After data from the Strava fitness app was shown to depict U.S. personnel movements at military bases, the Pentagon is restricting the use of geolocation devices. Strava Heat Map; Screenshot by NPR hide caption
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GPS
Samuel-Richard Bogobley holds a GPS-enabled tablet to capture the location of one corner of an underwater clam "farm" belonging to Kofi Amatey, in pink, in Ghana's Volta River estuary. Tim McDonnell /for NPR hide caption
An American black bear (they are often brown) is seen in Yosemite National Park. Rangers hope tracking the bears' locations will help prevent the animals from being hit by cars. Yosemite National Park via AP hide caption
Yosemite Rangers Use Technology To Save Bears From Cars
KVPR | Valley Public Radio
For years, the satellites that make up America's Global Position System have been carrying sensors that measure the weather in space. This image illustrates the orbital planes in which GPS satellites travel around Earth. Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory hide caption
Jolly old Santa himself. Unpictured: the sweat, pain and — possibly? — tears that went into tracing his form on the map. Owen Delaney/Courtesy of Strava hide caption
This computer hardware fits into a smart shoe prototype called Sneakairs, unveiled recently by European airline easyJet. The shoes help walkers find their way around through directional vibrations. easyJet hide caption
Navigation aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout is done by computer, as is the case on many other ships. The U.S. Navy now wants more of its officers proficient in celestial navigation. Amanda Gray/U.S. Navy hide caption
Officials attend the launch of a Positive Train Control system for Los Angeles' Metrolink commuter trains in February 2014 at Los Angeles Union Station. Congress mandated the technology after a Metrolink engineer ran a red light while he was texting and crashed head-on with a freight train in 2008. Damian Dovarganes/AP hide caption
Red Tape Slows Control System That Could Have Saved Speeding Train
The Fairfax County 911 Center in Virginia takes calls during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It was relatively easy to locate callers when most people used landlines. But most 911 calls now come from cellphones, which can pinpoint a callers' location only within 100 to 300 meters. Greg E. Mathieson Sr./Mai/Landov hide caption
Which way do we turn here? A passageway in London's Soho neighborhood. ceajaegirl/Flickr hide caption
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket lifts off at Wallops Island, Va., in April of last year. The Antares uses a pair of Russian-made NK-33 rocket engines that Moscow says it will stop supplying for military launches. Steve Helber/AP hide caption
Crews work a controlled burn in Geneva, Fla., in December. The state's forest service has rolled out a system to track equipment during fires, and hopes it can eventually be used to pinpoint firefighters, too. Joshua C. Cruey/Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel hide caption
Can my app trump your speed gun? Christopher Furlong/Getty Images hide caption