The Future of Technology and Travel

“Can you give me the address so I can plug it into my GPS?”

This question has become more frequent in a lot of peoples’ lives due to emerging technologies available to the general public. People rely more on technology to guide them to new places and new experiences. Without a doubt, technology has drastically changed the way people travel forever. With things like GPS devices, smart phones, and new scanners at airports travelling will never be the same.

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GPS, or Global Positioning Satellites, is the biggest change to travel. Just a handful of years ago, when people wanted to go somewhere, they would take out the map and figure out a route. Now, people have the option of using GPS. It is becoming such a popular option that more and more cars now have it as a standard feature. Similarly, GPS is showing up as a standard feature in smart phones. Cnet Reviews has a short article and review about this particular feature. They review just six of the current phones, operating on both Android and iOS, with GPS technology built-in. And with smart phones becoming more popular according to an article from Mashable.com, the use of GPS on mobile devices will only increases.

Another aspect of travel that is changing is that of airport security. A while back I wrote a post about new scanners being used at airports. Well over this past holiday travel rush there was a big thing about the new scanners. The TSA has implemented the new full body scanners in more airports and this has caused an uproar amongst some of the public. While the technology is brand-new and cutting edge, some people do not like it due to privacy rights. An article from The New York Times talks about the issue of privacy and the scanners and a protest of opting out of the scanners that was planned for the day before Thanksgiving. Travelling through airports has definitely changed.

GIS, or Geographical Information Systems, is not directly related to travel, but is related to my major. GIS is all about using satellite images to track patterns in all types of things. It can be used to see how sea level rising is affecting the land or how the earth plates are moving. As GIS becomes even further developed it will also be used more in urban planning and population and demographic studies. As a testament to the bright future of GIS, Maryland has both a major and minor in GIS studies. More people will know about GIS in the near future. Below is a video briefly describing GIS.

What is GIS? from Geodata Systems on Vimeo.

These examples are just a few of the many changes to travel because of emerging technologies. There is no doubt in my mind that technology will continue to make its way into everyone’s travels. Within the near future, a bigger percentage of people will have GPS capabilities in their pockets on their mobile phones. They will be able to go places with only an address. While some people may think that technology is hurting travel, I would say that it is helping and will only continue to do so.