Navigation software is used for land, air, and sea travel. GPS devices calculate speed, location, and time. Marine navigation uses electronic nautical charts. Mobile phone navigation offers 2D/3D mapping and voice guidance. Land navigation is used by the military, scientists, and recreational activities like golf and geocaching.
Different types of navigation software are used for many types of navigation purposes, be it land, air or sea. There are devices that allow a user to navigate using a global positioning system (GPS) and can offer different types of tools, interfaces and features to enable easy and convenient travel. Devices that use GPS use an integrated GPS chip and a tiny radio receiver, which acquires signals from many GPS satellites simultaneously. Using these simultaneous signals, the device can calculate a user’s speed, location, and time at the location. The information is encoded and then transformed into readable data.
Marine navigation employs the use of navigation software, using the technology to navigate bodies of water rather than nautical charts. Most of the boats that are used frequently today have GPS receivers and can use various navigation features and tools that will help the user. Navigation software in marine GPS receivers, also known as chart plotters, uses electronic nautical charts, digitized versions of paper nautical charts. The software uses two types of graphs: raster graphs and vector graphs. Raster graphs contain digital georeferenced images similar to paper graphs, while a vector graph is a database of instructions on how a graph should be drawn in a program.
Navigation software used for mobile phone navigation has become increasingly popular as the use of smartphones increases. Smartphone devices can be used as a replacement for GPS devices which have only one use as a GPS receiver. Mobile devices that use navigation software have features like 2D/3D mapping, location sharing, and a compass with cardinal directions for people who enjoy outdoor activities like hiking or biking. Other mobile devices have tools suitable for car driving, such as voice guidance, address location input, a search function for local businesses and distance calculation. Additional features may include traffic updates and weather notifications.
Land navigation is another type of navigation software used by entities such as the military, scientists, or construction crews. It is also used in recreational activities, such as geocaching or golf. Golf navigation software can include many features, including golf ball tracking, specific course topography, and wind direction. Geocaching navigation software can be downloaded as an application and used on a mobile device to find hidden “caches” in many parts of the world. Both golf and geocaching navigation tools integrate GPS with the activity it is being used for, making it simple and convenient for users.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN