Waypoint

A navigation GPS fix. Usually a destination or point of reference.

In a GPS unit, a route normally consists of one or more waypoints. When navigating this route, one navigates to the nearest waypoint and then changes course towards the next. Most units have the ability to compute a great-circle route towards the next waypoint.

Many GPS units, both military and civilian, now offer integrated cartographic databases. The user can then, for example, locate an intended destination on the map and define it as a waypoint. Or one could mark a waypoint while physically there, and later see where on the map one was. Some GPS systems intended for use in automobiles can generate a suggested driving route between two waypoints, based on the cartographic database. As one drives along the route, the system can indicate where one is in relation to the intended route, give advance notice of upcoming turns, and so forth.

Most current GPS units allow the user to assign a name to each waypoint. Many models also let the user select a symbol to use when presenting the waypoint on a graphical map display, usually from a built-in library of icons: standard map symbols for marine navigation aids such as buoys, and little pictures of things like hotels, churches, bridges, shopping centers, tunnels, etc., etc.