Group3

Revision as of 13:49, 27 February 2008

Executive Summary

This section is much like an abstract and summarizes the entire report

Introduction

This section should include an introduction of the product and a brief description of group members (i.e. who was responsible for which sections or tasks)

History of the GPS system

General notes about the product (it's condition, how it works, how many parts, types of materials, etc)

A GPS (Global Positioning System) is a device that when intercepted by satellites, provides useful information to the user in finding destination/locations. The GPS was created by the American Department of Defense and runs on 30 satellite systems orbiting Earth. Signals are transmitted by the satellites to the GPS providing information such as the following: Latitude, Longitude, land details (roads, buildings, grass, water, etc), current dates and times, sunrise/sunset times, when and where the best places to fish are, etc. These satellite transmitted signals show whether the GPS is on the ground, in the air at high or low altitudes, or on a body of water. GPS systems were mainly used for military use only in determining where opponents were and to aid in dropping bombs on specific locations. Over time, GPS systems continued to grow through technology and were used in aviation as a guide to aid in flying altitudes and ashore locations. GPS systems may also be used in engineering surveying work to plot specific land points to guide the site contractors in constructing the designed site. The GPS provides the engineer with information such as; setting up property lines, how much excavation needs to be performed, etc. In 1973, the decision was made to generate a device that would aid in locating various objects or destinations by the transmission of various satellite signals that would be launched into space. It wasn’t until 1980 when the first Block I satellite was launched into space. However, the Block I satellite only carried sensors to detect atomic explosions. Over a time span of a approximately 30 years or more, satellites were launched into space with more and improved technology which developed a more sophisticated GPS system. A few types of satellites that have been launched into space include the following: Block I, Block II, Block IIA, Block IIR, and Block IIR-M. Of these satellites, the Block IIR-M satellite is the most recent satellite with updated information for both civil and military signals.

Geocaching

For our project we decided to explore the more useless uses of the GPS. Caches have been placed all over the world just waiting for other people to find them and place new ones in other places. These caches are hidden and only their latitudes and longitudes are given. Even with the best civilian GPS units the readings are only accurate up to 10 feet, this is why geocaching can be so difficult. Even if you arrive at the lat and long that the has been given to you, you must now find the cache that |you are looking for. This is what makes this game so exciting. We decided to try and test the accuracy of our own GPS by going around campus and creating our own caches for our teammates to find.

We set our caches as waypoints in the GPS. Three members went around campus and set the waypoints and two members went around and tried to find the waypoints. I was on the team that went around finding these waypoints. The precision of the unit was incredible. It gave the degree and minute up to the fourth decimal place. However, finding these locations turned out to be harder than we thought. As we walked the GPS lagged behind, the distance to the cache jumped and swiveled while standing still, but still we moved on. We were not able to find the exact lat and long of the waypoints, but we were able to get close enough to the points to find the caches.

The caches laid out for us to find were not actually items but certain places. We went around twice to see how close we could get to the actual readings.

As you can see the accuracy and precision of our unit was incredible, but we were never able to get exactly on top of the same spot as our teammates. I believe that if we had a military GPS unit we would be able to tell which pavement block our teammate stood on.

Personal experiences

Guide to Writing Wiki Code

The beauty about Wiki is that if you don't know the code, you can steal it from someone's page that does. Feel free to click the "edit" links or tabs to view the code for sections or the pages respectively. Be weary about wrecking havoc on another's page. Each page can be rollbacked to a previous verison and your username is linked to all changes. Although you might think it's cool to go through and insert "MIKE RULES" throughout the page, I'm sure Dr. Lewis would not be pleased.

Here's a few tips on writing with Wiki:

This is a bracket "[" "]"

This is a brace "{" "}"

To create a new page/link within Wiki:

• Double brackets, page name, double brackets
• Typing in a new page name will automatically create a page, which when clicked, you can then edit.
• Whatever name you first type in is the name of the page. You can't change page names, only create new pages. Think before you create a new page.
• Don't worry about slashes or anything, all pages are located in the same directory. If I wanted to create a page called "MAE 277 Template" the code would be ''MAE 277 Template'' Note: Brackets are italicized to prevent creating a new page.

Your table of contents is created automatically.

• 1,2,3,4 are level 2 sections
• 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 are level 3 headers

To create headers:

• Section titles are wrapped with two equal signs ==My favorite header==
• Bold headers within a section are wrapped with three equal signs ===My not-so-favorite header===

Asterisks indicate bullets. Be sure to put each asterisk on a new line.

• Here's one
• Here's two *Here's three, but its not on the next line

Bold text:

• Start line with "b" in "<>". Be sure to end the line with "/b" in "<>" if you don't want the whole paragraph to be bold.
• Surround text to be bolded with three " ' " marks on either side. Or highlight the text and click the "B" button on the toolbar.

Italics:

• "i" in "<>". Don't forget to end with "/i" in "<>"
• Highlight the text and click the "I" button in the toolbar (It will put four " ' " on either side).

This is a broken link media file caption

Media tags are indicated by "Media:", images by "Image:" Broken links in red. Case is not important. Use the toolbar to get examples if you're not sure.

Spacing is werid in wiki. Single return does nothing.

Double return (blank line), breaks the line.

Triple return (two blank lines), puts an extra blank line between lines of text.

"br" in "<>" will break lines. They can also be used to separate section headers.

Finally, use the "Show Preview" button on the bottom of the page to see how it looks before saving. It will allow you to catch and edit your errors without having to edit the page again. Just don't forget to save it when you're really done.

This is an example table

See help page for more information on the syntax.

This is the table title

This is Column Header 1	This is Column Header 2	This is Column Header 3
This starts Row 1	Width values (pixels) in header are used to designate the width of the column for the entire table. Text will wrap but it helps to control the layout. Height of the row is determined by the row's largest content	A return and single vertical lines separate columns in rows. A double vertical line is necessary if you don't break up the text for cells.
This starts Row 2	"br" in brackets break lines. Wiki sometimes ignores blank lines.	Some html tags can be used, but not many. Notice the align equals center tag at the beginning of the row. It centers the text in the first two columns, but doesn't work for the third column. I don't know why. Adding the tag again to the beginning of the cell in question will center the text.
This starts Row 3	Image tags are in this format: Double brackets "[[" Image name | = Vertical Line The following order is not important, as long as each is separated by a vertical line: Horizontal position (left, center, right) Thumb (to create clickable thumbnail that links to fullsize image), don't include to make a fullsize Size denoted in pixels (if desired) You can add a caption if there is a thumbnail Then close with double brackets "]]" Broken links show up in red. File:This is a broken link 150px Here's where you can view any uploaded files	This is thumbnail This is a resized image, not a thumbnail, but notice you can still click on it to get the full size.
This starts Row 4	Notice the repeating code for every row? It's important. A vertical line and a dash indicate the start of a new row. An exclamation point indicates the first column. You can put the entire row onto a single line, but it's easier to read if you break it up. Again, wiki usually ignores new paragraphs.	Make sure to end the table correctly (vertical line and closed brace). Not doing so might still display the table, but nothing that comes afterwards.