In order for us to understand what GPS tracking is we should probably take a quick look at something everyone has experience with – shipping a package. If you go with a courier service to ship your package you might get a long list of all the available services that the courier is offering. Some of the services will be automatic, like getting a conformation that your package has been delivered, and they will not cost you a penny. One option that is going to end up costing you some money is to get your package tracked with GPS tracking technology. This type of service is now offered by most couriers.

GPS is an acronym that stands for Global Positioning System. It was developed by the U.S. Military based off of the principle of trilateration. GPS has many applications and has been developed over the years to the point where it has become extremely affordable for companies and consumers to implement. GPS has been great for people to interact with maps in a whole new way – from driving navigation to wilderness exploration. This technology is great because it can be used by anyone for almost any reason to interact with their geography.

Trilateration allows for the computer system in a GPS device to be able to place that device in the know world. Trilateration takes the known distance from three or more satellites and uses it to figure out where the device is on the surface of the earth. In the hands of a courier, this device will track their movements from delivery to delivery. If it is a tracking device, courier companies can track the package in real time as it goes with the courier and they can make that data available to their customers.

The tracking feature of GPS tracking devices is created by communication over some type of wireless network. Most devices are going to communicate over a GSM, or cell phone, network while others are going to do so via commercial communication satellites. Either way, once the device knows its location it communicates that data over this wireless transmission infrastructure so that other people know where the tracker is in the world.

When it was first developed, this technology was so expensive only the US military could take advantage of it. But now, after years and years of the computer revolution, it is so affordable that it is getting crammed into practically every single mobile gadget in the world. Cell phone, personal navigation devices, and PDAs are just a few of the things that come with GPS pretty much standard. Cell phones are probably the single most powerful GPS tracking device in the world right now in terms of it availability, cheap cost, and widespread use. There are billions of cell phone in the world right now and more and more of them are being created with GPS technology each and every day. It is only a matter of time before we all start using GPS tracking for every day things.