It is designed to collect high-resolution imagery for precise visual navigation or accurate geolocation of target coordinates.
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The commercial GI-Eye system is a software platform that integrates GPS with inertial and digital camera data. NAVSYS Corporation took this system and developed a smaller, airborne version of the product, termed GI-Eye, which was then used to collect aerial mapping data for commercial and military applications. The original system developed for NASA was a van-based unit.
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This could also allow the digital images to be post-processed and the coordinates of objects of interest to be collected, plus high-accuracy GPS/inertial integration algorithms could continue mapping operations through short GPS dropouts, without noticeable performance degradation. NAVSYS Corporation’s proposed solution to this problem was developing a tightly-coupled GPS/inertial/video-mapping system that could add precise position and attitude metadata to digital camera images. The SBIR aimed to address the unreliability of GPS surveying in urban environments and the amount of time it took to collect large quantities of data for geographic information systems. NAVSYS Corporation, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based provider of technical products and services in GPS hardware design, systems engineering, systems analysis, and software design, was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract in 1993 by NASA Headquarters to develop a GPS/inertial mapping system. The result of this collaboration led to a new aerial mapping and targeting system with myriad benefits. NASA partnered with private industry to address another GPS limitation and, therefore, enhance the technology for better surveying of urban areas prone to signal blockages. Now, scientists working in the extreme northernmost and southernmost areas of the world can have access to the same GPS technology that other scientists around the world rely on.
These signals overlap to compensate for the gaps in coverage. The Global Differential GPS technology approaches this area of the world using several different GPS signals. That means that most of Greenland and Antarctica cannot receive GPS signals. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, no other related system provides the same combination of accuracy and coverage.įurthermore, traditional GPS cannot communicate beyond latitudes of 75°. The Space Agency is working to address these with many new advances, including a “Global Differential GPS” technology that instantaneously provides a position to within 4 inches horizontally and 8 inches vertically, anywhere on Earth. Extending this worldly wisdom beyond Earth, NASA researchers are even discussing the possibility of developing global positioning satellites around Mars, in anticipation of future manned missions.ĭespite all of its terrestrial accomplishments, traditional GPS still has its limitations. The Agency employs the band of GPS satellites for such functions as mapping Earth’s ionosphere and developing earthquake-prediction tools. While not all cell phones contain actual GPS chips, the ones that do can actually find an individual’s location to within a few feet.Īt NASA, GPS is a vital resource for scientific research aimed at understanding and protecting Earth. The Federal Communications Commission now requires cell phone companies to be able to pinpoint a customer’s location within 100 meters, so emergency responders can reach them in a crisis. Telephone companies are also manufacturing GPS-enabled cell phones. Hikers, hunters, mountain climbers, and cross-country skiers commonly depend on it to navigate their routes, and to let others track their whereabouts, in case they get lost or find themselves in danger and in need of rescue. Just as vehicles can be tracked and steered in the right directon by GPS, so can people.
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For example, cars equipped with GPS-based navigational systems can direct drivers to their intended destination points, steering them away from longer routes, traffic, and road construction, and preventing them from getting lost. It also offers navigational assistance for cars, airplanes, and boats. It can be used as an instrument to map and survey boundaries improve crop production track storms and the spread of wildfires and monitor any land movement and deformation of the Earth’s crust resulting from earthquake activity. Though initially designed for military applications, GPS is also a public information service that protects the environment, improves productivity, and increases safety. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite navigation system developed and maintained by the U.S.
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