Implementation of real-time GPS receiver system for providing navigation based services and SMS tracking

This paper describes a novel method to design a simple real time GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver system for navigation, positioning and tracking applications. This system is developed to provide various positioning and navigational parameters like latitude, longitude, velocity, altitude, the name of the current location etc. This system also provides information regarding the satellites which are in view in terms of the number of satellites being tracked, satellite ID/PRN (Pseudo Random Noise) number and parameters like SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of the satellite signal, azimuth and elevation. All the information is displayed on Graphical User Interface (GUI). The system also provides a website application where the values of the parameters on the GUI are displayed in a tabulated form on the website. The parameter values are continuously updated and are displayed on the GUI. The updated parameter values on the GUI are also added to the table in the website. Hence the table shows the real-time parameter values along with the values which were previously displayed on the GUI. An internet based SMS (Short Message Service) application is also developed which will message the real time latitude, longitude, altitude, speed and location name to the user´s mobile. The system consists of an antenna which acquires the satellite signals. The presented GPS receiver system uses a hardware GPS receiver provided with a (USB) (Universal Serial Bus connector) so that the receiver is compatible and can be easily connected to a PC (Personal Computer) or a laptop. An antenna is connected to the GPS receiver to acquire the signals from the satellites. There should be line of sight between the antenna and the satellite. The software used for this system is developed in VB.NET (visual basic.NET) programming language. VB.NET is an application oriented computer programming language which is easy to program and understand. The main feature of this system is the ease of use of the- system and visual display of the results which can be seen on a PC or laptop.