Posts Tagged ‘gps navigation’

Over the past few years, the use of GPS technology has been very effective in the world of law enforcement, but only recently has it been applied to fire fighting as well. Slowly but surely, more and more fire departments are adopting these GPS systems as part of their fire fighting gear on account of many benefits, as will be discussed below.

To begin with, there are multiple reasons as to why navigation GPS units are being built into fire trucks. First, it allows them to arrive at the scene of a fire in the shortest possible time, which, needless to say, it’s crucial. Second, these devices are able to provide the locations of all fire hydrants, water lines, gas lines, and electrical service lines anywhere near the fire, allowing the fire fighters to assess the situation ahead of time which helps them better prepare for how they will respond.

These new GPS devices can also provide fire fighters with satellite imagery of large fires – such as forest fires or oil fires – from which they can see and determine which areas most immediately need to be put out, and can plan the most efficient way of putting out the fire accordingly.

In addition, in the event that outside firefighters from another area are called in for extra support, these GPS devices can not only aid them in navigating through unfamiliar territory, but also help different firefighters better communicate and relay positions to one another via satellite uplink. During a dangerous blaze, all fire departments can be monitored simultaneously, so knowing where all your units are at the same time becomes very easy, which is important and essential knowledge.

There are also plans to attach personal GPS trackers to each individual fireman to ensure that no one is ever left behind. If a fireman, thus, ever finds himself in trouble from a dangerous fire, within seconds he can activate a distress beacon, informing his fellow fight fighters that something has gone wrong and that he’s in need of help.

All of this new GPS technology will enable our fire fighters to act more efficiently in the fight against fires, which in turn will help them save even more innocent lives.

For over 70 years now, airplanes have depended on radar systems to navigate themselves around the skies. Radar technology is very limited and outdated, and does not even let planes view the location of other planes in the sky.

Finally, ITT has developed a solution to this problem through the use of high accuracy GPS technology. GPS systems are already very popular on the ground, be it vehicle navigation, fleet tracking, personal tracking, etc. But we have never been able to use this satellite base technology on airplanes until now.

The new GPS system is called NextGen, and the name is definitely very appropriate. This breakthrough in GPS usage represents the next generation is aviation technology, and is a vast upgrade of this country’s air traffic control system. NextGen has been calculated to be over 10 times more accurate than the radar systems previously used on aircraft.

Using GPS technology on airplanes comes with some serious benefits, including massive saving in fuel used, a reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions, and giving pilots better control over accents and descents. This system also reveals a lot more information to the pilot, like the positions of the planes around them, sudden changes in weather or temperature, or other crucial data needed to safely fly passengers to their desired locations.

In the past, numerous planes have got off radar and have literally lost all contact with the outside world. In certain cases, this can become very dangerous, such as flights 477 and 228, both planes that mysteriously disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean after their radars jammed. The main problem with radar is that it cannot detect a plane that is within 200 miles of land, and in the past, air traffic controllers have had to estimate the location of the planes as it gets closer to the ground. This could be extremely dangerous in the case of an emergency landing.

This new system can also cut down on delays by about 21%, which mean that passengers can finally get where they need to go without so much waiting time. NextGen technology will be available on most airlines as early as 2012, and will revolutionize the world of air traffic for many years to come.