GPS World

Category: Applications

  • The Geospatial Promised Land: Indoor Positioning

    At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain a few weeks ago, a company called Loctronix introduced meter-level indoor positioning technology. “In 50 meters, turn left to find Macy’s Department store” is not very far in our future. This technology and others one step closer to making accurate indoor navigation possible so you can navigate from store-to-store inside a shopping mall or even navigate to particular items within a particular store.

    sirf-fusion_26102011jpg

    It’s all about sensor fusion. CSR’s SiRFstar V/SiRFusion technology uses data from all available satellite navigation systems from the U.S., Europe, Russia, China and Japan, as well as WiFi, cellular systems, accelerometers, gyros, and compasses. Loctronix calls their technology Doppler Aided Inertial Navigation (DAIN) and Spectral Compression Positioning (SCP) which allows them to obtain one meter positioning outdoors, indoors, and even underground without relying on external servers with the following features:

    • Client-based, sensor fusion software platform producing real-time position, speed, direction of motion, and heading information.
    • Optional integrated GPS/GNSS signal and navigation processing – using Loctronix’ SCP hybrid technology.
    • Fully integrated map-matching functionality with support for third-party map data.
    • Optional WiFi RSSI location and access point profiling.
    • Third-party LBS API support.
    • Multiple implementation options supporting existing smartphones and next-generation wireless devices.

    Think about what would happen if indoor positioning is actually implemented per the above, able to deliver one meter accuracy. Less than ten years ago, the automobile Personal Navigation Device (PND) market was in its infancy. GPS positioning was clearly able to deliver the accuracy required for point-to-point street navigation. What makes the PND valuable is the outdoor map database. These are the highly detailed digital maps from Navteq/Nokia and TeleAtlas/TomTom that are inside 90% of the PNDs in the world. Drawing from this experience, it’s obvious that indoor mapping databases are going to be huge, not only the location of stores, but the location of items on the shelves within stores. A friend of mine works for a large national retail chain in the U.S. He said they’ve tried aisle-to-aisle navigation technology before, and it failed. It was too difficult for the shopper to use. What that tells me is that the demand is there, in a big way.

    The PND market in the 1990s was messing around too, trying to arrive at a technology and price point for mass adoption. Indoor navigation is on the same path, only this time it won’t be Navteq/Nokia and TeleAtlas/TomTom leading the pack.

    Thanks, and see you next week.
    Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

  • Blue Marble Releases 13.1 Update to Global Mapper Software Developer Toolkit

    Blue Marble Geographics announced the release of Global Mapper Software Developer Toolkit version 13.1. This update features many new drawing and analysis tools along with enhanced geospatial PDF and LAS 1.4 support.

     

    According to the announcement, Global Mapper SDK 13.1 syncs up the software developer toolkit with Global Mapper desktop software releases. This will enable a more consistent release cycle ensuring the software developers are able to work with the latest and greatest feature/functions introduced to the desktop version of the software. The 13.1 release introduces many new drawing tools such as drawing map layout items, including elevation legend, distance scale, map feature legend, and north arrow. The update also introduces powerful new analysis tools like the function for creating density/heat grids from loaded point features, the function for creating roughness length grids from a land cover layer and the method for easily calculating a watershed with stream paths and drainage basins from loaded terrain layers. The ability to add custom online data sources is introduced along with improved Geospatial PDF support, new LandXML, LASzip and LAS 1.4, I.H.S. Well Data point files, GeoJSON, and Digital Bathe Bathymetric Database Variable Resolution (DBDB-V) files and much more.

    “Blue Marble has been directly supporting hundreds of geospatial software developers implement cutting edge technology for years,” stated Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “The Global Mapper SDK is a great tool to add to a suite of libraries and we are excited to work directly with our developer community with this new display and translation api. Syncing up the SDK kits with the desktop releases will help us provide the latest features and functionality to our existing users as well as new customers for future releases.”

    Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation, visualization, and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying, and technology companies, as well as governmental and university organizations.

  • Blom Announces BlomURBEX Integration with Enrio.fi

    Blom announced that BlomURBEX imagery was integrated into Finland’s most popular web mapping service, Fonecta’s Enrio.fi. Integration was done using BlomURBEX’s API (Application Programming Interface) tools.

    According to the announcement, the oblique imagery served from BlomURBEX provides users with a rich, interactive and highly informative view of the area of interest. For example, before setting off to a destination, users can inspect Eniro.fi’s routing services. The oblique imagery provides a broader visual understanding of the area, and helps users to easily locate themselves within their surroundings.

    “We are developing all of our services to help people and companies in everyday tasks, and customer feedback is very important for us. For some years Blom has provided us with oblique images and these have always generated a lot of interest with an established user base,” states Toni Wistbacka, the Product Manager of Eniro.fi –service.

    Blom reported that in addition to oblique and ortho imagery, several types of map layers, and routing service functionality, Fonecta’s improved Eniro.fi service also provides tools for searching contact information of companies and individuals in Finland.

  • Telogis Acquires Maptuit Assets

    Telogis, Inc. announces the acquisition of the assets of Maptuit, a leading provider of connected navigation for commercial fleets. This acquisition — the company’s fifth in three years — expands Telogis’ services as the market increases adoption of location-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. Maptuit’s commercial navigation technologies further enhance the Telogis enterprise platform of SaaS solutions, which includes fleet management, navigation, multi-vehicle route optimization and planning, work order management and mobile integration.

     

    “This acquisition adds a new dimension to our platform,” said Newth Morris, president, Telogis Route and Telogis Mobile. “With these advances, Telogis further differentiates itself in the market by providing the most comprehensive suite of location intelligence solutions on a single platform.”   

    According to the announcement, the enhancements to the Telogis platform resulting from this acquisition include an advanced location-based service (LBS) engine that receives feedback from the field on road conditions and physical restrictions that may not be captured by commercial and open source map data. These capabilities are critical not only to the commercial navigation markets where Maptuit has been successful, but also to industries such as mining, and oil and gas, which operate in remote regions where map data coverage is limited.

    Maptuit’s technologies also allow companies to specify “known-good” routes and yard-approaches. These capabilities help companies improve the safety of route operations and are increasingly important in international markets where bonded routes exist.

    Telogis reports it will integrate Maptuit’s technologies directly into its enterprise platform, thereby expanding the Telogis customer base by more than 100,000 subscribers.

    “The commercial navigation technologies that Maptuit has revolutionized will enhance all of the applications on our platform — route planning, navigation, execution analytics — and position our company to best handle the growing location intelligence needs of companies worldwide,” said Morris. “This acquisition complements the Telogis platform with a unique set of high-value capabilities that allow companies to dramatically transform their operations, improve safety and lower operating costs.”

  • DVW President Thöne: Geoinformation Plays Important Role in Key Sociopolitical Issues

    Karlsruhe, Germany — Geoinformation holds enormous potential: “Geoinformation plays an important role in all key sociopolitical issues,” said Karl-Friedrich Thöne at the Intergeo Round Table in Karlsruhe. All participants were in agreement with the President of the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW), the organization responsible for hosting Intergeo October 9-11, 2012, in Hanover.

    However, the experts — including representatives from the worlds of politics and industry — backed different approaches for the leading international industry forum with conference and trade fair. Georg Thiel from the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) called for a “national geoinformation strategy,” while Ernest McCutcheon, managing director of Karlsruhe-based DDS Digital Data Services GmbH, said that “too great an emphasis” was placed on data protection, favouring instead an approach highlighting the benefits of employing geoinformation.

    During the discussion held under the banner “Smart Geoinformation — Intelligent Geoinformation for the Future,” Thomas Haupt, responsible for sustainability in his position as the director of PTV Planung Transport Verkehr AG in Karlsruhe, gave an example demonstrating that easier access to data improves the “robustness of systems.” He said that anonymous mobile data could be used instead of models for planning traffic flows, which would also help find a way out of the “data jungle” and into a “healthy mixed forest.” However, DVW President Thöne warned against focusing exclusively on the benefits of geoinformation. The debate on Google Street View, he said, showed that potential risks also had to be included in any discussion. He proposed that “Intergeo should also serve as a platform for adopting an offensive strategy for data protection and data security.”

    The first national Inspire Conference will held at the 18th Intergeo in Hanover this year. Inspire is an EU directive for creating a common geodata infrastructure. Under this directive, high-quality geodata from the public bodies of member states should be made available under uniform conditions to support the formulation, implementation and evaluation of European and national areas of policy. “It is our job to put data protection in Europe on a new footing,” Georg Thiel said. The Inspire Conference and Intergeo, he added, are ideal platforms for launching discussions with a view to developing a national geoinformation strategy.

    But how does Inspire affect smartphone owners? “Inspire will generate added value,” said Thiel, referring to the simple example of intelligent lawn-mowing robots. “These lawnmowers can use Inspire, for example, to incorporate weather data into their planning and wait for a storm to pass before automatically starting to mow the lawn.” Public administration bodies will make decisions based almost 100 percent on geoinformation, Thiel said.

    Hartmut Rosengarten, from Hexagon Geosystems and spokesman for the Intergeo Exhibitor Advisory Board, acknowledged the event as both an international communication platform for the industry and a bridge between professionals and end consumers. “At Intergeo, we have to offer solutions so they can be understood and utilised by everyone,” he said.

  • Survey GPS Maps Routes on iPhone

    allows users to record, export, and import routes and landmarks together with information such as photos, videos, audios, or text directly to an iPhone. The product is intended both for professional survey teams and outdoor adventurers. Key features include:

    • Enjoy recording your trip routes and pinning impressive landmarks, with multimedia files and descriptions.
    • Advanced functions; export/import, geotag/geocode, along with Multiple Recording Filters.
    • Versatilely edit the saved track/point; crop, move, copy, merge, or change properties.
    • Share and develop your trips with friends easily via iTunes or email.
    • Available in two versions: The Basic (TMX) and The In-App (TMX, GPX, MID/MIF, or Shapefiles.)

  • Accord Technology Completes Full Suite Advanced GPS for Aviation

    Accord Technology LLC was recently authorized TSO-C145c for its latest receiver/sensor in the NextNav product family, the NextNav MAX GPS WAAS Class Beta-1, -2, -3. This successful GPS development is a key solution in a series of Accord Technology’s affordable civil aviation GPS receivers and sensor, the company said.

    Available as circuit card receivers (CCA) for avionics OEM hosting or as line replaceable sensor units (LRU) for aircraft installations, MAX is affordable and meets the latest standards, worldwide. It supports ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-broadcast), all normal GPS procedures, as well as precision approach requirements such as LPV (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance) and RNP AR (Required Navigation Performance with Authorization Required).

    The NextNav MAX GPS technology is the most advanced in the world and is compatible with Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) solutions such as the United States’ WAAS, the European EGNOS, Japan’s MTSAT, and GAGAN in India.

    “This TSO authorization for the NextNav MAX gives us greater flexibility to serve our customers with WAAS Beta 1 Only or Beta 1, 2, 3 LRU’s and CCA’s to fit their need,” commented Hal Adams, chief operating officer for Accord Technology. “The NextNav MAX is another important first for Accord Technology and we are anxious to move forward now with our AC 20-165 approved GPS sensor,” added Adams.

    Accord Technology received TSO-C145c for its NextNav mini in 2010. The NexNav mini GPS technology was the first GPS WAAS sensor to be authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration TSO-C145c WAAS Class Beta-1 Only. The NexNav mini solution is a market-breaking hybrid of automotive technology and aviation requirements providing an affordable solution for ADS-B GPS source.

    NextNav MAX’s DO-229D compliant aerospace GPS-SBAS receiver is certified by the FAA for TSO-C145c Class Beta-3 operation and is the enabling technology for several key applications, including:

    • Primary means of navigation
    • Localizer Precision with Vertical guidance approaches (LPV)
    • Airborne spacing assurance
    • Airborne Collision Avoidance (Non-TCAS System)
    • Constant descent approaches
    • Surface area movement management
    • Current and advanced Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS)
    • Advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM)
    • Required Navigation Performance enhancements (RNP AR)

    “Whether it’s a need for LP/LPV approach precision or highly reliable PVT, NextNav MAX offers standard and custom solutions according to what our customers need,” Adams said. Designed around a small form-factor, the NextNav MAX CCA is delivered ready to integrate into host avionics systems, an LRU sensor or as a standalone module to ARINC 743 requirements. “We can even package the CCA in a module, tailored to your application,” Adams said.

  • Automakers Move Ahead on Mobile Connectivity

    It wasn’t quite a call to arms, but Bill Ford, head of Ford Motor, called on the wireless community to work with car makers to avoid global gridlock and create a future of “urban mobility,” a network that will track vehicles and automatically instruct cars to change lanes, exit a road, or park. Vehicle connectivity was one of the major themes of the Mobile World Congress, held in February in Barcelona. For some of us, it brought up memories of the PATH automated highways project of the 1990s. You have likely seen photos of that prototype automated highway with platoons of driver-less vehicles riding on I-15 in southern California. The vision has changed, and we are headed towards autonomous, connected vehicles and away from the specialized, and prohibitively expensive, infrastructure that defined earlier efforts.

    By 2020, 90 percent of cars will have mobile connectivity, compared to 10 percent today, predicts Machina Research in a study funded by the GSMA. The industry is aflutter with connected activity. Sprint Nextel is partnering with Chrysler Group’s Uconnect voice-activated vehicle communications system that enables Sprint phones to connect to the vehicle’s audio system. The Ford Sync will be available to European customers. The Family Locator from TCS will be incorporated in connected vehicles.

    Smartphones Overtake Feature Phones. For the first time, close to half of Americans own smartphones, edging out feature phone ownership, reports the Pew Internet and American life project. According to its report, 45 percent of adults identify themselves as smartphone owners, compared to 41 percent who identify as feature phone owners. There was a notable increase in smartphone ownership by almost every demographic group, including men and women, younger and middle-age adults, urban and rural residential and wealthy and lower-income people.

    Apple Grown Maps. For a year, there have been signs that Google was developing its own mapping and navigation service. Apple has acquired digital mapping companies and listed licenses from many third-party location service companies. 9to5Mac reports that Apple’s mapping contract with Google expires at the end of 2012, and hasn’t yet been renewed. The just-released iPhoto application uses Apple-grown mapping, and not Google.

    Disappearing Ovi. Nokia is closing down the Ovi Share media sharing site to focus on offerings by its location and commerce division, dedicated to building consumer-centric social location products and applications, as well as platform services and local commerce solutions. Services include Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, and Nokia Transport.

    Gambling Geo-Fence. In the U.S., online and mobile gambling is only legal within the state of Nevada. The location of the mobile user must be determined to ensure she is within state boundaries. Locaid Technologies is the first company to meet all the requirements of the Nevada Gaming Control Board to certify the location of a mobile gambler. Locaid uses geofencing to build virtual, digital perimeters around the state of Nevada and reports it can “prove that a user is physically with a mobile device, and whether the person is located within Nevada state borders, across any major carrier mobile network — whether the mobile device is indoors or outdoors, GPS-enabled or not, and whether the device is a smartphone, feature phone, or laptop computer.”

    February Black Friday. Shopkick announced results of an experiment to create a one-day boost in foot traffic at partner retail stores using holiday tactics during a non-peak shopping period. “We asked a simple question: What if retailers could create Black Friday shopping behavior any day of the year that they wanted?” said Cyriac Roeding of shopkick. The company reports that by doubling the incentives they deliver via smartphone, none worth more than a dollar, their retail partners experience double-digit increases. Retail partners include American Eagle, Macy’s, Old Navy, and Best Buy.

    Effectiveness of Mobile Shopping Apps? Smartphones are increasingly used for shopping, researching products, comparing prices, and finding retail locations. Nielsen metered the smartphones of 5,000 U.S. volunteers during the 2011 holiday shopping season. Nielsen’s analysis reveals that retail websites are more popular than retail apps. Both genders prefer retailers’ mobile websites over mobile apps. The top retail apps and websites combined were Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target, and Walmart, and reached nearly 60 percent of smartphone owners during the end of 2011.

    What Was Ford Thinking? In his Mobile World Congress address, Bill Ford, great grandson of Henry, warned that unless the wireless and automotive industries find a solution, global gridlock could one day become a “human rights issue.” In addition to working to end torture, does Mr. Ford think that Amnesty International should pursue the issue of vehicle traffic mitigation?

  • Millennial Media Announces Release of Self-Service Solution mMedia

    Millennial Media, provider of mobile advertising, announced that mMedia, its newest self-service mobile solution, has emerged from private beta to full release.

    Within mMedia, developers and advertisers will be able to reach more than 200 million global mobile users via Millennial Media’s advertising platform, according to the company. mMedia complements Millennial Media’s full-service mobile advertising solutions, renowned for their scale across multiple regions of the world.

    mMedia allows mobile app developers, franchises, and small or independent businesses to utilize mobile as a strategic piece of their marketing strategy. mMedia campaigns can be set up quickly, and advertisers will have access to a comprehensive dashboard that puts them in control of bids, creative, targeting, and more, the company said.

    “mMedia extends our mobile ad platform to developers and advertisers who are looking for a complete self-service solution,” said Chris Brandenburg, Co-Founder and CTO, Millennial Media. “Whether their goals are to monetize an app or to promote a business, the technology behind mMedia helps our developer and advertiser partners unlock the power of mobile and drive results that will scale their businesses.”

    In addition to traditional mobile targeting methods, mMedia includes a self-service hyper-local targeting feature. Advertisers can draw a virtual fence around their desired targeting area to deliver zone-based advertising with ease. Once drawn, the advertiser’s ads will reach users within that designated area.

    Developers can now access mMedia through the same portal they currently use to monetize their mobile applications and sites.

  • Leica Geosystems Announces Leica MissionPro Software

    Leica Geosystems Geospatial Solutions Division is pleased to announce the release of its new mission planning software, Leica MissionPro. The software provides mission planning capability for all airborne sensors including LiDAR, line and frame sensors and is fully integrated into existing Z/I Imaging and Leica Geosystems workflows.

     

    The company reported that in addition to the core planning functionality, Leica MissionPro includes an exciting range of new features such 3D virtual Globe View and tools for project management and evaluating missions.

    “Leica MissionPro combines the best features from Z/I Mission and Leica FPES into a comprehensive and highly productive planning software”, says Jacques Markram, Product Manager for Leica MissionPro. “Leica MissionPro represents an exciting first step in our combined product roadmap and is truly the result of synergies across the new division. Leica MissionPro simplifies planning for any type of airborne sensor mission and allows our combined customer base to further enhance their productivity.”

    According to Leica, MissionPro supports integrated multi-sensor and LiDAR planning in a true 3D mission planning environment and exports flight plans for both Z/I Inflight and Leica FCMS. In addition, Leica MissionPro provides access to Web Map Services and uses worldwide SRTM data.

    Leica MissionPro replaces Z/I Mission and Leica FPES software. A free upgrade is provided to all Leica FPES and Z/I Mission maintenance customers.

    For more information about Leica MissionPro please visit: http://www.leica-geosystems.com/missionpro

  • Fabric Engine Launches; Solves GIS Imaging Challenges with Dynamic Languages

    Fabric Engine Inc announced that it has officially launched v1.0 of its high-performance computing platform, Fabric Engine. Having recently earned Judge’s Choice at January 2012’s NodeJam, the server- and client-side Fabric Engine technology is now available to programmers under the AGPL license.

     

    According to the announcement, Fabric Engine taps into the power of modern, multi-core hardware to bring multi-threaded, compiled performance to dynamic languages such as JavaScript and Python. The benefits of dynamic languages are well-known – they’re easy to use and fast to work with. However, they are slow when compared to compiled languages. Until now, dynamic language applications have to be re-built using compiled languages in order to provide performance, which introduces significant costs. Fabric Engine gives the same performance as multi-threaded C++, yet retains the ease of use and speed of iteration of dynamic languages.

    “With Fabric Engine’s technology, it’s possible to take current backend infrastructure and redeploy it to scale and gain impressive performance increases,” said Guido Vieira, General Manager at Nexalogy Environics, a company focused on social media analytics and an early user of Fabric Engine. “Fabric Engine has other advantages too. In addition to using a language very similar to JavaScript for the high-performance operators (vanilla JavaScript/node.js for everything else), which reduces the need to use C++, you can avoid the whole code-compile-run cycle with its sometimes long delays, and use a more immediate execute model.”

    The company reported that on the desktop, Fabric Engine is ideal for high-performance applications, such as those used in game development, animation, film production, GIS, medicine, and other industries that are greedy for performance. Fabric Engine currently runs as a browser plug-in, and is currently in beta for a Python/QT desktop framework. On the server and in the cloud, Fabric Engine is ideal for addressing compute-bound problems that require raw execution performance. With node.js, Fabric Engine provides an asynchronous compute model that works well alongside the other services that node provides.

    The company listed proven uses of Fabric Engine include:

    –       3D animation

    –       Facial recognition

    –       Image/video processing

    –       Remote collaboration on 3D data

    –       GIS visualization

    –       Medical visualization

    –       Semantic analysis (Nexalogy Use Case)

    –       Statistical analysis

    –       And any other compute-bound challenge.

    “This launch marks the culmination of more than two years of hard work,” said Paul Doyle, CEO and co-founder of Fabric Engine. “We have many ideas of what can be achieved with our technology, but we also look forward to seeing all of the creative directions in which developers push Fabric. With our open-source licensing model, it is easy for developers to get started with Fabric Engine and start building high-performance applications.”

  • Intergraph Introduces SmartPlant FreeView

    Intergraph released SmartPlant FreeView, a free .VUE viewer that allows users to display and navigate Intergraph 3D models and view associated plant properties.

     

    According to the announcement, SmartPlant FreeView will open any Intergraph SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D projects published as a .VUE file. A user then may walk through the plant, ship or offshore model and select any object in the view to see its associated plant properties via the MDB2 package. Intergraph’s SmartPlant Review Publisher can convert and combine SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D, as well as other project types, into .VUE and MDB2 formats for viewing with SmartPlant FreeView or Intergraph’s full-capability visualization solution, SmartPlant Review.

    Intergraph reports that the free .VUE viewer has a complete set of on-screen navigation controls for easy use, allowing even the most casual user to walk through complex 3D models with no training. Keyboard navigation is equally simple. An orientation axis is displayed in the view to help the user maintain direction. SmartPlant FreeView also has a surface measure command to display accurate distances between objects.

    Vlad Savulian, engineering systems lead for AMEC Natural Resources and one of the many industry experts who worked with Intergraph on the requirements for a free .VUE viewer, said access to SmartPlant FreeView will benefit companies of all sizes, especially those collaborating on mega-projects.

    “On the oil sands projects in Canada, AMEC works with a large number of clients, partners and subcontractors who could benefit from viewing the 3D model,” Savulian said. “With SmartPlant FreeView, they will be able to easily navigate the plant model, view properties, make comments on what they see or ask questions about what they don’t understand. With the introduction of SmartPlant FreeView, we will be able to extend model review capabilities to a much broader audience.”

    Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine president, agreed: “SmartPlant FreeView enables our customers and their suppliers to increase productivity and competiveness without increasing costs. The use of SmartPlant 3D and SmartMarine 3D has doubled in the last two years. With that tremendous growth comes the need for a variety of users, including design, engineering, construction, operations and maintenance, to view these complex 3D models.

    “Now, for example, an engineering company can provide a 3D model to a potential subcontractor who can use SmartPlant FreeView for a preliminary review and bid based on the actual model rather than a collection of drawings – without having to purchase viewing software,” Sallinger said. “Then once the work is awarded, the subcontractor can upgrade to SmartPlant Review for more in-depth review and analysis capabilities.”