You've probably heard about GPS tracking technology. But you may be wondering how you can actually use it, and how exactly does it work. Understanding the fundamentals of this new technology will help you make a smart choice when you are purchasing a unit that's right for your specialized personal or business needs.
GPS tracking has become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. Once too costly for the everyday consumer, the technology was primarily designed for law enforcement agents to track criminals. These days, everyone from parents, to employers, and scientists are utilizing GPS tracking in a host of unique applications ranging from improving their teenage children's safety, to tracking the migration of birds or other wildlife.
The Fundamental Elements of GPS tracking Units
A GPS tracking device, short for Global Positioning System, is a device that determines the exact position of a person, vehicle, or other moveable assets utilizing satellite, cellular (aGPS), or radio waves. In its most basic form, a GPS tracker unit generally communicates with multiple satellites in low space orbit. From space, the various satellites triangulate the GPS device’s approximate position. That means you can put a tracker in a backpack, car, or in a pocket and find their position.
Depending upon the type of GPS tracker you select, the places it goes to can be stored inside the tracker itself to provide a complete record of just where the device has gone, or with a real-time tracking device, the positioning information can be transmitted to a central location or an individual Internet-connected computer in real-time, each time the unit relocates. At first popular among law enforcement agents, many businesses recently have adopted GPS technology to streamline operations and now even by families to keep an eye on their children.
Comparing Real-Time v. Passive GPS Trackers
There are two main types of GPS tracking: real-time and passive.
Real-Time GPS Tracker
Like all trackers, the real-time tracker constantly communicates with space satellites to triangulate the tracker's approximate location. What makes the device real-time is simply that the device transmits all data to the Internet database continually in real-time, allowing you to log on and view the tracker's progress. Many systems also give detailed information such as time, place, and the speed the tracker is traveling. Originally only used by law enforcement agents tracking a suspect, GPS technology is now common to employers tracking company vehicles and families tracking new teen drivers or a family vehicle as it travels.
Passive GPS Tracker
The other main kind of GPS tracker is the passive tracker also known as a GPS logger. Similar to a real-time tracker, these devices continually communicate low space satellites, but, instead of sending the tracker's location in real-time, passive GPS trackers store location points inside the unit itself. When you are ready to see just where the device has been, you then download a saved record of all locations visited. Passive GPS is ideal for law enforcement in an investigation, or perhaps a person who loans a car to an employee, or family member and wants to verify that they actually took the car where they said.
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