There are probably quite a few people you could talk to who would tell you that the world that they grew up in was a much simpler one than what we now experience. Technology is an incredible thing, and the minds that have come together with brilliant ideas over the years and decades have enabled a surge in growth of so many different forms of progress and development. When you stop to think about just how far we as a species have come in such a relatively short amount of time, it truly is astounding.
One of the areas that has become a major focus and continues to see a great deal of development in relation to technology is location intelligence. There are a number of factors that play into this market, from the Internet of Things to GPS and geospatial mapping.
The growing location intelligence market
Location intelligence is a part of so many things that have become commonplace that many people do not even realize that they have at least some idea of what it even is. You are likely familiar with the concept of location services on your phone that allow you to accurately use your map features and other applications that determine where you are or where you are going. GPS satellites help to accurately pinpoint time and location, and GPS features are available on more devices than ever. There are now RFID tags as well, which capture data as well as track movement of objects that are not otherwise connected online. Location intelligence companies will continue to grow as long as our current technology continues to advance in the direction it is headed at the moment.
It has been projected that over the course of the next few years, there will continue to be steady growth in a number of areas, particularly those jobs that call for knowledge of location intelligence. This includes cartographers, geographers, mapping and surveying technicians, and photogrammetrists.
Tying together various areas of technology
When it comes to spatial data analysis and its multitude of applications, it is hard to imagine a limit to the ways it is used and how it could be used in the future. So many facets of these industries are interconnected, which leads one to begin to imagine just how far we could reach with the right minds coming together to build upon the ideas that have already been put into motion.
Consider the fact that there are, at all times, at least 24 active GPS satellites making their way around the earth, though there are currently over 30. When it comes to RFID tags, there were 12 million sold in 2011, but it has been predicted that by 2021, this number could rise at an astonishing rate to reach 209 billion as the Internet of Things becomes more and more prevalent. While the term Internet of Things has been around for nearly two decades, it has only recently been used in a more mainstream sense, as there are more and more devices other than computers connected to the Internet.
There really seems to be almost no barrier to our technological advancements reaching levels that some people are only starting to dream about these days. Our species is brilliant, and capable of so much. However it is also our species that has brought quite a bit of devastation to this planet as well, and only if we learn to remedy that will we be able to progress further into the future.
