GPS
Cell Phone :The Global Positioning System (GPS) was
funded, developed and controlled by the US
Department of Defense. Since the late
seventies, GPS has become an important aid
to navigation around the world. Initially
designed for the US military, GPS became
publicly available years later and it is now
considered an important feature in lots of
consumer products.
How does GPS work? Well, basically there are
three elements that make everything work:
satellites, earth monitoring stations and
receivers (ex:
cell phone,
telefone celular).
GPS provides specially coded satellite
signals that can be processed in a GPS
receiver, enabling the receiver to compute
position, velocity and time.
Today, most
cell phones (telefone celular)
are not limited to carry on just a
conversation. Features like mp3 player,
digital camera and video camera have all
become standards in the latest cell phone
models.
It is expected that the GPS feature
will soon be added to this list, and it will
offer the capability of tracking any cell
phone user.
The capability of tracking a cell phone user
becomes important in emergency situations,
like a car accident, thru the use of 911
emergency phone call, where every minute may
be a matter of life or death.
In situation
like this, the
GPS system may pinpoint the
exact location of the road accident,
enabling emergency services to be quickly
dispatched.
It is important to mention that so far most
GPS system in cell phone (telefone celular)
is restricted to tracking information only.
However, one can have navigational
capability thru the use of full screen cell
phone/PDA combos with map displays and other
cellular phone accessories, and third party
paid services.
If one does not want to sign
up for a monthly paid subscription service,
he can make use of one-time-paid-only
software programs that will enable some of
the navigational capabilities.
Although there are many benefits in using
GPS
cell phones (telefone celular), there
are some people who are concerned about the
violation of personal privacy. Since the US
Congress has not authorized location
tracking without actual evidence of
wrongdoing, there have been court hearings
which have not approved the requests of
government agencies in obtaining the cell
phone
GPS tracking
information for suspects
or ordinary citizens.
This privacy matter has made some progress
towards the cell phone user`s rights, since
there are some laws that have been passed
which guarantees that GPS cell phone users
will have some protection from the release
of the tracking information, with the
exception of 911 emergency cell
phone calls
(telefone celular). It is expected that
these laws will guarantee that the benefits
of GPS in cell phones will be enjoyed by
everyone without infringing anybody`s
privacy.
Sometimes when there is a technological
innovation, there are also some concerns
about privacy or some rights infringements.
But no matter how much of a concern this is,
it seems that a compromise will always have
to be reached, so that new technologies will
take their places in everyone`s lives. After
all, we all live in a globalized consumer
world. By the way, have you already got your
GPS cell phone?
Roberto Sedycias
IT Consultant for PoloMercantil
This article is under GNU FDL license and
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About the author:
This article can also be accessed in
portuguese language from the News Article
section of page
http://www.polomercantil.com.br/celular.php
Roberto Sedycias has a bachelor degree in
Business Administration and over 20 years
experience in systems analysis and computer
programming. Currently working as IT
consultant for
http://www.polomercantil.com.br
