GPS sat nav is now in the hands of most drivers in the western world.

 

GPS is rapidly becoming an integral component of the emerging Global Information Infrastructure, with applications ranging from mapping and surveying to international air traffic management GPS research. GPS navigational satellites send signals to the reciever and send that information to the display unit. Almost all GPS now come with the maps loaded onto the internal memory.

 

The Navstar GPS network was developed by the US Department of Defence back in the 70s. The nature of the GPS device, or the Global Positioning Satellite as it is actually called, is that it is a very advanced navigation system based on satellite communication made possible for the US Defense Military, thereafter the US public and other citizens of the world were give access to sat-nav once it was recognized as being useful for public use.

 

If you are keen on hill walking in remote areas, you can use a hand held GPS device. The receivers needed for GPS have become smaller (just like mobile phones have shrunk in size these last few years) and as integrated circuit technology has become more and more commonplace, so the receivers have become affordable to a greater number of people.

 

In car and personal Sat Nav systems, there are now many different types of Sat Nav systems available on the market, most of them are aimed at the motorist though others are available for sailing, hill walkers etc.