Looks Like Anything Is GPS — I Expected Better From Dr. Dobbs
The World of Software Development.
March 15, 2007
Mother Nature’s GPS (TM)
Okay, let’s just call it “Mother Nature’s GPS.” But by whatever name, it seems that researchers have figured out what lets homing pigeons home in on home…. Read Jon’s oped piece here:
This is a lead-in to a fascinating piece of research that opens a little more of the window of understanding about how homing pigeons (and perhaps some other animals) navigate. As has been suspected for years there seems to be a very complex magnetic field measurement process going on in the pigeon’s brains processing data received via the iron-enhanced beaks.
Many years ago when the earth was new and people used to actually write computer code rather than link together one over-inflated “code balloon” to another until the result is a Microsoft “processor killer” product (and Andy Grove takes Bill Gates out to lunch again), there was a journal of geekdom known as Dr. Dobbs.
Even though I have never been a coder per se I have studied software development basics and used to enjoy it at the hobbyist level. When I was involved with ones and zeros Dr Dobbs was my “bible”. To give you a clue where the magazine (journal sounds so pretentious) used to be focused, the subtitle was “The magazine of computer orthodontia, running light without overbyte.”
Obviously that orientation is long vanished with the advent of multi-megabit “Hello World” programs and dual-core processors that take longer to open Microsoft Word than an 8088 with 64K of RAM would take to pen, print and close a WordStar letter. But I did always feel that the magazine would at least remain true to facts and technology.
I’m not just ranting because Jon took license and called the bird’s navigation GPS when it so clearly is a sophisticated compass and magnetic field strength processing engine. I guess id someone ties their trash can lid to their trash can so it won’t get lost in a windstorm one can call that a GPS too … always know the location of your lid within the range of the length of the cord …. but the one feature that the majority of GPS receivers don’t have and could most benefit from is any sense at all of direction or magnetic fields.
GPS does not have a compass component and does not give accurate heading, bearing or dead reckoning course information in its native format. This is not a failure in design or the envisioning process, it’s actually a conscious decision based on the “gap” in navigational data GPS was designed to fill.
There are some GPS navigational systems that also employ a compass (magnetic) component and this is a good thing for reasons that will take too long to go into here, but that is GPS with a separate compass/magnetic sensor applique, just as there are also navigation systems that take input from vehicle odometers and blend it with GPS positional data.
To mix technologies this imprecise way is to make an attempt at increasing readership but in a technical journal, I feel, is a distinct disservice to the readership who are astute enough to digest information, if properly presented.