The Global Positioning System: challenges in bringing GPS to mainstream consumers

As human society enters the age of increasing mobility, location awareness becomes an important attribute of the mobile communications infrastructure. Access to location information combined with appropriate infrastructure elements will (1) enable one to find the way around and reach destinations in the most efficient manner; (2) track loved ones and provide them with emergency assistance when needed; (3) develop and get location-based services; and (4) filter the incoming information based on the location. Global Positioning System (GPS) is an infrastructure that provides instant location information anywhere in the world, at any time of the day under any weather conditions.