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| U&C Insights — March 2008
| Something interesting happened this month on a stretch of road between New York City and Long Island. The ITS World Congress VII demonstration committee successfully tested advanced vehicle communication technology along the 50-mile route as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Vehicle Infrastructure Initiative (VII). Both GPS and wireless Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) play key roles in these new traffic safety and mobility efforts. | | | U&C Insights — February 2008
| | Earlier this month, the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau held a summit on issues related to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) technology and public safety's experience with the current 9-1-1 system, particularly its performance in large-scale disasters. | | | U&C Insights — January 2008
| | Each year, it becomes harder to wade through the new product announcements from CES. This year was flooded with navigation offerings, although my attention was also caught by the projectors that 3M, Microvision, and Texas Instruments offered to handset or other mobile personal device manufacturers. | |  MORE ARTICLES
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| Let's Go Downtown! Let's Go Indoors!
| | Firefighters, rescue teams, and other special workers need hybrid navigation to perform safely and efficiently in GNSS signal-denied areas. | | | Are We There Yet?
| | Finding the ideal way to use GPS technology in tourism can be as tricky as booking the perfect vacation. Useful devices for visitors being offered at popular tourist attractions come in many forms, from handhelds that trigger to specific sites to three-wheeled mini-cars with programmed tours on board. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Business Outlook — UWB Location Tech on a Roll
| | Ultra-wideband location applications envisioned or already created support emergency services, asset tracking, and manufacturing inventory management. | | | Let's Go Downtown! Let's Go Indoors!
| | Firefighters, rescue teams, and other special workers need hybrid navigation to perform safely and efficiently in GNSS signal-denied areas. | | | It's a Robot Life
| | Robots helping with the housework may seem like science fiction, but Waseda University researchers are exploring ways that humanoid robots could live in harmony with humans. To enable robots to navigate household living spaces, the researchers are developing a seamless indoor/outdoor positioning solution using GPS technology with pseudolites. | | | Tracking First Responders
| | A networked radionavigation approach that augments GPS signals with time-of-arrival observations using a software-defined radio can overcome attenuation, and often complete blockage, of GPS inside buildings or in urban canyons. The SDR can operate both as a GPS receiver and also as a 900 MHz transceiver operating within the ISM band. Applications for this technology include firefighters and other first responders, and military operations in urban terrain. | | | Optimizing Indoor GPS Performance
| | GPS was never intended for indoor environments, and indeed, the relatively weak satellite signals do not readily lend themselves to use in such environments. The Federal Communications Commission's E911 mandate has spurred significant effort in the GPS community to apply its combined expertise to solve this dilemma. | | | Centimeter-Accuracy Indoor Navigation Using GPS-Like Pseudolites
| | Pseudolites enable GPS navigation in indoor environment. | | | Indoor GPS: The No-Chip Challenge
| | Location-enabling cell phones will increase demand for GPS by over one hundredfold. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| It's a Wild, Wild Wireless World
| | Once we understand wireless carriers' structure, operating model, and financial drivers, then plans and prospects for location-based services will become more apparent. Much hinges on a spectrum auction now underway, expected to garner $20 billion. Carriers want LBS to drive a big return on this investment. | | | Mapping the Underworld
| | Beneath the streets lie thousands of kilometers of cables and pipes. Buried decades ago, their exact location remains a mystery. | | | Wireless Choices for LBS
| | The choice between two standardized architectural approaches to deploying A-GPS location services — control plane and user plane — can influence the quality, applicability, and success of the service offering. Differing requirements for both voice-centric and application-centric applications drove the need for two different location architectures, which provide operation tailored to two different types of needs. | | | To Locate a Phone or PDA
| | An important step for Galileo will be availability of hybrid Galileo/GPS receivers in combination with wireless communications network positioning capabilities for consumer applications. This article presents ideas regarding an integrated GNSS/UMTS receiver architecture to meet the needs of seamless indoor/outdoor navigation. | | | Location Services Massed for Breakout
| | “We were having success with this technology before, but now we have all these major players launching LBS, indicative of a momentum we’ve never seen before.” | | | A Single-Chip GPS Receiver
| | As GPS chip volumes per manufacturer reach millions for the automotive market and tens of millions for consumer GPS, the market map for a single-chip GPS changes considerably. The advent of Galileo will bring out the full benefits of sensitivity, creating an opportunity for low-cost, high-integration one-chip solutions. | | | Assistance When There's No Assistance
| | Long-Term Orbit data, obtainable over the Internet, can enable a locatable cell phone or PDA to position itself accurately for as long as four days without further assistance. | | | Myths and Realities of Anywhere GPS
| | AGPS does not mean works "Anywhere" GPS. Accurately determining what will work for any given application requires a properly designed test procedure. | | | Integrity Hits the Road
| | Low-cost sensors and a Horizontal Trust Level (HTL) enable mobile-terminal applications requiring continuous quality of service in positioning and integrity. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| | | Flowfinity Adds Location Tagging to Workflow Software
| | Flowfinity Wireless Inc. recently took the wraps off Flowfinity Actions 5.1, an adaptable mobile workflow software platform that offers ready-made geo-compliance; GPS-location information is tagged to every data transaction, the company said. | | | Secured Digital Sees Revenues Climb, Eyes U.S. and China
| | Systems integrator Secured Digital Applications Inc. generated 2007 revenue of approximately $46 million, a 25.5 increase year on year growth over 2006, and expects growth to continue this year, the company said today. | | | Kore Telematics to Provide Network for PocketFinder
| | Location Based Technologies Inc. today announced that Kore Telematics Inc. will provide network coverage for its locator devices throughout the United States and Canada, with roaming agreements on the networks of 290 wireless providers in more than 130 countries. | | | Verizon to Open to Third-Party Developers in 2008
| | Verizon Wireless announced this week that it will open its network to third-party devices and software applications, including, presumably, the growing number of LBS-related apps that have sprung up during the past year. | | | Hemisphere GPS Awarded Heading, RTK Software Patents
| | Canada's Hemisphere GPS said Monday that it has received two new U.S. software patents involving the computation of heading and real-time kinematic (RTK) applications for multiple antennas, respectively. | | | Consumer GPS Helps Put the Black in Friday
| | Consumer GPS, namely from the big PND makers Garmin and TomTom, made its presence felt on Black Friday—the traditional shopping day following the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States—and the ensuing weekend. | | | IEEE Wants Your Thoughts on Consumer GPS
| | The IEEE is looking for engineers to illuminate ideas on the use of leading satellite navigation technology in consumer applications. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Kore Telematics to Provide Network for PocketFinder
| | Location Based Technologies Inc. today announced that Kore Telematics Inc. will provide network coverage for its locator devices throughout the United States and Canada, with roaming agreements on the networks of 290 wireless providers in more than 130 countries. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Are We There Yet?
| | Finding the ideal way to use GPS technology in tourism can be as tricky as booking the perfect vacation. Useful devices for visitors being offered at popular tourist attractions come in many forms, from handhelds that trigger to specific sites to three-wheeled mini-cars with programmed tours on board. | | | LBS Inside—Point and Learn
| | A new product from Intelligent Spatial Technologies, Inc. (iST), of Orono, Maine, enables users to explore a defined area with a point-and-learn system that provides a multimedia presentation based on user geographic location and orientation. | | | To Locate a Phone or PDA
| | An important step for Galileo will be availability of hybrid Galileo/GPS receivers in combination with wireless communications network positioning capabilities for consumer applications. This article presents ideas regarding an integrated GNSS/UMTS receiver architecture to meet the needs of seamless indoor/outdoor navigation. | | | Location Services Massed for Breakout
| | “We were having success with this technology before, but now we have all these major players launching LBS, indicative of a momentum we’ve never seen before.” | | |
Assistance When There's No Assistance
| | Long-Term Orbit data, obtainable over the Internet, can enable a locatable cell phone or PDA to position itself accurately for as long as four days without further assistance. | | | 100 Million Strong
| | Time has come today for location-based services. Wireless carriers, manufacturers of GPS-enabled devices, service providers, and application developers stand ready. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| PowerDown
| | Accelerating deployment of location-based services requires reducing the energy-per-fix (EPF) to a minimum, as continuous tracking shortens cell-phone battery life. This article focuses on realizing a low-current RF front end, minimizing RF active time, and developing an intelligent GPS middleware layer to determine whether a low EPF is likely or necessary. | | | Implant Issues More than Skin Deep
| | Applied Digital Solutions created a buzz when it tested a prototype of a GPS implant in the spring of 2003. The disc-shaped personal location device measured more than 6 centimeters in diameter and more than a centimeter deep — about the size of a heart pacemaker. | | | To Locate a Phone or PDA
| | An important step for Galileo will be availability of hybrid Galileo/GPS receivers in combination with wireless communications network positioning capabilities for consumer applications. This article presents ideas regarding an integrated GNSS/UMTS receiver architecture to meet the needs of seamless indoor/outdoor navigation. | | | Location Services Massed for Breakout
| | “We were having success with this technology before, but now we have all these major players launching LBS, indicative of a momentum we’ve never seen before.” | | | Getting into Pockets and Purses
| | Add one more to the list of challenges faced by consumer GPS-enabled devices: the human hand that holds them. Body loading significantly degrades receiver sensitivity. A dielectrically loaded quadrifilar helix antenna can ameliorate this condition. | | | Assistance When There's No Assistance
| | Long-Term Orbit data, obtainable over the Internet, can enable a locatable cell phone or PDA to position itself accurately for as long as four days without further assistance. | | | Where's Fido?
| | GPS and GSM help keep tabs on canine companions. | | | Accurate Time Assistance
| | A new Matrix positioning method provides precise-time aiding to terminals in un-synchronized communications networks. | | | 100 Million Strong
| | Time has come today for location-based services. Wireless carriers, manufacturers of GPS-enabled devices, service providers, and application developers stand ready. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Steep-Slope Monitoring
| | Although GPS is an efficient tool for deformation monitoring, it also is an expensive one for large projects. The authors developed a remote-controlled monitoring system using an electronic switching device for multiple antennas to monitor steep slopes at the Xiaowan hydropower station in China. | | | LiDAR on the Level in Afghanistan
| | Concerns about airspace security in Afghanistan literally brought a LiDAR-based survey operation down to the ground. | | | Striking a Balance
| | Digital mapmakers for utilities must effectively integrate GPS and GIS, while meeting the technical requirements to create true models. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Innovation: Time for a Better Receiver
| | New marvels of miniaturization — the fabrication and performance of chip-scale atomic frequency references — will be moving from the lab to the factory any day now. | | | Innovation: GPS Time Transfer
| | One of the great technological accomplishments on the 18th century was the solution of "the longitude problem." Although latitude could be determined to high accuracy using astronomical observations and navigation tables alone, a determination of longitude additionally required knowing the time at Greenwich (Greenwich Mean Time or GMT) at the instant of the observations. Although astronomical techniques for determining GMT or time on some reference meridian had been developed as far back as the 1500s, they didn't provide sufficient accuracy and many marine disasters occurred because of inaccurately determined longitudes. | | | Industry Input Needed for National PNT Study
| | The National Security Space Office (NSSO) is gathering information on positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) to develop an evolutionary path for a robust National PNT Architecture for the 2025 time period. Interested companies or organizations may present during meetings October 10-12 or October 17-18.
| | | Accurate Time Assistance
| | A new Matrix positioning method provides precise-time aiding to terminals in un-synchronized communications networks. | | | Pacify the Power
| | A control system uses GPS to timetag with microsecond accuracy voltage and current measurements throughout a large-area power grid. | | | Interoperability on Time
| | The offset between GPS and Galileo system timescales will cause a bias between GPS and Galileo measurements in combined
navigation equipment and lessen the accuracy of user position and time solutions. | | | Keeping the Lights On
| | Engineers rebuilding lower Manhattan's power supply grid after 9/11 devised a GPS-clocked intermesh solution to bring new substations online. The process measured power sine waves, and developed software to link GPS to the electrical distribution system ? shortening a 72-hour operation to four hours, without service interruption. The method accurately measures any two low-frequency sine waves and compares them remotely for phase-angle displacement and voltage magnitude difference in real time. | | | Inside the Community - Jan 2002
| | Europe's proposed Galileo system has become the focus of mounting political pressures from inside and outside the European Union. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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| Spirent Providing A-GPS Testing for China
| | Spirent Communications today announced that it signed an agreement with Beijing based, China Telecommunications Technology Labs (CTTL) for assisted-GPS testing in China. | | | ABI: GPS Handset Market Poised for Huge Expansion
| | The market for GPS-enabled handsets is set to boom over the next four years, with more than 550 million units shipping in 2012, market research firm ABI Research said today. | | | Nokia Reiterates: 35M GPS Devices in 2008
| | Other players in the consumer GPS market may be getting nervous about forecasts, but not Nokia, at least when it comes to unit volumes. The European mobile phone giant's CEO confirmed today what the company said earlier in the year with regard to its GPS-enabled devices: it expects to ship some 35 million this year. | | | Help Wanted! GPS World Unveils Online Career Classifieds
| | GPS World magazine has opened a paid advertising section focusing on job opportunities in the GNSS field. | | | Rosum Raises Additional Funding, Attracts TruePosition
| | Rosum Corp. has raised $15 million in new financing, and added TruePosition to its list of investors. | | | STMicro, NXP Announce Wireless Joint Venture
| | European chip makers STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors — which recently acquired GloNav — plan to combine their wireless units within a joint venture company. | | | GPS in the Classroom: Wyoming Educators Teach GPS
| | Two Wyoming teachers plan to use GPS to help teach their elementary school students about geology and other earth scientists, and have scored a Qwest Foundation grant for their efforts. | | | CTIA: Wireless Growth Bigger in Texas, says Pitney Bowes
| | Location-based intelligence provider Pitney Bowes MapInfo and The Gadberry Group have released a list of the fastest growing wireless markets based on population growth, with Dallas and Houston at the top of the list. | | |
CTIA: U-blox 5-based Timing Module Debuts
| | Swiss chip maker u-blox today introduced its LEA-5T, a GPS module capable of a compensated time pulse accuracy of up to 15 nanoseconds. | | | MORE ARTICLES
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