Brian Pugh Bedell CAS137h Section 018 10/26/12 Paradigm Shift in Navigation Man has been navigating for

centuries. Whether it be by land or by sea, humans have traveled throughout the world, throughout time. Both the way we travel and how we travel have changed dramatically over the centuries. Originally we only used the Sun and our surroundings to orient ourselves; and now we are using geosynchronous satellites orbiting the earth to triangulate our exact location on the surface of the earth. Within our lifetimes, the way we navigate has changed just as much as navigation has changed in all time preceding. Likewise, the way we communicate to travel has changed as well. Through advancements in technology and communication, including the development of the internet and mobile computing, the way people navigate and get directions has changed in our lifetime from ever folding paper maps and step by step verbal directions to GPS navigation systems and the preference of exact addresses. One of the oldest ways to navigate on land is with the paper map. Folding maps, the preferred form of paper maps, generally have five or more folds and can be quite unwieldy in their unfolded state. However, up until just a decade ago we relied on them heavily, not just for traveling across the country, but even in our own local areas. If someone were to give you an address you were not familiar with, you would have to open up a map, pinpoint that location, and plan out a route to get there from your house. This wasnt just an inconvenience, on the journey towards the destination, it was a task in its very own. Worse still, if you became lost on the road, you would have to pullover and try to orient

yourself in foreign surroundings using this large complicated map. Worse still, not owning a map meant finding the address would be impossible and getting lost was quite common. All in all it was quite a task to just get from point A to point B. There must be a better way than physically getting out a map and routing out directions for yourself, and there was: get directions from the person you are visiting. I asked my parents how they met up in an age where you couldnt simply look up addresses and couldnt call someone on a whim, and they gave me two responses: They would give us step-by-step directions and we had a fantastic memory. Or, we would just meet in a common place known by both people. Since the latter doesnt really apply to how to find an unknown location, the solution was step-by-step directions, cutting out the middleman that is the map. Getting directions from the other person was a relativelycompared to the fiasco over a mapquick procedure and could easily be done over the phone. The preference of directions over addresses was prevalent over several centuries because it saved time and was the most convenient solution. The problem with physical maps was that they were large and didnt have methods for quickly finding locations. These maps were a large boring game of iSpy. To address this issue, digital maps came on the scene during the late 1990s. While virtual maps have existed for decades in the business and government environment, only at this time did computing power and Internet access available to the average consumer make digital maps a viable solution. The primary advantage of a digital map was that locations were searchable and algorithms could automatically generate efficient and quick routes. In 1996 MapQuest went online and became extremely popular by 1999 (Digital Mapping). Due to MapQuests success, other companies jumped on the scene as more and more people

demanded online mapping services. In October of 2006, over 27 million people used Google Maps and over 19 million used Yahoo Maps (Digital Mapping). People flocked to these services because they were reliable and expedient. While getting directions from a person could take several minutesstill being faster than looking it up on a physical map and be riddled with errorsone could use an online mapping service to get exact reliable step-by-step directions with details like distance and time traveled in a matter of mere seconds, no matter the distance or complexity of the journey to be traveled. Where you were traveling from also no longer mattered, the directions didnt just have to be from your house, they could be anywhere. Printed out directions from these online services became commonplace when traveling anywhere unknown. These online services were the first step towards completely changing how we navigate when we travel; at this point obtaining directions became easier with an address when a computer with Internet access was available. But, a computer with Internet access wasnt always available. Sure, there were the GPS car navigation systems like TomTom or Garmin available that relied on predownloaded maps instead of the internet, but not everyone had these. They were expensive and they didnt gain widespread adoption; one could not assume that someone else had a GPS navigation system. All devices that utilized GPS navigation in the United Statescell phones, GPS navigation systems, and other hand-held devicestotaled to only 4.5 million in 2006 (Digital Mapping). The US population in 2006 was 299 million (Women and Men Population in the United States: 2006); less than 2% of the population owned devices capable of GPS navigation. It wasnt until the explosion of smartphones and mobile computing with mobile Internet technologies like EDGE and 3G came onto the

scene, that GPS devices were truly in the hands of everyone. While there have been many smartphones or cellphones with PDA features, the widespread adoption of these advanced phones didnt begin until the iPhone in 2007 (Digital Mapping). Now, nearing the end of 2012, over one billion people own smartphones, each with GPS capabilities (Strategy Analytics). It is now a rarity to see a flip phone amongst the crowds of iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerrys. Nearly everyone has a smartphone on them at all times that can give them directions to anywhere at a moments notice. Inherently, all smartphone have a detailed map of the entire world with their exact current location labeled in their pockets anywhere they go. These digital maps are no longer restricted to just immobile computers at home or the work place like they were since 1996; they are with us no matter where we go. Unlike the online mapping services of the past, we get live updates on directions towards our destination; alternative routes instantly pop up as we deviate from predetermined routes; we always know where we are. In the modern age we can never be lost. At any given moment we can get exact directions anywhere, even if we only know keywords such as Walmart or Halloween Store. No longer do we plan on how to get to a destination in advance. Drivers everywhere now would just hop into their car, plug in an address into their smartphone, and immediately get flawless live updating directions all the way to their destination. In a short few decades we went from paper maps, a technology used for centuries, to online mapping to mobile GPS systems. Verbally we went from telling directions to telling addresses. Physically we went from planning directions to traveling without preparations. This paradigm shift took place in just two decades. As a reference, it took until 2000 BCE for Phoenician sailors to use primitive charts; it then took about three thousand years for

compasses to be used for navigation. Seven-hundred years later navigation technology became more advance with the sextant (Bratcher). And here we are, in the 21st century, radically changing the way we traverse in just two decades. Technological advances are occurring more and more rapidly as time goes on; how long will it be until the next paradigm shift? Will we be navigating new territories such as the sky or even planets? Will we be sharing our exact locations at all times instead of sharing addresses? Only the future will tell how these continually advancements in technology change the ways we travel and navigate.

Bibliography

Bratcher, Amy J. "Navigation at Sea, History of." Water: Science and Issues. Ed. E. Julius Dasch. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. 119-122. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. "Digital Mapping." Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries. 5th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. "Strategy Analytics: Worldwide Smartphone Population Tops 1 Billion in Q3 2012". Business Wire, 17 October 2012. Print. 23 Oct. 2012. "Women and Men Population in the United States: 2006." United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau, 1 July 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.