Make up a plan and retell the text according to it.



UNIT 2

Global Positioning Systems – Global Positioning Research System

Topic 1: The notion of GPS and GPRS

1. Read and translate the text:

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the Earth.    

GPS is made up of three parts: between 24 and 32 satellites orbiting the Earth, four control and monitoring stations on Earth, and the GPS receivers owned by users. GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that are used by GPS receivers to provide three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus the time. 

          Navigation systems may (or may not) use a combination of any of the following:

· top view for the map

· top view for the map with the map rotating with the automobile (so that "up" on the map always corresponds to "forward" in the vehicle)

· bird's-eye view for the map or the next curve

· linear gauge for distance, which is redundant if a rotating map is used

· numbers for distance

· schematic pictograms

· voice prompts

GPS has become a widely used aid to navigation worldwide, and a useful tool for map-making, land surveying, commerce, scientific uses, tracking and surveillance, and hobbies such as geocaching and waymarking. Also, the precise time reference is used in many applications including the scientific study of earthquakes and as a time synchronization source for cellular network protocols.

GPS has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations. Disaster relief and emergency services depend upon GPS for location and timing capabilities in their life-saving missions. Everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids, are facilitated by the accurate timing provided by GPS. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and countless others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and accurately using the free and open GPS signals.

  Various options exist for obtaining a vehicle’s position. Some rely on ground-based transmitters that offer precise information within a given area. More common, though, are satellite-based positioning systems such as the US Global Positioning System (GPS). The foundation of GPS is a constellation of satellites that enable location calculation using their broadcast signals and a properly equipped receiver. The accuracy of standard GPS ranges from 100 metres down to the meter level, depending on the type of system used.

2. Find Russian equivalents for:

- The Global Positioning System

- Satellites

- map-making

- land surveying

- to broadcast signals

3. Give your own definition for “GPRS”

4. Say whether the given sentences true or false. Correct if necessary:

- GPS has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations.

- The accuracy of standard GPS ranges from 100 metres down to the kilometer level, depending on the type of system used.

- GPS is made up of three parts: between 24 and 32 satellites orbiting the Earth, four control and monitoring stations on Earth, and the GPS receivers owned by users.

- The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system.

- GPS could be used only for fun.

Make up a plan and retell the text according to it.

Topic 2: GPS: the history of the question

1. Read and translate the text:

Automotive Navigation Systems or, more commonly, Global Positioning Systems were the subject of extensive experimentation, including some efforts to reach mass markets, prior to the availability of commercial GPS.

The most major technologies required for modern automobile navigation were already established when the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s to support their integration and enhancement by computer software. These technologies subsequently underwent extensive refinement, and a variety of system architectures had been explored by the time practical systems reached the market in the late 1980s. Among the other enhancements of the 1980s was the development of color displays for digital maps and of CD-ROMs for digital map storage.

However, there is a question about who made the first commercially available automotive navigation system. There seems to be little room for doubt that Etak was first to make available a digital system that used map-matching to improve on dead reckoning instrumentation, which arguably made car navigation systems practical for the first time. However, Japanese efforts on both digital and analog systems predate Etak's founding.

Honda claims to have created the first navigation system starting in 1983, and culminating with general availability in the 1990 Acura Legend. However, it appears from Honda's concessions in their own account of the Electro Gyrocator project that Etak actually trumped Honda's analog effort with a truly practical digital system.

Both Mitsubishi Electric and Pioneer claim to be the first with a GPS-based auto navigation system, in 1990. Also in 1990, a draft patent application was filed within Digital Equipment Co. Ltd. for a multi-function device called PageLink that had real-time maps for use in a car listed as one of its functions.

Magellan, a GPS navigation system manufacturer, claims to have created the first GPS-based vehicle navigation system in the U.S. in 1995.

In 1995, Oldsmobile introduced the first GPS navigation system available in a production car, called GuideStar.

However it was not until 2000 that the United States made a more accurate GPS signal available for civilian use.

2. Find Russian equivalents for:

- The Global Positioning System

- Digital map storage.

- Dead reckoning instrumentation

- Draft patent application

- To trump

3. Say whether the given sentences true or false. Correct if necessary:

- The most major technologies required for modern automobile navigation were already established when the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s to support their integration and enhancement by computer software.

- Among the other enhancements of the 1990s was the development of color displays for digital maps and of CD-ROMs for digital map storage.

- Honda claims to have created the first navigation system starting in 1983, and culminating with general availability in the 1999 Acura Legend.

- Both Mitsubishi Electric and Pioneer claim to be the first with a GPS-based auto navigation system, in 1990.

- However it was not until 2000 that the United Kingdom made a more accurate GPS signal available for civilian use.


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