss in accuracy of data. However, all of that might change if, according to a Ubergizmo article, Spanish scientists have indeed developed a strategy to increase GPS accuracy.

What a team of scientists based in Spain claim is that they have created a method to improve "the determination of a vehicle's position". By doing so they have data showing increased GPS accuracy by in many cases upwards of 90%. This is accomplished by taking two existing components of GPS data processing and adding another such as a motion detection feature. By adding this supplemental sensor data it becomes easier to check GPS tracking or navigation data, keeping the integrity of the GPS signal intact.

Another great feature of this two part method of GPS data analysis is that if a motorist drove into a tunnel the data connection could stay intact even if GPS signal is lost. This is because the tracker device would instead call upon motion detection data instead of GPS data to determine position of the automobile.

Many of the components necessary to make a navigation or tracker device more accurate were already present in most older versions of GPS units. However, technology has evolved and continues to evolve to the point where most GPS-enabled programs are being used on mobile communication devices. This is why engineers are hopeful they can develop a similar device that works with smart phones. Of course the smart phone would have to be equipped with some form of motion detection hardware. With 90% of the population now using smart phones, the technology could eventually lead to self-driving motor vehicles that can accurately navigate motorists in the most efficient avenue possible.

Real-Time Tracker Helps Philly Police

Law enforcement and government agencies will routinely employ GPS tracking system technology to acquire information about potential criminal suspects, but using tracker devices to catch armed robbers is something a little more unique. However, when police based in eastern Philadelphia realized they were dealing with serial armed robbers that were knocking off drug stores all throughout the region, they came up with a strategy that required the use of a GPS monitoring system.

After reviewing multiple in-store surveillance cameras and questioning witnesses, eastern Philadelphia police believed that it was approximately two men who were responsible for committing 18 robberies on various pharmacies in the area. The men involved in these armed robberies were not after cash, but rather pharmaceutical drugs such as Xanax, OxyContin, Vicodin and other medications associated with pain management that are popular on the street. Believing that the robbers would continue with their criminal ways, Philadelphia police put a select number of bait GPS trackers into some pharmacies that the authorities felt could be potential targets. They knew the plan was probably a long-shot to be successful, but felt that if GPS systems placed in bait money could help locate bank robbers that the same type of GPS monitoring devices could help catch these serial pharmaceutical burglars.

Teens Still Upset One Year Later

With the arrival of the new year comes new laws, but one new law related to teenage driving safety created quite a controversy among newly licensed teens in 2012. What this new driving law stated was that teenage motorists under the age of 18 caught driving in excess of 15mph over the speed limit would be arrested! Although the law was intended to be a proactive step in reducing the statistically frightening number of deaths associated with teenage driving, it has not sat well with those targeted by the law that has now been in place approximately for one year.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol are well aware of the powerful and vivid statistics that validate the real dangers associated with teenage driving. Numbers that show the top cause of premature death among teens is automotive related accidents. However, some North Carolina teens and even adults have stated they believe an arrest for what is essentially a misdemeanor traffic offense is not the appropriate way to address the issue of teenage driving safety. The opponents of the law state that it's unfair because the law that targets only a specific group of people is actually discrimination. They ask why adults over 18 can drive 15mph over the speeding limit and not get arrested even though the driver responsibility is the same?

GPS Teen Tracking System

Parents agree that measures should be taken to promote, encourage and reward safe driving practices in an effort to reduce the teenage driving statistics, but many believe that this law is simply overkill. This is why some parents have invested in GPS teen tracking systems to monitor driving behaviors of teen motorists. With these tracker device systems, parents can easily determine if their teen is driving a car at dangerous unsafe speeds. GPS monitoring systems are one of the newest avenues parents are choosing to learn more about how

Although the majority of North Carolina teens impacted by the driving law don't agree with it they do understand why such legislation was drafted. One teen interviewed about the law explained it is important that teen drivers be aware of their driving behaviors. She said anything that could possibly make a teenage driver think twice about their driving habits is a positive thing, but adults should also be held to the same type of driving standards

Do you agree with the North Carolina legislation that is harsher toward drivers under the age of 18 that are caught speeding?

GPS Tracker Records Daredevil At Astonishing 843 Miles Per Hour

Felix Buamgartner captivated the world when the Austrian daredevil did something no human had ever done before: jump from a capsule 24 miles above the ground and parachute safely to the earth.  What Buamgartner did was so incredible and truly death-defying that it is no wonder almost 33 million people have viewed the official YouTube video of the stunt thus far. As Buamgartner was in free fall zooming toward the earth his GPS tracking equipment initially registered his max speed at 834 miles per hour. However, after reevaluation of the speed it was determined Buamgartner actually reached an incredible velocity of 843 miles per hour.

Red Bull Stratos, the team assembled to assist Buamgartner throughout the jump, provided the 843 miles per hour number last month to the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) and its overseas counterpart the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Buamgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team understood prior to the jump that his free fall to the Earth would likely shatter records and that is why they took multiple measures to calculate and measure his maximum falling speed. In order to be precise as possible, Buamgartner was equipped with four different GPS trackers that were all tested during practice jumps to ensure accuracy. However, these practice runs would not be the same as the real jump because of the additional variables from jumping at stratosphere heights. Variables such as rapid descending speed, possible tumbling and disruption from sonic shock waves due to travel at Mach levels of speed.

After months of careful review and examination the team was able to determine that all the tracker devices performed accurately and without abnormality. Even when Buamgartner crossed the sonic barrier.

The Buamgartner jump gained news attention all over the globe and of course shattered numerous records. But the caveat is that information obtained from the jump will also be instrumental in future development of spacesuits and other safety equipment and devices used by astronauts. This is something that Buamgartner stated was a great honor.