[jayne]

jayne asked the Naked Scientists:

I have come across several sites offering gps software downloads which are supposed to track and listen into surrounding sounds.

Is this possible, and if so how reliable and is there a difference between the software available?

What do you think?

[graham.d]

From what you have said, it is not possible, at least not without a whole lot of other gear and supporting systems in the environment. By gps I assume you mean Global Positioning System. This simply sends your local receiver enough data (from a number of orbiting satellites) to enable a local calculation to be done to fix your position accurately on the earth's surface (it can actually give data on your altitude too). There is no other data sent (other than the time). The systems you buy come with software that has prerecorded data that you can associate with your position (like a map for example) but could have photos of local scenery or the sounds of a local church bell but these would have to be pre-recorded. In theory there could be links via another wireless system to transmitters broadcasting local sounds to you, but this would not need to have anything to do with the gps system. Perhaps you could give an example by posting a link to one of these advertised systems.

[qazibasit]

there are phones in which there is built in GPS softwares installed in it and ready to work.