Computer security company Absolute Software Corporation is extending its products to use Google Maps to provide improved device geolocation tracking in its Absolute Computrace product. The partnership will provide Absolute customers with improved global coverage and more accurate geolocations.
“The location of a device is an important factor in assessing the risk of a data loss event and measuring compliance with corporate policies. The accuracy of the geolocation data we present in our products is critical to our customers,” said Bill Gordon, vice president, engineering and development at Absolute Software. “Using Google Maps technology allows our customers to track devices and be alerted of risks with the highest accuracy.”
The geolocation capabilities of Absolute Computrace include recent and historical location information for a device, as well as the ability to build geofences to contain devices within a specific geographical area. If a device goes beyond the bounds of a geofence, IT is alerted so they can investigate and determine if the device and the data on it is at risk.
“Our customers rely on our solutions to provide timely and accurate information regarding the health and safety of their endpoints and the data they contain,” said Geoff Haydon, CEO of Absolute Software. “Google Maps will ensure we are delivering the most accurate results, from every device, for all of our customers worldwide.”
Trimble announced today Trimble ProjectSight, a cloud-based solution for construction field management that Trimble says simplifies the creation, access and sharing of project information between the field and the office. The new solution provides mobile workers with access to up-to-date project information and smart workflows for increased productivity and more informed decision making. Trimble ProjectSight allows contractors to lower software costs while enabling a wide team of collaborators to access the information they need.
Trimble ProjectSight is designed for contractors and construction managers who want an easy-to-use and cost-effective field management application. Accessible via a web browser or an iPad app, ProjectSight features a simple, intuitive user interface overlaying smart, project-based workflows to keep teams in sync. Access to centralized data provides users with up-to-date information related to material tracking, issues reporting, information requests and critical project drawings, models and documents. Fully functional offline capabilities allow information to remain available during unconnected sessions commonly encountered on construction sites.
ProjectSight joins other solutions in Trimble’s portfolio for managing construction project logistics, budgets, estimates, schedules, coordination and change in both 2D and 3D datasets. ProjectSight leverages the new Trimble Connect collaboration environment for design, engineering and construction firms. Trimble Connect enables teams to access and manage any data via a cloud platform and specifically allows ProjectSight users to access and share project management data with Trimble Connect users across the design-build-operate lifecycle.
“Effective project management is critical to the profitability of any construction project,” said Mark Sawyer, general manager of the General Contractor / Construction Manager Division of Trimble Buildings. “With Trimble ProjectSight, we now offer a solution that addresses the core functions of project management in a very easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy system. ProjectSight ensures workers have access to accurate, up-to-date information and it puts that information in the hands of highly distributed teams at very low cost.”
Record-Breaking Year Ahead: Industry Revenues to Reach All-Time High of $223.2B in 2015
Revenues for the consumer electronics (CE) industry are projected to grow three percent in 2015 and to reach an all-time high of $223.2 billion, according to The U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts, the semi-annual industry report released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The total revenues forecast was announced by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro during his opening remarks today at the 2015 International CES, running January 6-9 in Las Vegas.
CEA’s consensus forecast reflects U.S. factory sales to dealers and covers more than 100 CE products. The twice-annual report serves as a benchmark for the CE industry, charting the size and growth of underlying categories.
Emerging Technologies
The 2015 forecast projects that revenue for new, emerging product categories is expected to double, growing 108 percent year-over-year in 2015. These new technology categories include unmanned systems (unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned vehicles and home robots); wearables such as health and fitness devices, smartwatches and smart eyewear; IP cameras; 3D printers; 4K Ultra-High Definition televisions; and connected thermostats.
While the emerging product categories represent less than five percent of the entire CE industry revenue forecast, they are expected to contribute almost $11 billion to overall CE revenue in 2015.
“Our forecast underscores that consumers’ love affair with technology shows no signs of slowing any time soon,” said Shapiro. “Consumer technology is all about continued innovation. In the blink of an eye, consumer demand has taken off for emerging categories such as wearables, unmanned aerial vehicles and 4K Ultra HD — categories that were too small to track just three years ago. Expect to see these burgeoning categories, as well as innovations across the full spectrum of consumer technology, on display this week at the 2015 International CES.”
The Wearable Revolution
The wearable device revolution is a key category to watch in the coming years, and especially in 2015. CEA projects overall wearable unit sales will reach 30.9 million units (a 61 percent increase from last year) and generate $5.1 billion in revenue in 2015 (a 133 percent increase). CEA’s wearables category encompasses fitness activity bands and other health and fitness devices, as well as smartwatches and smart eyewear.
Health and fitness devices: Led by the popularity of activity tracking devices, health and fitness devices will lead unit sales among all wearables in 2015 with a projected 20 million units. Revenue is expected to surpass $1.8 billion in 2015.
Other mobile devices:
Smartphones: As the sales leader of the industry, smartphone unit shipments are projected to reach 169.3 million this year, up six percent from 2014. Additionally, smartphone revenues are expected to generate $51.3 billion in 2015, a five percent increase from last year. Particular growth will be seen in screen sizes between 5.3 inches – 6.5 inches.
Tablets: Unit sales of tablets are projected to reach 80.7 million this year, a three percent increase from 2014. Revenues for tablets will reach $24.9 billion this year, down one percent.
“Mobile connected devices have reached an equilibrium, stabilizing the steep climb these products have experienced in recent years,” said Shawn DuBravac, Ph.D., chief economist, CEA and author of CEA’s soon-to-be released book Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate. “Overall, improving economic conditions, consumer enthusiasm for new features and product categories, competitive manufacturer pricing and several other dynamics now at play should make 2015 an especially significant year for tech.”
Other CE categories expected to enjoy positive growth in 2015 include audio, electronic gaming and laptops. Automotive electronics will see continued growth due to new vehicle sales in 2015, reaching $14 billion in revenue, a 3.3 percent increase.
The U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecast 2010-2015 (January 2015) is published twice a year, in January and July, reporting U.S. factory sales-to-dealers. It was designed and formulated by CEA to be a comprehensive source of sales data, forecasts, consumer research and historical trends for the consumer electronics industry.
Qualcomm Technologies will demonstrate two new full technology concept cars that integrate Qualcomm Technologies’ latest in vehicle technology and connectivity at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, being held this week in Las Vegas. The technology concept cars are based on the 2015 Maserati Quattroporte GTS and the 2015 Cadillac XTS and have been customized to bring the full Snapdragon Automotive Solutions experience to life, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 602A automotive-grade processor, Qualcomm Gobi 3G/4G LTE wireless modems and Qualcomm VIVE QCA6574 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module, and Qualcomm IZat RGR7640 GNSS module. Qualcomm Snapdragon and Qualcomm Gobi are products of QTI, and Qualcomm VIVE and Qualcomm IZat are products of QCA.
The Qualcomm Concept Car – Cadillac demonstrates pre-integrated support for Android, including the latest Android L and Kit Kat; high resolution infotainment displays for visually stunning graphics for cluster and infotainment; integrated in-vehicle features, including navigation, music, live streaming of sports, news and entertainment content via LTE-Broadcast; enhanced safety features such as lane detection with integrated navigation, driver distraction avoidance notification, gesture recognition, car personalization via the AllSeen Alliance’s AllJoyn open source framework; wireless audio streaming from personal devices via the Qualcomm AllPlaysmart media platform; smartphone integration and Qualcomm WiPower flexible wireless charging for consumer electronics and; 4G LTE multimode Internet connectivity including WiFi hotspot and Bluetooth profile support.
The Qualcomm Concept Car – Maserati features pre-integrated support for the latest versions of the QNX Neutrino OS and the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment from QNX Software Systems, a subsidiary of BlackBerry Limited. Highlights include an instrument cluster with speed recommendations, collision warnings, and intelligent parking assist; an infotainment system with 3D navigation, smart phone integration, rear seat entertainment with easy-to-use multimodal UI supporting gestures (tap, swipe, pinch), and voice recognition; an immersive driver experience with rear and side view mirror/displays, complete with refitted cameras and informational safety features; WiPower flexible wireless charging for consumer electronics; and 4G LTE multimode Internet connectivity, including WiFi hotspot and Bluetooth profile support.
Integrated into the technology concept cars are:
Elektrobit’s EB street director navigation software and the latest version of its EB Assist eHorizon Solution with audible and visual warnings and recommendations about the road ahead
TomTom advanced navigation and map services
Jungo’s MediaCore smartphone connectivity and multimedia playback
Rightware’s software and user interface for the instrument cluster
Ricardo’s integrated hardware, controls and electronics
Streaming Internet radio services from Pandora via HTML5 and iHeartRadio via Android
Voice recognition and speech-to-text services powered by Nuance’s Dragon Drive
NXP’s SAF775x AM/FM radio tuner support
QNX Neutrino OS and QNX CAR Platform for next-generation safety and infotainment features
The concept cars are on display at CES, located at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Central Hall, Booth 8252 and Central Plaza, Booth CP21A.
Nexcom introduces in-vehicle computers VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 to foster the growth of connected vehicles in the IoT (Internet of Things), which aims to offer safer and more efficient driving experience. Featuring fifth-generation Intel Core processors, the in-vehicle computers have numerous telematics features to support fleet management, security features to protect vehicles in the IoT, and performance to drive ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and stream multiple video surveillance feeds.
For fleet management, VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 feature built-in GPS for vehicle tracking and navigation, and a CAN bus 2.0B interface with optional OBD II function for vehicle diagnostics. To enable remote monitoring of vehicle diagnostics, store and exchange data of video surveillance feeds and IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) services, VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 feature four mini-PCIe expansions with dual WWAN support and dual external HDDs, providing high cellular bandwidth for fast connections and ample storage for large video and media files.
“The pursuit of driving safety and efficiency has been the driving force for advancements in in-vehicle technologies,” said Steven Wu, general manager of Nexcom’s Vertical Industry Platform (VIP) Business Unit. “Using fifth-generation Intel Core processors i3-5010U and i7-5650U respectively, VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 provide signal processing, machine vision, and video transcoding capabilities required of ADAS, ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and video surveillance, giving abilities to sense and to think to fleet transport, public transport, police vehicles, ambulances and more.”
“The fifth-generation Intel Core processors utilizing Intel’s new 14nm process has integrated Intel HD graphics 5500 and 6000 and expanded hardware security. Its excellent performance adds multitasking capability for compute-intensive applications such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), while the Intel Quick Sync Video provides fast transcode time. Furthermore, hardware security design, Intel OS Guard and Intel AES-NI, helps protect systems against malware intrusions and helps accelerate data encryption.” said Samuel Cravatta, IOTG product line director, Intel.
For added physical security, the pre-alarm function on the in-vehicle computers features two DI and DO channels and an event button signal that can both operate in power-off state, ensuring alarms and emergency notifications are constantly available at times of intrusion or urgent conditions.
For fleet management, VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 feature built-in GPS for vehicle tracking and navigation, a CAN bus 2.0B interface with optional OBD II function for vehicle diagnostics. Furthermore, to enable remote monitoring of vehicle diagnostics, store and exchange data of video surveillance feeds and IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) services, VTC 7230 and VTC 7240 feature four mini-PCIe expansions with dual WWAN support and dual external HDDs, providing high cellular bandwidth for fast connections and ample storage for large video and media files.
Tracking device maker Trackimo will make its official North American debut at a press conference on Jan. 7 during the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At the press conference Trackimo will showcase its new line of tracking devices that will be introduced throughout 2015. Trackimo will also announce its partnership with Trackimo North America as an exclusive U.S. and Canadian distribution partner.
Trackimo was founded and is based in Israel. The company already has distribution deals in Latin America, Europe and Israel. The new distribution partnership in North America will offer its product to the mass market, according to Trackimo.
“We are very excited to be able to provide Trackimo’s cutting-edge technology at an entirely new price point that virtually sets a new mass market segment for tracking devices,” said Shai Bar-Lavi, CEO and Chairman of Trackimo, Inc. “We offer a whole new approach to tracking that enables consumers to use our products and services in ways that were not possible before.”
“We’re very excited to be part of the Trackimo Worldwide team and to be launching Trackimo into the North American market,” says Jim Prandine, vice president of sales, Trackimo North America. “Trackimo Universal covers dozens of applications in various channels, and our new upcoming products will broaden consumer demand even further.”
Bar Lavi added, “We are very excited about this new partnership with Trackimo North America as it opens up limitless opportunities for the Trackimo brand.”
Debuting at CES:
Trackimo Universal: A compact (45 x 18 x 40 millimeter), lightweight device with long-lasting battery life and worldwide service. Included accessories allow users to secure Trackimo device to different objects, including backpacks, bikes, belts and luggage. Trackimo Universal can also be hardwired in a car, eliminating the need for charging. Designed for outdoor use, the Trackimo device also includes accessories for waterproofing.
The Trackimo app offers a single-point login for both computers and mobile platforms to allow effortless management of tracking units. It offers multiple device management under a single account, as well as, a variety of remote settings options.
Highlights of Trackimo’s products include:
Dynamic Tracking Frequency: User-controlled location sampling enables optimized energy consumption.
Smart Alerts: User alerts via text, email and app notifications for location change, speed thresholds, sudden movement or impact, or SOS button press.
Dynamic History: All tracking history is stored; user can recall any time period and select from a variety of time resolutions.
GPS Tracking: Highly accurate locations when GPS reception available, but capable of accurate tracking wherever cell phone reception is available.
Virtual Fences: User-defined “geofences” give notifications when specific boundaries are crossed.
Multiple Devices: Multiple devices can be simultaneously tracked and managed on a single account.
Coming soon: Emergency Voice Channel: Voice channel can be opened automatically when SOS button is pressed, allowing remote user to hear what’s happening on site.
Wi2Wi Corporation is releasing the W2SG0021i, a miniature GNSS module based on the CSR SiRFStarV chip.
The W2SG0021i is a high-sensitivity, low-power stand-alone receiver designed for portable applications. It can concurrently track multiple satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, BDS, SBAS, and is Galileo-ready) and has ultra-fast time-to-first-fix, a small form factor, and high receive sensitivity for a broad spectrum of OEM products, including machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer wearables.
The module provides precision commercial-grade GNSS location identification over -40C to +85C. Measuring 7 x 7 millimeters, the W2SG0021i addresses the need for a cost-effective and high-performance GNSS module for major markets worldwide, the company said.
M2M and wearable markets require GNSS modules with high position accuracy, low power, and very small form factor, said Wi2Wi CTO and vice president of engineering Tony Fardanesh. Wi2Wi pushes these limits in its GNSS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth solutions, he said.
Precision location features and the small form factor of W2SG0021i enable Wi2Wi to penetrate into the GNSS market globally. Wi2Wi continues to invest in the research and development of high-precision connectivity solutions, timing devices and frequency controllers to the global customer base, said CEO Hans Black.
The W2SG0021i samples and development kit will be available in Q1 2015.
Wi2Wi designs, manufactures and markets miniaturized embedded wireless connectivity solutions (incorporating both hardware and software), high-precision timing devices, and frequency controllers for premium industrial/medical, avionics, home automation and government markets.
Satellite TV pirates beware: Broadcom Corporation is offering a GPS-enabled satellite outdoor unit (ODU) device that gives satellite TV providers a way to track subscriber equipment, pinpoint service issues in the home, and stop piracy with a geo-lock. The solution will also enable delivery of location-based services.
The ODU solution combines Broadcom’s BCM4551 satellite TV device with its BCM4771 GPS receiver.
Broadcom’s new satellite solution resides in the low-noise block (LNB) of a subscribers’ satellite dish, enabling operators to better position dish installations and reduce metering equipment costs and truck rolls. Combining GPS-enabled ODU technology with a set-top box, operators can quickly locate and validate a subscriber’s home location, Broadcom said.
“By combining Broadcom’s field-proven satellite ODU technology with GPS functionality, we are able to provide operators with the capability to more conveniently and cost-effectively track the location of their equipment and prevent redistribution of content to nonsubscribers,” said Nicholas Dunn, Broadcom vice president of Direct Broadcast Satellite Marketing. “This integrated technology can also open the door to operator delivery of location-based social media and business applications, providing subscribers with targeted content such as information on local service providers, retail operations and restaurants, or a specific televised event.”
GPS technology within the LNB also allows operators to geo-lock content to subscribers. Content geo-locking uses a subscriber’s location to deliver video content specific to the subscriber’s service address. This ensures the delivery of personalized services and prevents costly theft of service for operators. Previously, content geo-locking was only available through a costly external device attached to subscriber’s set-top box; today’s introduction from Broadcom offers best-in-class capabilities at an incremental cost for operators.
Key Features of the BCM4551
Highly-integrated 28 nanometer (nm) process with low power consumption
Allows 24 DVB-S2 channels to be stacked on a single coaxial cable to service any STB to reduce satellite operator installation costs
8 RF inputs and 1RF output covering the 250 to 2350 MHz frequency range
24 user-band output channels
24 output channels selectable from any LNB input
Frequency shift keying (FSK) and digital satellite equipment control (DiSEqC)
Key Features of the BCM4771
Highly integrated radio frequency (RF), baseband processor and CPU with smallest complete PCB footprint
Faster signal searches, accurate real-time navigation and improved tracking sensitivity
Increased satellite availability: supports GPS, and GLONASS satellites at L1 frequency band.
Broadcom will demonstrate the new solution at the International CES show, January 6-9.
By Ugo Celestino, European Commission, Antonella Di Fazio, Telespazio SpA, Vicente José Giner Herrera, Ineco, Patrizio Vanni, ENAV SpA, and Francisco Javier Deblas, ESSP.
This article describes a live demonstration of an aviation application in Tunisia, to help the local aviation community in validating the use of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) to guide airplanes during landing operations. This activity constitutes the first complete experience of EGNOS Safety of Life (SoL) service for aviation approaches outside Europe. We present here the obtained results that are useful not only for Tunisia, but as a valuable case study for other countries outside Europe interested in using EGNOS in aviation.
EGNOS, operational since 2009, has a European regional coverage that could be quite easily extended to areas adjacent to European Union through the deployment of limited additional ground infrastructure elements, but sharing the same existing space segment and leveraging the other core ground infrastructure.
The European Commission has put in place a series of actions since 2006 to support the EGNOS service extension in neighbouring areas. The MEDiterranean follow-Up for EGNOS Adoption (MEDUSA) is an on-going European initiative related to EGNOS extension in the Euromed region, including North African and Middle East countries around the Mediterranean basin: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia. MEDUSA runs a program of technical assistance action in these Euromed countries, in order to prepare them for an optimal adoption and exploitation of European GNSS services in their priority market segments.
The Mediterranean Extension of EGNOS
EGNOS is Europe’s first venture into satellite navigation and paves the way for Galileo, Europe’s independent global satellite navigation system currently under deployment.
EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS), whose signal is compliant to the international SBAS interoperability standards: standards – MOPS (Minimum Operational Performance Standards) and ICAO SARPs (International Civil Aviation Organization Standard and Recommended Practices). In its current version (V2) it augments the open public service offered by the American Global Positioning System (GPS), by providing correction data that enables to improve GPS position accuracy, and provides integrity information about the GPS system (integrity information is fundamental for aeronautical applications like approaches). EGNOS is interoperable with the other equivalent regional systems. Today other SBASs are the U.S Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the Japanese Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Indian GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) and the Russian System for Differential Correction and Monitoring (SDCM). The future version (V3) of EGNOS will augment Galileo signal as well.
Today EGNOS is operational, and available for use in aviation since 2011, giving opportunities for users to have more accurate and reliable positioning for enhancing existing applications, developing new applications and particularly the safety critical ones. Already more than 150 landing procedures are operational across Europe (some of them also in countries out of the European Union, such as Switzerland, Norway, Guernsey), with many others under development to reach 100 percent Approaches with Vertical Guidance (APV) coverage in the European instrumental runways as per ICAO recommendation.
EGNOS provides three services:
EGNOS Open Service (OS), launched in 2009, is delivered free of charge. It is open for use to anyone with an EGNOS-enabled receiver. This can be any receiver compatible with satellite-based augmentation systems. Being based on GPS, the EGNOS signal does not require major changes for receivers. Today, many mass market receivers available on the market are also EGNOS enabled. EGNOS OS is particularly suitable for mass market and some applications like surveying.
EGNOS Safety-of-life Service (SoL) is authorized for European civil aviation and operational since March 2011. EGNOS SoL delivers the integrity message providing the verification of the GPS system and timely warnings (within six seconds), when the system or its data should not be used for navigation. Since integrity relates to the trust that can be placed in the correctness of the location information supplied by GPS, thanks to this feature EGNOS is able to meet the demands of safety-critical applications in sectors such as aviation.
EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS) launched in 2012, delivers a terrestrial commercial data service. It consists of a server that gets the data directly from EGNOS system and disseminates it via terrestrial networks in real time, within guaranteed maximum delay, security and performance. EDAS is particularly suitable for professional applications. It provides EGNOS raw data and corrections enabling software solutions that implement products and value added services built on them.
EGNOS infrastructure consists of three geostationary satellites over Europe and a network of ground stations (Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Station – RIMS) located to provide services whose coverage includes southern Europe, North Africa and some Middle East countries.
The EGNOS RIMS network supports a flexible network geometry that gradually adapts to service coverage requirements evolution. From the originally envisaged coverage over European Union’s countries, the EGNOS RIMS network is being expanded over Europe’s neighbouring areas, thus increasing the number of beneficiary countries. EGNOS SoL service is highly sought by several non-EU countries for the benefits it can bring to their civil aviation, in providing a solution to comply with ICAO requirements for Performance Based Navigation (PBN).
The present layout of the EGNOS RIMS network is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. EGNOS ground segment.
Figures 2 and 3 show respectively today’s coverage of EGNOS OS availability (source: European Satellite Services Provider, the service provider of EGNOS) and the APV-I availability performance commitment provided by EGNOS SoL (source: EGNOS Safety of Life Service Definition Document, EGN-SDD SoL, V2.0, European Commission, 2013), obtained relying on the above presented ground segment.
Figure 2. EGNOS OS Availability.
EGNOS OS Availability. The Figure 2 map is obtained by projecting the error at pseudorange level into the position domain. The computed error assumes that the GPS satellites used are those with an elevation angle above the local horizon (with a mask angle of 5º) and does not consider any possible factor depending on local characteristics that could produce different results (optimistic or pessimistic) with respect to the results computed using real receivers located in the considered areas. Moreover, it represents an estimation of EGNOS OS availability during a very limited period of time being an estimation, thus it does not imply any commitment or reference for the performances which can be obtained during different periods.
Figure 3. EGNOS APV-I Availability.
Other initiatives for a further extension in North Africa and Middle East are already being developed, under the umbrella of the Euromed GNSS programme. In parallel with the infrastructure deployment, the Euromed GNSS programme also includes actions to support the introduction and exploitation of EGNOS services. The first stage was completed in the frame of the Euromed GNSS I/MEdiTerranean Introduction of GNSS Services (METIS) project in the period 2006-2009, the second stage is presently running in the frame of the Euromed GNSS II/MEDUSA project. Further initiatives are being planned for 2015 and beyond.
EGNOS Use in Aviation
EGNOS was initially designed and developed to be used in aviation, similarly to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration WAAS, to support different types of aviation applications and, in particular, to meet the performance requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (Annex 10) for the implementation of APV-I, which enable the implementation of LPV final approaches, as reported in Table 1.
Table 1. ICAO Operational Requirements.
EGNOS is one of the GNSS elements recognised by ICAO (Annex 10) as a radionavigation aid. It is an important element of a global SBAS systems mosaic, that started with the American system WAAS in 2003, and that is gradually completed by other more recent SBAS: EGNOS itself, MSAS (Japan), GAGAN (India), SDCM (Russia), and some countries like Australia and South Korea that have launched feasibility studies to develop their own SBAS.
It is expected that, in a not too far future, most parts of the world will profit from SBAS services, following the current coverage extension plans and SBAS system evolutions. The final objective, as also shared at ICAO level, is that as many airdromes worldwide, as possible, can offer instrument approaches with vertical guidance, with an outstanding increase in global safety rates.
Additionally, the use of EGNOS allows taking full advantage of GNSS for all phases of flight, including final approach. Therefore, EGNOS means for aviation a fundamental and strategic tool to help meet ICAO’s recommendations, aimed at the adoption of a PBN oriented airspace use policy, for all countries. The 37th Assembly of ICAO (28 September – 8 October 2010) resolved that APV procedures should be implemented as either a primary or backup strategy for precision approaches at all instrument runway ends by 2016.
APV is a major safety initiative. ICAO recognises SBAS and Barometric Vertical Navigation (Baro-VNAV) as the two acceptable (and often complementary) means of implementing APV procedures, which are safer than NPA (Non Precision Approach).
GNSS based navigation enables RNAV (aRea NAVigation) with a higher cost effectiveness in comparison with the old conventional, sensor ground-based, navigation procedures. This is especially true for wide, even desert unequipped areas (or difficult to maintain) like those in North Africa and Middle East.
EGNOS benefits are maximized in final approach manoeuvres, providing GNSS lateral and vertical guidance, and enabling APV-I approaches.
Final approach procedures based on GNSS are classified as RNP approaches (RNP APCH, as shown in the next figure), namely: Lateral Navigation (LNAV) with GPS lateral guidance and no vertical guidance; LP with GPS + SBAS (EGNOS) for lateral guidance (CAT-I localizer performance) and no vertical guidance; Lateral Navigation/Vertical Navigation (LNAV/VNAV) with GPS lateral guidance and Baro-Vertical Navigation (VNAV) vertical guidance (Baro-VNAV approach procedures can be flown with SBAS vertical guidance upon the approval of the Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP)) and the LPV (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance) with GPS + EGNOS for both lateral and vertical guidance.
Figure 4. RNP approaches.
Those procedures not including vertical guidance are intended to be flown with the Constant Descent Final Approach (CDFA) technique (to avoid dangerous dive and drive practices), supported by most Flight Management Systems (FMS).
Regarding the operational LPV main figures, the European regulation (EU OPS -REGULATION (EC) No 859/2008 usually known as EU OPS) allows LPV operational minima (Decision Height – DH) down to 250 ft, expected to be possibly lowered down to 200 ft by 2015 (LPV-200), similarly to what is already permitted by the FAA, in the United Sates for WAAS based LPV approaches (a DH of 200 ft would make LPV approaches very competitive, when benchmarked against ILS CAT-I, precision approach, or even Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) CAT-I precision approach).
In the last few years, about 150 LPV procedures (status as of July 2014) have been published in European airports, and the number of procedures and countries introducing EGNOS is continuously increasing.
Euromed GNSS I/METIS and Euromed GNSS II/MEDUSA
In parallel with the development of the infrastructures necessary for extending EGNOS availability across the Euromed region, the European Commission has put in place initiatives to prepare and assist the Euromed countries for the optimal use and adoption of the relevant services.
These consist in two sequential projects, the first being Euromed GNSS I/METIS project and the second being Euromed GNSS II /MEDUSA.
Running from mid 2006 up to the end of 2009, METIS acted as a pioneer in the Euromed countries and built national/regional liaisons with decision-makers and key stakeholders, interested in sharing experience and absorbing know-how. The project assisted the 10 Euromed countries to identify their priorities in relation to the use of EGNOS services, to validate the relevant opportunities from the strategic/social and economic perspectives, and to elaborate a suitable strategy and a plan of actions for facilitating EGNOS adoption and exploitation.
MEDUSA Case Study in Tunisia: LPV Approaches in the Airport of Monastir Using EGNOS
As part of the technical assistance actions programme in the priority domains, MEDUSA implements demonstrations and validations of EGNOS services in concrete applications.
For EGNOS SoL, the technical assistance action consisted in the validation of GNSS approaches, including LPV approaches, designed and constructed in MEDUSA along with the relevant safety assessment and business case for the airport of Monastir in Tunisia (35°45’29’’ N 10°45’17’’ E). The selection of the airport was driven by a trade off between the EGNOS service availability with required APV-I performances and the specific needs of the Tunisian Air Navigation Service Provider – ANSP (OACA, Office de l’Aviation Civile et des Aéroports). According to OACA, Monastir is among the airports in Tunisia presenting favourable conditions, in terms of operational constraints and traffic, for concretely proving the added value of EGNOS for final approaches.
The airport has two runways, RWY 07 and RWY 25, the former is equipped with an ILS CAT-I, the latter only supports NPA approaches. The installation of an ILS in RWY 25 was discarded due to technical constraints. This infrastructure has proven to be insufficient to fully cover the airport needs, that suffers some Delays-Diversions-Cancellations (DDCs) as a result of local specific meteorological conditions, frequent fog banks entering from the sea in the early morning, combined with desert haze. These conditions make LPV ideal procedures, as backups to RWY 07, and enabling APV approaches to RWY 25. Finally, Monastir’s TWR ATC (Tower Air Traffic Control ) staff has been involved in OACA’s PBN development, for which they were ideal candidates to evaluate the benefits possibly achievable from the use of EGNOS.
This MEDUSA’s technical assistance action is the first complete experience for the use of EGNOS SoL service outside Europe. It was conceived as a realistic exercise of RNP APCH procedures implementation, following the guidelines provided by ICAO in the “EUR RNP APCH Guidance Material (EUR Doc 025)” and including all the activities required, from the scenario adequacy study to flight validation and the requirements analysis for the final publication in the AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication). OACA was directly involved in all activities, providing inputs/feedbacks and for training purposes.
A set of three GNSS based approach procedures was produced for each RWY, following ICAO 8168 PANS OPS design principles. The next figures show the combined charts type elaborated, that include minima boxes for three RNP approaches (LNAV, LNAV/VNAV and LPV). The procedures construction preserves the current Monastir arrivals structure, following airspace management principles and facilitating the operational approval. As illustrated in the charts, in both cases for the three minima the calculated OCH (Obstacle Clearance Height) values improve with respect to the already existing conventional approaches, providing significant operational and safety benefits.
Figure 5. GNSS approaches for RWY 07.Figure 6. GNSS approaches for RWY 25.
An on-site GNSS performance monitoring campaign was performed by OACA, with the support of GEMCO’s staff, 3 months before the flight trials schedule, covering both EGNOS and GPS signal performances. Besides, an APV-I availability study for the area and specifically for Monastir airport during 1 month before the flight validation was purposely elaborated by the European EGNOS service provider (ESSP). Both analyses, confirmed suitable APV-I performance in terms of availability and continuity, making feasible the implementation of LPV approach procedures in line with ICAO prescriptions.
The next figures show the EGNOS APV-I availability and continuitymeasured on one day during the period of the flight validation (conducted from 30 January to 1 February 2014), in particular at Monastir airport for the considered time-lag:
APV-I availability was over 99%;
APV-I continuity presented a total value lower than 5×10-4/15s;
95th percentile of Horizontal APV-I accuracy was between 1.1 and 1.2 meters and the 95th percentile of Vertical APV-I Accuracy is around 1.4 meters, thus showing a very good accuracy level;
Horizontal and Vertical safety indexes were lower than 0.25, representing a very good integrity margin.
Additionally, the results of the on-site GNSS performance monitoring campaign showed quite stable performances with small fluctuations during the whole period of observation, and no problems or outages were observed.
(EGNOS APV-I Availability is defined as the percentage of epochs in a month in which the Protection Level are below Alert Limits for this APV-I service (HPL<40m and VPL<50m) over the total period (source: ESSP).
EGNOS APV-I Continuity Risk is defined as the result of dividing the total number of single continuity breaks using a time-sliding window of 15 seconds by the number of samples with valid and available PA navigation solution. A single continuity break occurs if the system is available at one epoch and becomes not available for the following 15 seconds (source: ESSP).)
Figure 7. APV-I availability on 31.01.2014.Figure 8. APV-I continuity on 31.01.2014.
The flight validation campaign was carried out according to ICAO doc 9906 with a Piaggio P180 Avanti II (from ENAV flight inspection department) suitably equipped with UNIFIS 3000 system and a Rockwell Collins FMS 3000 with SBAS LPV approach capabilities.
Figure 9. Piaggio P180 Avanti II aircraft and the FMS messages during the flight validation.
The outcomes of this concrete experience have allowed the Tunisian authorities to identify the main elements for the publication of the validated procedures in their national AIP. They have also contributed to the analysis of the necessary process for the operational adoption of GNSS, including EGNOS, in aviation in countries beyond the EU boundaries.
The activities performed on performance assessment have been preparatory for discussions on GNSS monitoring and data recording on going at ICAO Navigation System Panel level, that would produce ICAO guidelines for States.
Therefore, this Tunisia’s “case study” represents a practical and realistic example that could be beneficial for the other non-EU countries in terms of best practice and lesson learnt. Moreover, methodology and guidelines have been derived to be possibly injected to other non-European countries interested to introduce EGNOS operations in aviation.
Lessons Learned and Outlook
Through its achievements, MEDUSA is opening the way for the introduction of EGNOS SoL service in North Africa and Middle-East region, and it is also defining a suitable path to be followed by other interested non-European countries. Overall, MEDUSA is continuing to confirm the ability to foster cooperation and involvement in EGNOS programme of the great majority of the Euromed countries. Further to Tunisia, other Euromed countries have already expressed their interest in relation to the EGNOS use in aviation, considering each country’s strategy and also in the light of a common shared regional perspective. Besides, the results obtained by MEDUSA are useful also for other regions interested to use EGNOS in aviation.
Additionally, MEDUSA is clearly showing that Euromed region, presently lacking the full support of SBAS technologies, represents an opportunity for EGNOS service extension, with many benefits for the countries of the region and for Europe.
On one hand, being SBAS an effective and efficient technology to enable the aviation community of the Euromed countries to comply with ICAO recommendations on PBN implementation by year 2016 across the region, the services coverage extension of existing SBAS systems (EGNOS in the case of the Euromed countries) can be one of the most efficient ways to move forward. In fact, the Euromed national ANSPs consider the readiness of EGNOS SoL service as one of the main drivers and factors when designing their PBN strategy. EGNOS, which is already operational since 2009 and available for use in aviation since 2011, can deliver added-value services to the Euromed region, just by leveraging the existing European infrastructure with only incremental, marginal and natural extension. The EGNOS coverage extension across the Euromed region can provide significant benefits and particularly to those Euromed countries with few ILS or reduced navaids coverage, and enhance safety and efficiency to the whole aviation community.
On the other hand, the European Union has to gain from an EGNOS-based long term links with its neighbouring regions, by increasing bilateral/multilateral cooperation and interaction (e.g. assistance, mutual cooperation) among public and semi-public bodies (e.g. ANSPs, Civil Aviation Authorities), by strengthening EGNOS SoL coverage in the southern/peripheries of EU (e.g. Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Southernest Italian islands, Canary islands), by pursuing and supporting other EU policies in several sectors (like transports, e.g. harmonizing aviation safety standards across the Mediterranean, Transport Policy of the Mediterranean Partners), and last but not least by achieving a first step towards EGNOS extension to the whole African continent which will bring in similar, additional benefits just described above.
BeiDou Signals, Future Receiver Design Highlighted at Stanford PNT Symposium
By James D. Litton and Tom Langenstein
James L. Litton
The Stanford Center for Position, Navigation and Time conducted its eighth symposium on PNT in October 2014. These symposia have always been a superb two (this year three) days of excellent presentations, ranging over the entire domain of PNT, including policy factors as well as technical ones.
This year the first day featured student speakers, either from Stanford or the students of former Stanford students who are now faculty at other universities. The conference is by invitation only; sponsors include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and other companies involved with GNSS. This essay highlights two presentations that struck us as harbingers of change in the industry: Greg Turetzky’s paper on ubiquitous location, and Minquan Lu’s and Zheng Yao’s paper on new signal structures for BeiDou.
Brad Parkinson gave a keynote address mixing challenges and opportunities from the frontiers of policy formation. David Last did not fail to amuse with his lighthearted and satirical commentary on navigation and society at dinner. Many others gave noteworthy presentations, and all of the presentation slides can be found online.
Tom Langenstein
Both papers that we selected for this article have very broad scope with considerable strategic significance in GNSS design and applications. It seems a little impertinent, as well as superficial, to try to convey their essence in fewer than 2,000 words, but the material presented is available elsewhere, too.
New Signal Structures for BeiDou
Professors Mingquan Lu and Zheng Yao of Tsinghua University laid out in clear and detailed fashion the motivations for BeiDou’s choosing to introduce new signals for the Phase III global system, analyses of alternative modulations, and the results of bench testing in service to the desired properties (interoperability, acquisition and tracking thresholds, receiver complexity, in-band interference, and so on).
They emphasized one non-technical or operational motivation: independent proprietary designs for patent protection. No declaration of policy intention was made; however, the direction was clear, even though the authors are university professors and not government officials.
Some of this work has been published elsewhere in IEEETransactions by the same authors and has a substantial history, reflecting the lessons learned from the predecessor system designs and very thorough analysis, simulation and bench testing. Space does not allow extensive citation, but the key drivers for the designs and the results are summarized below. The preferred modulations chosen or synthesized are quadrature multiplexed binary offset carrier (QMBOC) for B1C and asymmetric constant envelope-binary offset carrier (ACE-BOC).
The principal deficiencies cited of the earlier-proposed BeiDou Phase III signals (circa 2010-ICG) were given as:
no independent intellectual property rights; thus, a big patent risk
signal performance needs to be improved
more flexible receiving modes and more varied application scenarios should be considered.
The principal requirements for BeiDou Open Service signals were cited as:
independent intellectual property rights
better compatibility and interoperability with GPS and Galileo
smooth transition from Phase II to Phase III
improved performance
Separate requirements were stated for the B1C and B2 signals, as follows:
B1C: (QMBOC)
compatibility with other signals of the same carrier frequency
better interoperability with GPS L1 and Galileo E1 signals
better ranging accuracy (than GPS C/A and BeiDou Phase II B1(I))
receiving mode diversity for different receivers (low-end and high-end)
independent Intellectual property rights
B2C: (ACE-BOC)
multiplexed B2a and B2b into a constant envelope signal
better interoperability with the GPS L5 and GALILEO E5 signals
In the quoted case study tests, simulated ACE-BOC and AltBOC signals were generated at several fixed transmitting power levels and processed using software receivers. For each given transmit power level, the ACE-BOC was allotted three times power for the pilot channel over that of the data channel while the AltBOC allocated equal amount of power for both the pilot and the data channel, that is, 3:1 for ACE-BOC and 1:1 for AltBOC.
The resulting tracking performance of the ACE-BOC is more robust than that of the AltBOC.
Table 1, taken from the presentation, provides an overview of the signals.
Table 1. New signal structures proposed for BeiDou.
The compatibility properties of the new signals, if adopted, which seems quite likely, are desirable. The implicit intellectual property aspects of the development, both in motivation and in differential design of a signal structure which seems to be claimed as novel have a defensive basis, apparently, in earlier assertions of proprietary designs. It will be interesting to see whether similar international negotiations follow, or perhaps already have. The paper was well received and stimulated considerable hallway comment.
Ubiquitous Location
Turetzky’s paper laid out the phenomenal growth of location-based services and the implications of such growth for design requirements in GNSS-wireless at the user device level and at the silicon level. On growth (from various quoted sources):
The compound annual growth rate of GNSS devices will continue, from its current 22 percent level to a robust 9 percent for the years 2016-2022; heading for seven billion installed units by 2022.
The cumulative core revenue in the decade 2012-2022 will be 46 percent in LBS portable and wearable devices and 47+ percent in vehicles.
There will be many billions of installations of indoor location technologies by 2018, in virtually every venue imaginable.
Some of the design implications of the requirements driving the growth in indoor location are:
Always Located, or continuous location. For this case, the energy dissipated per day (16 hours) and signal availability (100 percent) are the featured specification and the secondary specification, respectively. These specifications, in turn, require hybrid constellations and minimal standby power consumption.
The scaling down to very small (14 nanometer) dimensions enables much faster switching speeds, search rates and lower power dissipation in active modes and more complex algorithms, but at the expense of leakage current, which adversely affects standby power, an increasingly important factor.
Thus, for GNSS design, the challenges are to:
Take advantage of benefits of smaller geometries to achieve higher clock speeds, more memory, lower active power and smaller size, while greatly reducing standby power from leakage;
Incorporate new methodologies at chip and system design level; Integrate multiple radios on a single die to reduce cost and size without creating interference to a very sensitive GNSS radio;
Integrate multiple radio sources into a single location solution;
Bring together a disparate value chain;
Turetzky outlined a vision for his employer, Intel, to be a leader in all aspects of these revolutionary developments. The technology roadmaps embrace most modalities of positioning: GNSS, Bluetooth, WI-Fi, cellular, and SBAS, and cross most platforms, including wearables. We think that another, unemphasized challenge is in the increasing density of these units with the current specifications on out-of-band-emissions and the spectrum sharing and spectrum management factors in the ubiquity of the devices.
From Greg Turetzky’s Ubiquitous Location paper, presented at Stanford PNT Symposium.
Tune in to our free webinar Receiver Design for the Future,with Greg Turetzky of Stanford speaking on Ubiquitous Location, scheduled for Jan. 15 (1 p.m. EST/ 10 a.m. PST/ 6 p.m. GMT). Register today!
Both papers represented the dynamism of our industry and its diversity of technologies and practitioners and the service to that industry provided by the remarkably consistent excellence of this symposium.
James D. Litton heads the Litton Consulting Group and previously played key executive roles at NavCom Technology and Magnavox.
Tom Langenstein is executive director of the Stanford Center for Position, Navigation, and Time, and deputy program manager of the Gravity Probe-B project.
Eos Positioning Systems has introduced a new line of high-accuracy GNSS receivers for smartphones and tablet computers, including both sub-meter and RTK performance for all mobile platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows.
Eos’s entry-level product, the Arrow Lite, is Bluetooth compatible with all mobile devices.
The Arrow 100 is Eos’s advanced real-time, sub-meter GNSS receiver that utilizes both GPS and GLONASS, and is expandable to Galileo, Beidou and QZSS. It offers superior tracking under tree canopy, around buildings and in rugged terrain, the company said. In addition to supporting SBAS in North/Central America, Europe, Northern Africa, Japan, India and Russia, the Arrow 100 also supports OmniSTAR’s worldwide, real-time sub-meter service.
The most advanced Arrow receiver is the Arrow 200, a dual-frequency, multi-constellation RTK GNSS receiver capable of 1-cm accuracy in real time. The Arrow 200 is an iOS-compatible RTK and OmniSTAR receiver that works with all models of iPads and iPhones via wireless Bluetooth connection. An iOS NTRIP app that allows the user to log into any available RTK network. The Arrow 200 will provide quality RTK performance for years to come because it supports current and future satellite constellations: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS, the company said. It also supports OmniSTAR’s G2, XP and HP real-time worldwide decimeter services.
“After spending more than 12 years designing high-accuracy Bluetooth GNSS receivers, I believe Eos has set the new standard for high- accuracy GNSS receivers that work across all mobile platforms, no matter if it’s iOS, Android or Windows,” said Chief Technology Officer Jean-Yves Lauture.
All Arrow receivers employ long-range (1-km) universal Bluetooth connectivity so the user can interface to any brand of smartphone or tablet, whether it’s iOS, Android, or Windows-based. A variable-power Bluetooth implementation allows the Arrow receivers to communicate up to one kilometer from the mobile device.
Arrow receivers have been optimized to run all day on battery power. The battery pack is field-replaceable and rechargeable separately. It contains smart charging logic so expensive battery chargers are not needed.
All Arrow receivers have been designed to meet IP-67 specifications for immersion in water and are completely dust-proof so they will survive in the harshest environments.
The Arrow receiver product line is targeted at high-accuracy applications like GIS, environmental, agriculture, electric/gas/water utilities, surveying, machine control, and federal/state/local government.
Macy’s added Shopkick indoor location beacons in preparation for holiday shopping. (Photo by Nicholas Eckhart is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)
This year was filled with hope and some success for the location industry. In what was probably the biggest deal, Qualcomm bought United Kingdom-based CSR for $2.5 billion — at the same time, spinning off its own location beacon company, Gimbal. While the connected car continued to get a lot of press at the biggest trade shows, indoor location technology matured to a point that many retailers are believing it’s a way to get consumers back into the stores — and away from their computers.
As we come to the end of 2014, many industry observers view indoor technology and markets to be like where outdoor location was in the early 1990s: many technologies and providers all pushing different solutions. However, the gap between the beneficiaries of the market, the retailers and brands, and the indoor location technology providers is narrowing as tests become more prevalent.
Such retailers as Walgreens, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Macy’s and CVS have rolled out, or planning to launch, tests that include indoor mapping and a product locator.
“iBeacons and other beacons proved to be the fastest location-proximity technologies that are being deployed full scale by Macy’s, CVS and other retailers for a first quarter 2015 rollout,” said Kris Kolodziej, an indoor location-based services advisor. “I see more acquisitions like the one of Groupon acquiring Swarm Mobile, a beacon platform for smaller tier-two retailers and businesses. In addition, we will see more partnerships like the one between Gimbal and Urban Airship to provide a holistic outdoor-indoor solution for geofencing and engagement platforms.”
Location companies paid attention to mobile carriers’ focus on launching and advancing their LTE services in 2014, said Keith Bhatia, TeleCommunication Systems vice president, business development.
“2014 has been the year of transitioning location-based services from 2G to 3G to complete 2G-3G-4G platforms,” he said. “The other significant location market event for TCS during 2014 has been growth of user plane services by (over-the-top) apps. The operators who have chosen to compete with OTT players have seen location requests exponentially expand.”
TCS believes that the location market, in the next five years, will evolve to a machine-to-machine and Internet of Things (IoT) concepts that will expand into consumers’ everyday lives, Bhatia said. “From the connected car to telemedicine, health devices, connected home and smart cities, all mobile connected devices will benefit from location-based services,” he said. “We believe that location services will continue its rapid growth for years to come.”
Selling retails on the promise of indoor positioning and proximity marketing has been tough in the past few years — and some providers have focused on the wrong message, Bhatia said. “As mobile device adoption continues to surge, indoor positioning and proximity marketing will become an important tool for many retailers. A significant barrier so far has been too much focus on coupon delivery,” he said. “We believe the retailers will find real benefits in terms of understanding layout, traffic and congregation of users. Combining this location information with their retail data will provide early insights into trends and early indications of potential challenges.”
Dave Hutingford, CSR director of product line for location, believes the big selling point for retailers is striking the balance between what benefits they obtain from the app versus what benefits the consumer gets — what he calls the equity balance.
“Too many irrelevant notifications while walking around the shop will result in people not wanting to run the app, and can potentially harm consumer acceptance of retail applications. The interest is already there from the retailers’ side as the benefits are somewhat obvious, but the question is what do you give back to an increasingly technology-smart consumer?” he said.
Overall, the indoor location market is attracting major interest from retailers — which is refreshing to many industry observers after seeing online sales cut into brick-and-mortar stores’ profits.
“Removing the need for dedicated infrastructure to run indoor location was a big hurdle removed from the ecosystem. Certainly we expect to see good pick-up of the solution over the next few months for a wide variety of location services, and being handset-agnostic is a big benefit for any developer,” Hutingford said. “However, if you are looking for accuracy down in the meter range, you will need to add infrastructure to supplement the location calculation, which can come in many forms.”
Connected-Car Market Made Headlines in 2014
If an industry executive attended any of the bigger trade shows this year — CES, CTIA in Las Vegas, or the Mobile World Congress in Spain, it was the same thing — connected vehicles are the big story. Adoption by automotive manufacturers, as a number of analysts have pointed out this year, was the most important news story for the connected-car industry in 2014, said John Horn, Kore Telematics executive vice president and chief strategy officer.
“Essentially every vehicle that rolls off the assembly line in 2015 will have an element of connectivity built into it. To keep up with the level of demand, we are starting to see scale and scope really start to matter to the companies that power this type of connectivity,” he said. “2015 will prove to be another huge year for industry consolidation, which will be necessary to keep up with the global demand for connected-car technologies.”
The biggest trend in 2014 connected-car technology was the emergence of infotainment content for connected cars, said Scott Frank, Airbiquity vice president, marketing. “Before 2014, the most an average consumer would expect out of a high-end vehicle head unit were features like navigation, basic cell-phone connectivity, and hands-free calling,” he said. “Today, drivers are able to get a wide-variety of apps in their vehicles to do things like stream music and keep up with their social media channels. User experience advancements were also made to provide a seamless transition for digitally oriented drivers as they moved from office, to car, to home, and back again. For example, with the NissanConnect Mobile Apps system, someone listening to a streaming music app like Pandora on their PC in the office can put it on hold, get into their car for the drive home, and pick up the song right where they left off — as well as see their favorite playlists, album selections, and cover art.”
However, as with any industry that experiences quick growth, there will be growing pains, Horn said. “The automotive world has already started to experience some of those pains as connected technologies continue to advance at a rapid pace. We saw how the analog shutdown left many OnStar customers stranded with obsolete hardware,” he said. “We’ll likely see similarities as 2G, 3G, and 4G networks are eventually turned down in favor of more advanced technologies. I’ve been saying this for years, but now is really the time for the removable module. Connected technologies will turn over much faster than cars, and the only way I can see to future-proof against this is through the removable module.”
Airbiquity’s Frank said that there are definitely consumer acceptance and technology barriers for the automotive industry going forward related to connected car as we know it today and autonomous car as its being forecast going forward.
Like waves of technology that have come before, functional consumer awareness and adoption will follow the technology adoption curve, Frank said. “Certain generations and user types will be early adopters and more likely to accept new and evolving connected-car technology and features — and the user experiences and value that come with it — the minute it’s made available,” he said. “While others will be either blissfully unaware of the technology built into their car — and the value it could bring them — or are simply satisfied with traditional technology like basic AM-FM and satellite radio. One thing for sure is there’s a correlation between early adopters of technology like smartphones and early adopters of connected-car technology and related features.”
Frank quoted a recent Parks Associates study that found 48 percent of vehicle owners that own smartphones are very interested in the ability to view maps — or receive directions in their cars. This compares to 37 percent of vehicle owners that own/don’t own smartphones. “Like flip-phone users that transitioned to smartphones after understanding the end benefits, consumers will increasingly become aware of and use their connected-car systems,” he said. “We’re seeing evidence of the connected-car adoption curve in the increasing activation rates and time of usage for our customer’s connected-car programs.”
Horn, who headed RacoWireless, which was acquired by Kore for an undisclosed amount this year, said in 2015 industry will start to see the connected car become much more easily monetized. “We’ve seen this first hand, as we have just rolled out some new features with AT&T and Audi. Now, your Audi Connect subscription can be part of your AT&T Mobile Share plan and treated just like another line,” he said. “It is going to be easier than ever to consume in-vehicle connectivity and the business model will advance to the point that makes it appealing for both the consumer and the solution provider.”
In 2015, driving-centric apps and services will begin to appear and eventually become as important as infotainment content in the consumer purchasing process, Frank said. “The current automotive manufacturers’ focus on providing infotainment delivery reflects their desire to meet the expectations of digital lifestyle consumers who are heavy users of smartphones and want to use their favorite apps and services inside their cars,” he said. “This is a logical first step, but these savvy consumers will increasingly value apps that are truly useful and relative to the driving experience. An example is an app that proactively and dynamically recommends modifications to a driver’s high-frequency routes to help them optimize fuel consumption, lower CO2 emissions, minimize engine wear, and avoid road hazards. As a result, apps that don’t add to the consumer experience relative to driving will eventually die off from lack of use, and automotive manufacturers will replace them with more and more driving-centric apps to satisfy their customers and differentiate themselves from competitors.”
The rise of autonomous vehicles, a derivative from connected-car technology, will keep automakers, carriers, suppliers and government agencies busy for decades.
“When it comes to autonomous vehicles, we expect the adoption curve to be more extended than what we’ll see for the connected car, given the increased consumer concerns about safety and adapting to the new fangled idea of riding in a car without a human driver,” Frank said. “Consumers will not only want to know what this fancy new technology is and how it works, they will also need to feel confident that it will run perfectly and not put themselves, their passengers, or other people and property in harm’s way. Consumers will also have concerns about who will be legally and financially liable if an accident occurs.”
In other location news:
Two Trimble companies, PeopleNet and ALK, recently provided real-time tracking of the 2014 Capitol Christmas Tree’s cross-country journey from the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota to the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington. The companies used enterprise products for routing, mileage, mapping and visualization to track the tree.
LBS Insider’s Kevin Dennehy will be attending the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. Please contact him at [email protected] with your story ideas.
