Then and Now: GPS, Wi-Fi, and Social Media

The Astonishing Get started and Success of Your Preferred Technologies

Our bodily retail and digital innovation exploration journey so significantly: 

Aspect 1 – We explored the humble beginnings of division shops, supermarkets, and the 1st use of a bar code in a physical store Part 2 – We expanded our innovation journey to ecommerce, smartphones, and robots Portion 3 -We shifted to reduction avoidance technologies: dollars registers, CCTV cameras, and Electronic Write-up Surveillance Aspect 4 – Speedy increasing RFID, Self-checkouts, and the World wide web of Issues (IoT) created an look.

In this Aspect 5, we geo-locate ourselves with GPS, go wi-fi with Wi-Fi, and come to be influencers on Social Media.

The Initial Use of GPS   

The Global Positioning Technique (GPS), as you might have guessed, has their origin in house, the final frontier. In 1957, Russia launched Sputnik, the initially prosperous house satellite. Scientists at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at John Hopkins College observing the weird radio signals discovered what became known as the Doppler Effect.

“Utilizing the Sputnik’s Doppler Result allowed the experts to use radio alerts to track the motion of the satellite from the ground. They later expanded the notion: If a satellite locale could be identified from the ground via the frequency change of its radio sign, then the place of a receiver on the ground could be identified by its distance from a satellite.”

In 1958, the US Defense Office Innovative Investigation Assignments (ARPA) utilised the principle of the Doppler Outcome to create Transit, the world’s first world satellite navigation method.

By 1968, 36 satellites have been operational with Transit know-how which radically improved location precision and were being credited with strengthening the accuracy of the maps of the earth. In 1996, US Defense Section replaced Transit with the present World wide Positioning Process (GPS).

Rapidly ahead to 2021 when just in Usa there are now more than 900 million GPS receivers in use. “You’ll obtain them in cellphones, industrial trucks and buses, and railroads. A lot more than 100 million automobiles have navigation systems. Ships, planes and drones use GPS for navigation. Vans use GPS not only for location services but also for digital logging equipment, which demonstrate whether drivers have been driving for far too extended and having sleepy. Emergency responders use GPS somewhat than maps to track down incident web-sites and get people today to the healthcare facility. You really do not want to be waiting for the firetruck or ambulance when GPS is hacked or disrupted.”

Above picture points to some of the destinations that control the 30 operational GPS satellites functions in space as of April 12, 2022. With precision now at roughly 2 meters (6.5 feet), we are all hooked on GPS as our discover every little thing technology.

1st Use of Wi-Fi

The “Father of Wi-Fi” was Vic Hayes who was the to start with chair of the IEEE 802.11 team which in 1997 finalized the wireless conventional that would operate in the frequency spectrum opened up in 1985 by the United states of america Federal Communications Commission.

Fascinating that I share a record with the employer of Hayes. The 1997 ruling “sparked the fascination of his then-employer NCR, which realized that a wi-fi conventional would permit the firm, and its retailer customers, make a radio url amongst NCR funds registers and back again-close mainframes. The radio link would make connecting the systems bodily easier, and reduce the need to have to fiddle with proprietary protocols.”

In accordance to the Wi-fi Broadband Alliance, Wi-Fi now is delivering substantial positive economic, social, and environmental contributions which proceed to exceed expectations.

My preferred from over, smartphones and IoT units with Wi-Fi 6 have up to 67% lessen energy consumption with ability-preserving functions. The pandemic was a extraordinary accelerator for Wi-Fi utilization and wireless and the World wide web are forever joined.

As above Wi-fi Broadband Alliance infographic points out, much much more requirements to be carried out to unify the earth via electronic connectivity that Wi-Fi enables.

1st Use of Social Media

Is there a Kevin Bacon, the actor, to be found in the history of social media? Yes, if you take into account that 6 Levels was the very first on line social media site.  

“Six Degrees is named immediately after the “six levels of separation” theory, which states that anyone in the planet is connected to anyone else by no extra than 6 levels of separation. This is usually referred to as the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” idea, although Kevin Bacon himself is irrelevant to the phenomenon.”

Begun in 1997, 6 Degrees at its peak had 3.5 million end users. It was purchased by YouthStream Media Networks in 1999 for $125 million, but it shot down in 2001.

In fast succession, right here is what followed:

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• AmIHotorNot.com (Year 2000) – Invited consumers to post pictures of on their own so other could price attractiveness. Website was bought a number of instances and tried out to occur back in 2014 as a video game. Rumored to have affected the creators of Fb and YouTube.

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• Friendster (2002) – Initially a dating site, but it is recognition and incapacity of corporation to respond led to person decrease.

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• Myspace (2003) – Became to go to website for Friendster for hundreds of thousands of teenagers and web site arrived at 25 millions makes use of  in 2005 when it was offered to NewsCorp where it began its decline.

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• The present leaders get there (2003-2005) – Joined-in appeared in 2003. Facebook was started in 2004 and YouTube visually built its entrance in 2005 with this first movie which as of this day has nearly 233 million views.

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Fast ahead to 2022 and an remarkable 4.62 billion people today are now social media customers worldwide.

Just more than the previous calendar year, social media has extra a person million new customers for every working day or about 13.5 new people every single one next. Ponder where we commit our time on social media?

Expanded extra practical connectivity through GPS and Wi-Fi accelerated global digital communications by new platforms these as social media. Are we joyful with the result? The place do we assume all this will consider us subsequent?