Can You Do It?
Improving Accuracy
Innovations
Two of these receivers could be used in tandem to provide positional accuracy better than one meter. This receiver was used in the early 1990s by Smithsonian scientists.
The Trimble 4800 was designed for professional surveyors. It provided accuracy to within a centimeter or better and allowed surveyors to take accurate readings quicker than with traditional surveying tools.
The Magellan Corporation developed this hand-held, battery-powered GPS receiver for the civilian market in 1988. Magellan anticipated that civilians would use them for hiking, boating, and other recreational purposes.
In the late 1990s, Magellan released the first American-made turn-by-turn navigation system for civilian drivers. The display screen allowed the user to see a map and follow directions. The large computer received GPS data from an antenna and sent it to the display. The small card was a portable hard drive that held map data.
These GPS receivers recorded positions and provided simple graphical presentations of map data.
These GPS receivers recorded positions and provided simple graphical presentations of map data.
A small navigational device with a simple coordinate display.
GPS devices produced during the 1990s by Trimble, Ashtech, and other manufacturers were intended for specific applications, such as land surveying. Besides listing a user’s latitude and longitude, this GPS receiver could provide timing accurate as an atomic clock for film and video production.
This was one of the earliest devices to incorporate a wide range of communication and navigation features integrated into one unit. It included electronic map tools, a mobile phone, a digital camera, data links, a touch-sensitive screen, and GPS navigation.
Through the 1990s and subsequent years, Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, and other companies produced GPS receivers for automobile navigation, hikers, and recreational use. This one has a digital map display. After 2010 it became more common for mobile phones to include navigation capabilities.
