Where on Earth? Ask the Satellites
Source: The Miami Herald
February 14, 2000
George Orwell was only one twenty-fourth right.
Twenty-four Big Brothers are watching our every move from 12,420 miles
above Earth -- and increasingly guiding us to our destinations, and
telling others where we are.
A constellation of satellites called the Global
Positioning System, deployed and still controlled by the U.S.
military, now helps pilots steer jetliners, captains navigate
channels, farmers plow fields, police track criminals, scientists
measure mountains and motorists find the nearest Mexican restaurant.
Coming soon from a South Florida company: miniature GPS
``Digital Angel'' receivers implanted under the skin to locate
kidnapped children -- or help mom and dad figure out if junior is
really ``at the library.''
More than four million GPS gadgets of all kinds have
been bought in recent years, and they're selling at a rate of 250,000
every month.
``The technology is right for its time,'' said Richard
Sullivan, chairman and chief executive of Applied Digital Solutions, a
Palm Beach company developing the dime-size implantable Digital Angel
tracking device. ``We couldn't have done this five years ago.''
The same could be said for the vast universe of devices
now based on GPS technology.
Featured just a few years ago on only the most luxurious
automobiles, satellite-based navigation systems are now widely
available on near-luxury models like the $30,000 Acura TL sedan.
Startlingly precise, linked to a DVD player, data disc
and a computerized voice, the system superimposes the car's position
on maps so detailed they include tiny suburban cul-de-sacs and can
direct motorists to virtually any address in major cities and many
other parts of the country.
``In 100 feet,'' the car's pleasant female voice
commands, ``turn left.''
Michael Mondshein, a salesman at Rick Case Acura in Fort
Lauderdale, said they can't keep the things in stock. The system
accounts for $2,000 of the car's cost.
``We're selling every one we can get our hands on,''
Mondshein said. ``Some people just want the newest invention, but a
lot of people are really using them. You can program a trip from
Weston to Los Angeles on this thing.''
ACCIDENT ALERT
Other automakers offer more sophisticated versions of
the system, linked to sensors and a cellular phone line or other
communications equipment. Those devices automatically call for help
when a car is involved in a crash -- and tell a monitoring service
where the vehicle is.
That's the high end of consumer applications. At the low
end, hand-held receivers that cost only $100 are being used by hikers,
mountain climbers and others.
In addition, scientists are finding new jobs for GPS
devices every day:
Geologists from the University of Miami use GPS-equipped
sensors to measure tiny but significant changes on Popocatepetl, a
restless 17,802-foot volcano near Mexico City.
Other scientists remeasured Mount Everest last year with
GPS technology and raised its height to 29,035 feet, a promotion of
seven feet over its previously believed size.
Space shuttle Endeavour, launched Friday from the
Kennedy Space Center, is carrying a special GPS receiver that will
help the crew map the entire planet.
Last year, the National Hurricane Center began dropping
GPS-equipped devices into hurricanes to measure wind speeds and
monitor surrounding conditions that steer storms -- vital advancements
already helping Floridians and everyone in hurricane zones.
``We now have a much better handle on intensity and
track forecasting,'' said James Franklin, a researcher and forecaster
at the hurricane center in west Miami-Dade County.
In development since 1978 but fully operational only
since 1995, the array of GPS satellites cost the military $14 billion
to design, build, launch and maintain.
In simple terms, it works like this:
The 24 satellites orbit continuously above Earth, so
thoroughly blanketing the planet that every spot is constantly within
``sight'' of five to eight satellites.
Employing graduate-level geometry and extremely accurate
atomic clocks, the signals from three satellites can be
``triangulated'' by ground-based receivers and combined with the time
signal from a fourth satellite to calculate locations with extreme
precision -- generally within a few yards.
MILITARY ORIGINS
The system's original purpose was to pinpoint missile
attacks, direct warplanes and rescue lost or endangered military
personnel. In fact, when Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady was shot down
over Bosnia in 1995, his hand-held GPS device helped rescuers quickly
pluck him out of danger.
But realizing that the $14 billion really came from
taxpayers, President Clinton signed a directive in 1996 that
officially endorsed ``acceptance and integration of GPS into peaceful
civil, commercial and scientific applications worldwide.''
And at no cost whatsoever -- anyone can use the signals
for free.
The commercial race was under way. Many forms of
technology can be added to GPS receivers to make them useful, and the
sky is the limit:
Some airlines employ GPS devices as navigational aids.
When combined with an automatic pilot system, the technology is
sufficiently precise to perform completely computerized hands-off
landings -- though it's not currently used
for that purpose.
Oceangoing vessels and railroad trains also are using
the technology for navigational or tracking purposes.
Last year, Florida prison officials began using a GPS
monitoring system to keep an electronic eye on criminals sentenced to
house arrest. Spokesmen called it far more effective than the previous
radio-frequency system. Unhappy legislators noted that it also was far
more expensive -- costing the state $9 per day for each prisoner
compared with $3 per day.
Tractors equipped with GPS devices can plow fields with
much greater accuracy -- and even work at night or in dense fog.
In Iowa, police slipped a GPS tracking device on a 1993
Chevrolet Corsica owned by two suspected burglars. Officers monitored
the father-son team last November by satellite, arrested them and
charged them with two burglaries and one attempted break-in.
A backhoe stolen late last year from a storage shed in
Florida's Hernando County was tracked by police to a nearby job site.
You guessed it -- GPS once again.
PERSONAL SECURITY
Although still under development, GPS gadgets envisioned
by Sullivan's company could aid homebound patients, diplomatic and
other personnel on dangerous assignments, and children who have been
abducted -- or who require remote-control surveillance by their
parents.
Engineers at the firm are working on a tiny
receiver-transmitter that could be implanted under the skin, powered
by the movement of muscles and activated by distant monitors or by the
``wearer'' through, say, a tiny button on a wristwatch.
One touch of the button and help is on the way -- guided
by satellites high overhead.
Sullivan said his company's Digital Angel Web site
registers 1 1/2 million visits every month, even though the devices
will not be introduced until the end of the year at the earliest and
the cost to the consumer has not been determined.
``We've had enormous response to this,'' he said.
As for the privacy issue -- the Orwellian fear of
constant surveillance as depicted in 1949 by the novel 1984 --
Sullivan doesn't see a problem.
``We hope that we always live in a voluntary society,''
he said. ``We hope that the things we develop are for the betterment
of mankind.
``But one thing I know for sure is that you'll be seeing
more and more of this convergence of man and computer.''
by Martin Merzer
mmerzer@herald.com
http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/florida/digdocs/085980.htm