got geoint?

Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? Do you remember the last time you used a hard copy map in your car for driving directions? Yeah, neither do we. Over the past several years, the explosion of navigations devices and mobile apps reinforces one core truth about humanity: we like to know where we are going. While this may sound very simplistic, the reality is that we crave situational awareness and new innovations are meeting this inherent need. So, strap on your boots as we take a navigational tour of navigation in today’s FFFT post. Happy Friday!

History of Navigation
From pretty much the dawn of man, the need to explore and develop navigational tools and strategies has been at the core of our being. From the Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks, the Persians, the Arabians, the Norse, the Austronesian peoples including the Malays to the Polynesians and the Micronesians of the Pacific Ocean, many early civilizations relied on navigation to “get there from here.” Check out the full history of navigation here.

The Secret of Ancient Viking Navigation was Transparent Crystals
Before the invention of modern navigational equipment, ancient sailors crossed the seas largely through their knowledge of the positions of the Sun and stars. So how did Vikings cross from Europe to America in the often foggy, cloudy northern Atlantic? There’s no real way that Vikings could have crossed such tremendous distances – they were probably second only to the Polynesians as far as ancient navigators go – without being able to consistently rely on knowing where the Sun and stars were. Viking legends speak of a “sunstone” that allowed their sailors to figure out celestial positions even in deep fog. However, archaeologists have long struggled to find proof of any such device … until now.

Best 5 GPS Navigation Systems
Although GPS-enabled smartphones are gaining ground in the portable navigation market, the standalone portable navigation device (PND) is far from dead. In fact, today’s PNDs sport more features than ever to help you get from point A to point B quickly and safely–features such as audible driving directions with text-to-speech (TTS), spoken street names, real-time traffic updates, Internet connectivity for points-of-interest search, and large easy-to-read screens, to name a few. However, the GPS market has also never been more crowded, so to help you in your buying decision, CNET has selected its Top 5 picks for in-car GPS navigation systems.

Indoor GPS Coming Soon to Cell Phones
Most of today’s smartphones offer GPS navigation, as well as a smattering of location-based apps that could be more useful—if only the GPS radio didn’t drain the battery so quickly. That’s to say nothing of using your phone indoors, where you’re lucky if a GPS satellite can get a fix on your location at all. In an effort to improve this situation, CSR has announced its next-generation GPS offerings for cell phones, portable navigation devices, and automotive systems.

REM’s “Can’t Get There From Here”
As we have seen, thanks to our drive for having situational awareness at all times, we really CAN get there from here. Along those lines, be sure to check our the official video for REM’s “Can’t Get There From Here.” Great song. Happy Friday!

Tags: Can't Get There From Here, GEOINT, got geoint?, GPS, History of Navigation, Indoor GPS, Navigation, R.E.M., USGIF, Vikings and Navigation