Modern Navigation Systems and Related Spatial Query

Modern Navigation Systems

A navigation system is an integration of position and orientation devices, computation devices, communication hardware and software for guiding the movement of objects (e.g., people, vehicles, etc.) from one location to another. In general, the infrastructure of navigation systems can be classified into two subsystems: positioning signal transmission systems and positioning signal receivers. The positioning signal transmission system allows the signal receiver to determine its location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) using timing signals. Positioning signal receivers range from hand-held devices, cellular phones, to car-based devices. These devices typically include some storage of map data and the computing capabilities of spatial operations, such as calculating directions. Additionally, in some novel geoinformatics applications, the receiver also relies on some server components for various services, such as real-time traffic information. In such a scenario, a server infrastructure is introduced which includes a Web server, a spatial database server, and an application server to provide these services. The signal receiver communicates with the server via wired or wireless networking infrastructures.