TW3802 Shown with flat radome. Conical radome also available.
Tallysman Wireless Inc. has added the dual-frequency TW3800 series to its high-quality precision line of antenna products.
The TW3800 series antennas feature a circular stacked patch antenna for improved axial ratio, yet are small and light, and have the extended bandwidth required for L1/L2 GPS & G1/G2 GLONASS, the company said. The operating voltage range is from +2.5 to 16 VDC. The antennas have a temperature compensated LNAs and operate from -40 to +85o C to provide reliable performance in most any environment. The TW3800 is packaged in a through hole mount making it suitable for mobile applications.
The TW380x is suited for many applications, including:
Anti-jamming GPS
Mission-critical GPS timing
Military and security
Network timing and synchronization
Precise tracking
High signal availability
The TW3805 is the OEM version of the TW3802, and can be custom tuned to provide optimal performance inside virtually any housing, Tallysman said.
“The circular patch design of the TW380X antennas permits precision custom tuning with excellent axial ratios.” said Gyles Panther, president of Tallysman Wireless. “This flexibility, combined with the very wide operating voltage enables this antenna to work with virtually any receiver on the market.”
Garmin International Inc. has announced HUD, the company’s first portable head-up display for smartphone navigation apps. With the HUD display, drivers can view navigation directions projected onto a transparent film on the windshield or an attached reflector lens. Garmin said by providing comprehensive road guidance at a glance and right within the driver’s line of sight, HUD can help increase safety and reduce driver distraction.
HUD receives navigation information from a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone running a Garmin StreetPilot or NAVIGON app.
“Head-up displays currently have their place in select high-end cars, but HUD makes this technology available as an aftermarket accessory for any vehicle, at an affordable price,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. HUD has an MSRP of $129.99. Garmin StreetPilot and NAVIGON apps, starting at $29.99 for a regional map (NAVIGON U.S. Central, East or West), provide premium turn-by-turn navigation for smartphones, including onboard maps, lane guidance, speed limit warnings, real-time traffic, and other features.
HUD offers more navigation details than other portable head-up displays, yet presents them in a simplified way that doesn’t divert the driver’s attention from the road, Garmin said. The directions are easy to follow and allow drivers to navigate even the most challenging interchanges and traffic situations with ease. HUD displays turn arrows, distance to the next turn, current speed and speed limit, as well as estimated time of arrival. It even lets drivers know what lane to be in for the next maneuver and alerts them when they exceed the speed limit, the company said. HUD also warns users of potential traffic delays and upcoming safety camera locations. The crisp display automatically adjusts the brightness level so projections are clearly visible in direct sunlight or at night.
Complementing the visual display, spoken turn-by-turn directions are provided simultaneously by a compatible Garmin or Navigon app, either through the smartphone speaker or a Bluetooth-connected car stereo. Music streamed to the car stereo from the smartphone will automatically fade out for turn-by-turn voice prompts. HUD also continues to display navigation information while taking incoming calls.
Users can choose between displaying HUD navigation information on their windshield, with the included, transparent film, or on to the included reflector lens that attaches directly to HUD. The device pairs wirelessly with a compatible Bluetooth-enabled iPhone, Android phone or Windows Phone 8. An integrated USB port on the vehicle power/adapter cable makes it easy to charge the smartphone while driving, Garmin said.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has contracted Locata to provide local, ground-based precision positioning signals for vehicle testing in a new $30-million expansion at the famous Vehicle Research Center, focused on vehicle automation testing. A novel indoor section of the expansion will allow replication of parking garages and urban canyons — where GPS will be largely masked — and will enable evaluation of technologies such as forward collision-avoidance systems in adverse conditions.
Used to be that changes to equipment in and on cars took decades to enter production. As an example, just how long did it take to get headrests/restraints into most vehicles? Restraint patents were originally filed in 1921, and people started to get interested in putting them in cars in the 1950s, but they didn’t start to show up in vehicles until the 1960s and weren’t mandated until 1969 in the U.S. Since then, the rate of technology adoption by the automakers has accelerated.
Now, it seems that almost every new car has Internet, Bluetooth phone, GPS navigation, rain-sensing wipers, touchscreen, automatic foot sensing/hand waving/touch sensitive lift-gate/door-locks/touchscreens, and even massaging seats and automatic seat positioning… And safety devices galore, including multiple air-bags and anti-lock braking systems, rear-view cameras, intelligent speed adaptation, and now even lane-departure and forward collision mitigation/collision avoidance systems.
Safety has finally become a major selling feature on almost every make and every model, thanks in large part to organizations like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Vehicle Research Center (VRC) near Washington, D.C. The VRC is the principle location for U.S. vehicle crash testing that we see regularly on TV and YouTube videos with crash-test dummies being bashed around in all sorts of simulated vehicle accidents. These tests have led to significantly enhanced safety features in today’s vehicles.
Instrumented crash dummy preparation. Photo: IIHS
Automation in vehicles, particularly automation of safety devices, is seen as the next most promising phase of vehicle safety improvement. And as these safety devices become more complex, they need to be verified in realistic conditions. Hence, the VRC is now undertaking a major expansion of its testing capabilities with the addition of a continuous vehicle test track that transverses not only open-air roadway areas, but also includes a 300-foot by 700-foot fully covered testing area.
Covered test track section expansion. Photo: IIHSExterior test track links new VRC facilities. Photo: IIHS
The $30 million upgrade will include a Locata supplied LocataNet, which will provide the VRC with high-precision positioning to enable rigorous, consistent and repeatable scientific evaluation of new vehicle crash avoidance systems. Along with the cm-level positioning provided by the Locata network, VRC is also working on state-of-the-art robotics to enable the required level of testing precision. The LocataNet will furnish the IIHS with a locally controlled positioning system that is seamless over all the VRC test areas, including extremely accurate and consistent automated positioning of vehicles.
In the covered enclosure, VRC intends to set up collision avoidance testing for areas such as parking garages and urban canyons — areas where GPS is either not available, or is degraded to a level where positioning is intermittent or isn’t available. Locata will provide a consistent level of accuracy and reliability that the VRC requires for these GPS-degraded scenarios.
The VRC site currently looks very much like a construction site with the track extensions under way and the under-cover area just starting to be built. The VRC facility will come online in two stages — the outdoor track before the end of the year and the indoor around early Q2 next year. Locata engineers have been working with Perrone Robotics on very early integration testing. Perrone is contracted to deliver a system for testing vehicle safety systems in the test vehicles that IIHS is testing. For the first phase, the system includes a robot target vehicle with the footprint of a car, but only 4 inches high and 1 inch of ground clearance. If the vehicle being tested fails to prevent a collision with the robot target vehicle, the test vehicle runs over the robot target vehicle, dislodging a soft target, but avoiding damage to the test vehicle, robot target vehicle, or soft target.
(For a feature article on the Perrone Robotics soft-target unmanned ground vehicle and drop-in actuator kit, see the upcoming August issue of GPS World magazine.)
To ensure that the test vehicle drives repeatedly, the system also includes a drop-in actuator kit that can be installed into any test vehicle in 30 minutes or less. The system is designed to allow a human driver to sit comfortably in the vehicle and drive, but is also capable of controlling the throttle, brake and steering to drive test profiles. Perrone is using Locata as the positioning system. In addition to alleviating concerns about GPS outages or dead/weak signal spots, it also allows the system to be operated on the new, covered IIHS test track currently under construction.
DARPA Urban Challenge Peronne Robotics car. Photo: IIHSVRC robotic system using Locata positioning. Photo: IIHS
The Locata network has been running from ground-based tripods scattered around the track wherever construction will allow. IIHS will construct 30-foot masts on which to place Locata antennas, but even that is still several months away.
Locata’s autonomous positioning technology uses terrestrial networks that function as a “local ground-based replica” of GPS-style positioning. Locata works with GPS, but can also operate independently when GPS is not robust or is completely unavailable. Instead of orbiting satellites, Locata utilizes a network of small, ground-based transmitters that blanket a chosen area with strong radio-positioning signals. Because it is terrestrially based and provides relatively high power signals, Locata works in any internal or external environment.
A fundamental requirement for radio-positioning systems is nano-second-level synchronization of all transmitters in the positioning network. In the past, multiple atomic clocks were used to achieve this level of synchronization. Instead, Locata’s technology relies on a patented synchronization method called TimeLoc, which allows Locata to replicate GPS in a ground network.
Locata’s technology encompasses both the transmit and receive sides of the positioning network, allowing the system to be configured to meet specific, localized demand for availability, accuracy and reliability. This flexibility ensures that signal integrity can be guaranteed in even the most demanding environments — especially indoors, like the covered test track section of the expanded VRC.
Locata has also made significant progress in North America with the recent award of a contract to instrument the White Sands Missile Range to Locata’s partner TMC Design.The 746th Test Squadron’s new non-GPS-based positioning system is expected to be operational by Q3 2013, with a network that covers 2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers).Locata technology will provide the USAF’s “gold standard GPS truth system,” supplying continuous centimeter-level, independent positioning when GPS is completely jammed. This award followed several months of U.S. Air Force testing and evaluation of an initial LocataNet installation at the White Sands facility.
So, following the recent IIHS endorsement of the Locata technology for use at the VRC, Locata appears to be well on the way to acceptance as a reliable truth system for use alongside GPS. Along with other mining-related installations elsewhere in the world, it would seem that we are no longer in evaluation mode; rather, we should anticipate other future Locata production installations.
NovAtel has announced two new GNSS receivers: The OEM638 high precision receiver card and the ProPak6 enclosed receiver. The two products incorporate NovAtel’s most advanced GNSS technology, the company said.
Novatel OEM638. Photo: NovAtel
The most advanced card within NovAtel’s OEM6 GNSS receiver family, the OEM638 tracks all existing and planned constellations including GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS. By providing flexible positioning options, from standalone meter-level to AdVanceRTK centimeter-level accuracy, the OEM638 offers the flexibility to meet a wide range of positioning requirements. A powerful API, 4-GB on-board data storage, wide input voltage and a host of interface options simplifies integration, decreasing time to market and overall system costs, NovAtel said.
“With the addition of the OEM638 GNSS receiver card, NovAtel’s OEM6 product line offers an even wider range of positioning options on our standardized technology platform. With three compact form factors to choose from, the OEM6 product line gives us the ability to meet the unique size, weight and performance requirements of our customers,” said Jason Hamilton, director of marketing for NovAtel.
The ProPak6 is NovAtel’s most sophisticated GNSS enclosure product, offering meter-level to centimeter-level positioning in a rugged, water resistant IP67 housing. Standardized software and hardware connections, including multiple RS-232/RS-422 serial ports, CAN Bus, USB host and device, as well as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and optional cellular radio, speeds time to market and maximizes user capabilities, the company said. The ProPak6 is designed for reference station, timing, and general position applications.
NovAtel ProPak6. Photo: NovAtel
“Our ProPak6 provides a powerful enclosure option for integrators looking for positioning flexibility, multiple communication options and Ethernet support for remote configuration and access of data logs,” Hamilton said. “It was designed to simplify the integration process, by accelerating time to market and ensuring maximum return on investment. ”
The OEM638 and ProPak6 will be available to order July 26, with shipments beginning in August.
Geotab has launched a telematics Near Field Communications (NFC) Driver ID solution using an Input-Output-Expander (IOX) that allows for simultaneous connections and communications to occur with multiple devices, such as Garmin, Iridium, and HOS.
As an addition to its comprehensive fleet management platform, the technology will now help managers keep better track of each driver’s productivity and on-road safety — no matter which vehicle they are in, Geotab said.
With one touch of the NFC fob, vehicle operators can quickly, easily, and securely transfer their driver identification information to the cloud. Since Geotab’s GO6 device allows for multiple plug-and-play connections, the NFC Driver ID solution can be setup in minutes, the company said. Associating drivers with the vehicles they are in also allows for the software to generate driver-based score reports.
“The newly launched NFC Driver ID is a telematics industry game-changer that provides a reliable and accurate solution for businesses which pool their vehicles,” said Colin Sutherland, Geotab VP.
“NFC is seeing rapid application expansion across smartphones, tablets, and laptops. We fully expect to leverage this technology for future applications,” added Neil Cawse, Geotab CEO.
Although Geotab is launching a new Driver ID solution based on NFC, Geotab’s web-based software, MyGeotab, has been reporting both driver and vehicle summary value reports for over 10 years. The NFC Driver ID solution is now available for purchase through Geotab’s extensive Authorized Reseller network.
Not so long ago, paper maps were a necessity in many walks of life. Today, they are increasingly a nostalgic novelty, to coin a term.
It’s not difficult to understand why digital maps replaced their paper brethren. Digital maps are more accurate, more adaptable, and most importantly, in an increasingly real-time environment, much faster at making the appropriate updates and amends.
Now, however, digital mapping finds itself at a crossroads. Crowdsourced navigation platforms like OpenStreetMap — affectionately referred to as the “Wikipedia of maps” — are forcing digital maps and the map-building process to evolve significantly. As a result, the future of mapping is now in the hands of location enthusiasts and everyday map users. These people are redefining what a map is, how data is sourced and utilized, and how much it can cost to harness that information both efficiently and effectively. Those of us who have been in this space for years can see the writing on the wall.
Some, however, are eager to write off crowdsourced mapping. Corporate digital map providers, for instance, often refer dismissively to these mapping platforms as “hobby maps.” Nevertheless, they recognize the potential for change such innovation brings and are vulnerable to it.
What potential? Consider the benefits attainable through a crowdsourced approach, in the following sections.
Scalability
As with any process, cost is critical. It is particularly core to building a digital map. Truth be told, the fewer dollars ultimately spent on a map’s construction, the more its long-term operational preservation and, through that, scalability can be ensured. Despite massive innovation in our field, collecting data and creating a usable international digital map is far from cost-effective or efficient today. Candidly, it is one of the clunkier processes in technology, perhaps because it appears compulsory.
Look no further than Google, which spends billions of dollars a year to maintain its platform, yet we marvel at the huge scope of its operation. In truth, it is an effort in dire need of real streamlining. Google, via its recent acquisition of Waze, along with Navteq, TeleAtlas, and the like, leverage laser-enabled cars and high-tech backpacks that are astoundingly inefficient from a pricing standpoint, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nokia’s Map Mobiles, for example, are each outfitted with more than $25,000 of computing equipment.
To think this is sustainable in the long term, on an international level, is wrong. It will inevitably cripple a map’s quality and viability, with corporate providers choosing to limit global detail and upkeep to balance costs.
For crowdsourced map platforms, this problem does not exist. They can and are scaling rapidly, without the exorbitant costs corporate players are used to — and tired of. These costs secondarily manifest in mapping service usage fees for third parties, as well as subscription costs for consumer navigaton products. For either use case (business-to-business or business-to-consumer) crowdsourcing delivers cost benefits traditional players cannot match. Again, this leads directly to scalability, with crowdsourcing the most enduring maps option.
Same time, same place — different look. Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (left) and Nokia map (right) of central Berlin, Germany. Photo: Oliver Kühn
Detail
Crowdsourced mapping services and platforms like OpenStreetMap are more than just cost-efficienct tools to coax scale. As a crowdsourced dataset built using more than a million dedicated mappers, OpenStreetMap inherently delivers benefits above and beyond those obtained from corporate map providers like TeleAtlas and Navteq.
The most visible benefit is the unrivaled map quality. With an army of contributors, the data dynamically and constantly evolves — just as places do. Locations are rarely fixed or stable. They change and progress over time. No other service or platform can immediately provide developers with the real-time, on-the-ground granularity of a crowdsourced map. Google and the others are trying, but the costs they incur will ultimately be too taxing to maintain detail.
Firsthand influence carries equal weight. Mappers who edit an open-source map have often had personal interactions with a place or locale. They know places intimately, and this makes their contributions detailed, rich, and hyperlocal. More companies and developers are looking to OpenStreetMap for this reason: they want to future-proof their services and products, making sure that they always have the best and most up-to-date data. Only a platform like OpenStreetMap can do this. Corporate map providers are painfully aware of it, too.
Flexibility
Google owns Google Maps, and TeleAtlas owns its TomTom platform. Not surprisingly, this affects what a third party, whether an automotive company or a travel brand, can and cannot do with the service. It is essentially a copyrighted product like an MP3, an audio digital file. So, Google can limit the way you visually render and showcase its platform. Needless to say, this can be suffocating for those interested in building their own unique services. This is what makes crowdsourced mapping such a significant development for those interested in integrating additional data with a digital map. Do with OpenStreetMap what you will, visually or design-wise; there are absolutely no limitations. Every map can be made unique and rendered differently. This also speaks to the flexibility of crowdsourcing more generally.
Beyond design, crowdsourced maps can harness the data to build completely new maps that cater to a specific concept, creating thematic maps for different uses, such as walking, hiking, bicycling, routes for those with disabilities, and more. More traditional digital maps lack this flexibility; it affords possibilities to source non-traditional location data to build even more accurate maps.
The Future — Through Cars
Despite the fact that crowdsourced maps are forcing digital mapping to adopt a more scalable, cost-efficient, detailed, flexible andaltogether long-term approach, digital mapping definitely has room to grow.
One of the most exciting opportunities for crowdsourced maps specifically, and digital maps generally, lies in car user data, which is just coming into its own. Cars are obviously one of the largest travel tools utilized by individuals on a daily basis, and, with the advent of the connected car, the data that they collect via internal/external sensors has grown more nuanced, granular, and specific over the years.
Cars are simply getting smarter, with sensors capable of providing everything from weather conditions to speed-zone information.
Making this information available in the cloud and combining it with data available via crowdsourced mapping platforms produces remarkable possibilities for innovation.
Imagine adding road-condition data, as just one example, to crowdsourced mapping services. By marrying a crowdsourced map with crowdsourced car-sensor data, the map’s overall utility multiplies immeasurably.
To avoid missteps that have positioned companies like Google to spend billions on building a digital mapping service — unsustainable long-term figures — we must always look to embrace that which is cutting-edge. We find that today in crowdsourced mapping platforms, as they enable us to maintain, update, and enrich maps as never before. We must also consider the limitations of the cutting edge and understand how to improve the latest innovation (car-sensor data, and more) before the once cutting edge becomes the next paper map, so to speak. This is key to evolving maps for the better and for the future.
Oliver Kühn has an MBA from the University of Cologne, Germany. He has 10 years of location-based service experience and was Head of Product Management Special Projects at navigation systems specialist Navigon AG (acquired by Garmin). In late 2008, he co-founded skobbler GmbH, being responsible for business development and legal matters. He is also a board member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Precise Location Moves with the Demands of Business
Organizations across business and public sectors, and including the military, now expect a high degree and broad range of functionality in the palms of workers’ hands, wherever those workers may go, in any kind of hazardous, chaotic, demanding environment. Requirements for location accuracy rise consistently across the board. In the future — in other words, now — developers will be asked to write mobile software applications first, and desktop applications second.
By Lee Ann Fleming
It seems so long ago. In 1972, Hewlett-Packard engineers developed the HP-35, a scientific calculator that many claim was the world’s first handheld computer. Today, a calculator represents only a tiny fraction of the functionality the business world expects from any one of dozens of models of powerful handheld computers that travel in the billions to job sites around the globe.
In 1989, Frito-Lay introduced a brick-sized handheld computer for real-time inventory management on its factory floors. The initiative helped make the company the most profitable segment of its parent Pepsico’s empire. By 1999 the company was also supplying handheld computers to its sales staff and claiming a $4 million annual return-on-investment from improved billing efficiencies alone.
So, the idea of businesses using handheld computers in the field is not new by any means.
What is new this decade is “a massive shift in the way we use the technology,” according to David Krebs, president of VDC Research. “Six years ago, the introduction of the Apple iPhone was a defining moment for the mobile computing industry. It introduced a more intuitive user interface and a multi-touch capacitive interface that was a complete revelation.”
Capacitive or Touchscreen gloves made with conductive material enable the wearer’s natural electric capacitance to operate capacitive touchscreens without removing protective work gloves. Photo: Lee Ann Fleming
The iPhone changed forever the level of expectation of performance and usability for such devices. Widespread consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets has led workers to expect more from their work equipment, and if they don’t find it, they bring their own devices into the mix — and dare their employers to say no. Whether they are Apple users or Android or Microsoft Windows, the original innovation introduced by Steve Jobs has so altered the landscape of what is acceptable in a handheld computer in terms of ease of use that the world will never look back.
Today experts estimate that a full third of the global workplace is “mobile” — that’s more than a billion people daily using small handheld computers, whether tablets or notebooks or smartphones, for work.
Data shows that the average smartphone user reaches for his or her device 150 times per day — and only 22 of those occasions are to make or take a phone call. We now rely on smartphones as multi-function devices to manage our calendars, create memos, check email, find addresses, take and share photographs, monitor children, even store electronic boarding passes for airplane flights. Tablet computers allow us to stream videos, fill in forms, write documents, and view dashboards of information. The handheld form factors’ only limitations seem to be the lack of sufficient miniaturization to fit everything in, and the delicacy of many models that can be destroyed by a single drop onto a hard surface.
As the cost of ownership has plummeted and the quality of features and functionality has improved, mobile computing has become the inevitable rule, no longer the notable exception. Businesses need mobile computers to remain competitive, just as they needed the new telephone device 100 years ago.
BYOD Forces Enterprise’s Hand
The phenomenon of “bring your own device” (BYOD) finds individual workers integrating their personal handhelds, both smartphones and tablets, into their daily workflow. Businesses recognize that employees are more connected, more efficient, and more invested in their work when they are allowed to use their own equipment. Consequently, the problem of data security in an environment where workers walk around 24/7 with mobile devices containing sensitive intellectual property has grown exponentially. The trade-off of higher productivity means companies are looking for security solutions. Meanwhile, developers rush to provide new applications for business, feeding more deployment by enterprise organizations in an ever-widening circle of inevitability.
Broadband and voice carriers likewise hasten to bundle their services in handheld form factors with 3G or better data capability, setting up whole divisions to package, upgrade, manage, and monitor enterprise mobile deployments. Third-party device management has also increased acceptance in the wider enterprise world, where IT departments have been unwilling to take on the security risks internally.
Ice Cube Project at the South Pole records the interactions of a nearly massless sub-atomic particle called the neutrino (photo courtesy University of Wisconsin).
GPS Data Acquisition
Some handheld configurations now include high-accuracy GPS data acquisition and other specialized functions, either as integrated features or through add-on accessories. Functionality is also being added through apps such as bar-code scanning imagery programs that can bring a crucial business process into a single device. Geotagged high-resolution photographs that formerly might have been considered out of reach because of the cost of a special device can now routinely be added to workflows via handhelds’ built-in features.
Mobile computing has barely tapped the springs of creativity when it comes to add-ons and new integrated features that will arrive over the next few years.
Manufacturers recognize that accessories make a big difference to enterprise customers and are bringing out more ways to ease adoption:
Smart office docks that allow for connections to larger monitors for presentations to co-workers,
capacitive gloves that protect workers’ hands while still enabling manipulation of a display screen outdoors,
mounts and connective docks for in-vehicle use.
These have all aided workers’ efficiency and productivity and increased the likelihood of mobile computing adoption.
Not all is roses. For enterprise, connective office and vehicle docks provide tremendous benefit and can make the difference to successful deployment, but they can also present problems for full integration and customer service.
The direct monitoring of environmental conditions or the condition of key components (pipes, pumps, valves and so on), often in relatively inaccessible locations, is commonplace now. Ruggedized handheld devices grant technicians access to the full repository of historical and technical information when they conduct manual inspections or perform repairs. As the workforce demographic shifts from baby-boomer employees who have years of institutional (and location) memory in their heads to younger employees who are comfortable with handheld technology providing background knowledge and tutorials in the field, ruggedized computers with large memory and Internet connectivity become more and more valuable.
Gaps and Third-Party Enablers
While third-party device management, along with increased availability of specialized functionality, more accessories for ease of use, and choices in operating systems are clearly moving enterprise equipment into the mobile realm, major functionality and application gaps remain. Innovative companies are studying the business-to-business marketplace looking for ways to make adoption of mobile even more business-friendly.
Most of the large third-party organizations such as carriers do not have the intimate market knowledge of other industry verticals to ensure they provide truly best-in-class service. Often the equipment they push into their enterprise clients’ hands is an OEM partner’s that may or may not be ideal for the actual vertical.
Meanwhile, deployments designed around a specialized software solution or by a contract system integrator might be so specific as to be non-upgradable as operating systems (OS) and equipment innovate. Enterprise still feels itself groping in the dark in many areas when it comes to outsourcing mobile computing needs.
Operating Systems
One of the biggest concerns in linking mobile workers to the enterprise’s universe of data and communications is today’s plethora of operating systems that allow developers and IT leadership to connect legacy and proprietary programs into their mobile deployments. The most common OS options in the handheld world are Apple iOS, Android, and Microsoft Embedded Handheld. While a few others jockey for position, most major manufacturers’ field products use at least one, and often two, of the top three. Software development kits (SDKs) and customer service are provided so internal IT departments can easily implement applications.
Thirty years ago, the Microsoft platform owned the enterprise market and Apple was fervently embraced by so-called anti-corporate creative types. Those days might live on in some branding memory, but the reality is that Apple has entered mainstream business in the hands of its iPhone and iPad devotees. In contrast, enterprise IT and developers are justifiably upset at Microsoft’s lack of a clear mobile platform strategy. Meanwhile, rushing from behind to take top spot in mobile computing OS deployment, Google’s Android made a smart decision to employ open-source Linux-based programming as its base, giving it a decided advantage in the mobile ecosystem. The first Android cellular phone was sold in 2008; more than 750 million new Android activations were recorded by the end of 2012.
It’s the rare end-user who will argue over which OS platform powers the software on their company-provided mobile device, except when they want to use a specific consumer-oriented app. But they do care, and care deeply, about how intuitive they find the user interface on their computer equipment, mobile or not.
Do their applications run smoothly? They’d better, or enterprise faces the problem of expensive deployments with workers refusing to use the solution. Over the past couple of decades, so many enterprise IT investments have failed for just this reason that business is gun-shy of any product that doesn’t provide proof that its applications are bug-free and user-friendly. Because mobile computing includes the added complexity of workers being physically removed from company IT support, this issue becomes even more important.
Today, according to VDC Research, 63 percent of software developers (enterprise and consumer) develop their mobile-oriented applications on the Android platform, while 73 percent create apps for Apple iOS. All other operating systems have significantly lower developers’ mindshare. Some observers see Android eventually winning the tussle to become the go-to OS for mission-critical enterprise deployments.
Android still has to wrestle with the impression by enterprise that it won’t sit still long enough. Its constant upgrades for consumer devices constitute a liability for business, as enterprise developers must tweak their applications to work on the next upgrade, and the next, and the next. Enterprise would like to see a stable platform for at least a year at a time.
Regardless of which platform dominates, in the future — in other words, now — developers will be asked to write mobile software applications first, and desktop applications second.
Business Concerns
Handheld computers are moving inexorably from consumer use into full-time, ubiquitous business operation. This is the opposite direction of the desktop computer, which moved from offices into homes during the 1980s. While businesses and governments at all levels accept the reality of BYOD and profit from the increased productivity of workers on mobile devices, they continue to worry about major limitations for enterprise-centric use found in the current leading platforms, including:
Privacy Compliance. Companies operating under Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other privacy regulations have a nightmare built in to the current reality of employees walking around with data that should be secure.
Wi-Fi and VPN. The mobile computer is built for travel, but connections are interrupted, can be unsecure, and virtual private network (VPN) firewalls can only do so much in a handheld environment.
Legacy Systems and Support. Small and mid-size businesses don’t have the IT support to truly connect the mobile universe with their PC networks. Also, solution providers selling mobile to enterprise are spotty at best with customer service, SDK support, and help-desk offerings. Considering the common problems of file transfers, managing OS version control, and cloud-based file sharing across a universe of different form-factor devices (tablets, smartphones, specialized handhelds for different industries), it’s no wonder IT departments feel hard-pressed.
Maintenance and Warranties. The mobile computing universe, with its retail consumer market-base willing to discard old versions of hardware (cell phones, PDAs, tablets) in a few short months, has not developed a quality set of warranties or maintenance plans designed to assure enterprise customers that their equipment investment will provide stability and return on investment.
Connectivity / I/O. Consumer handhelds are not constructed to interact with the many other machines that business mobile computers must drive: printers, monitors, desktops, and so on. Some require serial connections as well as USB.
Lee Ann Fleming is a communications manager for Trimble Mobile Computing Solutions.
CenturyLink in Eugene, Oregon, aided with photography for this article, using the Trimble Juno T1 and Yuma 2 rugged tablet computers.
Photo: Lee Ann Fleming
In the Field
Mobile GPS acquisition is growing all over the map.
Land Management. Many agencies and organizations now find wetlands management among their responsibilities. Municipalities encompassing marshlands must look at changes over time. They don’t always need survey-grade maps of these areas but they do need to know “What are the variations in these 100 points that we’re viewing?” They want map information, photographs, data on animal life, and more.
Forestry management includes the same elements, plus it has a particular problem with fire changing the landscape. In heavily forested parts of the world, handhelds with GPS capability are tremendously helpful in lessening the “pack-in” weight and safety potential for staff assessing damage after destructive fires that may fundamentally alter hundreds, or even thousands, of acres.
Seismic Instrumentation. Precise scientific data is logged with sensitive equipment housed in small form factors. Annual or more frequent data collection must re-find the collection boxes in overgrown, remote locations. Similar scientific work in many fields requires finding machinery placed in out-of-the-way sites, often by different people than the ones who placed them.
Ocean Buoys. Placement and monitoring is all done with GPS now, because the buoys are always shifting, and yet their location must be exact because of sonar connectibility requirements. Rugged handhelds are best for marine work because they can withstand the salt water spray and, at sufficiently high ingress protection levels, even a dunk in salt water. Smaller boats can be used for buoy work because today’s handhelds measure accuracy to a level that 10 years ago was impossible. In large rivers this is also becoming more common, as channels requiring dredging or measuring move regularly.
Insurance. Adjusters use GPS after such disasters as the Oklahoma tornado to determine debris fields and get claims filed. This year’s Colorado wildfire destroyed 509 homes and reduced more than 22 square miles of forested acreage to ash. Mobile GPS will play a key role in assessment, re-mapping, replanting and rebuilding.
Evacuation Planning. When hazardous materials go airborne — as in a plant explosion — public safety personnel must accurately predict where the cloud will travel: height, width, direction. HazMat-suited personnel equipped with rugged handhelds monitor the plume and use their GIS solution to make accurate predictions.
Incident Command. Software enabling interoperability, staff positioning, and navigation in volatile circumstances, and communication across departments and agencies to share floorplans, organization charts, and photographs, arrives on the scene aboard rugged handhelds that can take a pounding in uncertain conditions.Civilian police and firefighting organizations increasingly turn to military-designed solutions on handhelds to enforce security.
Mobile Inventory Management. Companies with large fleets equip delivery trucks with handhelds, so drivers report in real time exactly where they are, what’s been delivered, and when. Changes can be made on the fly.
Photo: Lee Ann Fleming
GPS Product Design Challenges
Small, low-cost GPS devices have proliferated in the marketplace, and the drivers and applications that support them at a consumer level are available to make GPS acquisition seem cheap and easy. Where it starts crossing over into an area of challenge is how to put a more accurate, professional-grade GPS into a device while meeting demands to keep it less expensive, sleeker, and smaller for the user.
According to Trimble Mobile Computing Solutions director of engineering Cary Keist, “If you want to improve performance better than 2–4 meters, not just in open sky but especially under multi-path, you have to invest in a good antenna — an antenna larger than anything that’s going to fit into a sleek, thin phone. And it will have to be pointed to the sky, and it will have to have a good ground plane. That all takes up room. There’s no way around that fact.”
“We’re seeing competitor products that are rugged and claim GPS capability and are thin, but they only offer 10-meter capability, which isn’t good enough, or 2–4 meters in open sky, but as soon as you walk up to a building your accuracy is destroyed.”
Alternatively, Keist explained, you end up with products that have a big snout. “Some have gone the opposite direction with a big antenna that makes it bulky. We’ve tried to split the difference. We’re introducing a Juno T41 handheld with a small extended snout for more advanced, 1–2 meter performance even in multi-path environments. Not the same accuracy as the GeoExplorer 6000, but way better than many others.”
Tablets. The tablet form factor has a double problem in housing professional-level accuracy antennas: an antenna has to point to the sky, in addition to being of sufficient size.
Sky-pointing requires a tablet to be vertical, but many applications designed for the tablet require it to be flat for work. So far, this has meant that tablets have been fitted with appendages that can rise at an angle. New technologies are under investigation, but none has appeared on the market yet.
Eventually antennas will shrink, along with every other technology that prizes miniaturization, but it comes down to physics. GPS signals are weak to begin with.
“Given the satellite system and the current signals, the larger the area of the antenna, the more reliable your signal is going to be. There’s no easy path right now to have an antenna be very tiny and very accurate. Innovation over the next few years will try to find clever ways to put as much antenna as you can in as small a form factor as is possible,” Keist said.
Fragility. GPS receivers and antennas are not especially delicate; they can be made to handle temperature extremes, shock, and vibration. Where it does get a difficult for the makers of rugged handhelds is that as products become larger and weigh more, greater countermeasures are required to keep them rugged. The heavier the object is, the more damage it will sustain when dropped onto concrete.
Manufacturers add plastic casings around the handheld form to cushion the shock of the landing. That in turn adds more weight. It’s like rocket science: for every added pound of weight on the rocket you have to add a half pound of rocket fuel, then you have to add more rocket fuel to boost the half pound of rocket fuel weight that was added to push the rocket, and so on.
In building rugged handhelds that are dropped, manufacturers calculate this in reverse.
“GPS receivers are going to be relatively heavy in comparison to any consumer device. Antennas are large, with an awkward shape, so to have them survive the drop and vibration tests, you have to do a good job of packaging within a rugged device housing to keep it as small as you can without adding mass or building a shape that would be susceptible to breaking.” Keist said. “You have to invest in clever design and modeling and trying to keep the cost low. So it’s not technically impossible, but if you do it right, the design process is expensive and requires rigorous modeling and testing.”
Figure 1. Annual failure rate by form factor.
Mobile = Vulnerable
According to 2012 data from VDC Research, the average annual failure rate during the first year of deployment of rugged devices ranged from 4 to 7 percent, while average failure rates of non-rugged devices ranged from 10 to 23 percent. Past the first year of deployment, the fail rate for rugged devices drops while that of non-ruggeds rises, in some cases past 50 percent.
Protective plastic casing over consumer-grade devices aids to some degree of protection against drops and a little against dust and grit; however, conditions such as temperature and altitude extremes, vibration, falls into water, or use in the rain require more than protection — they need rugged construction from the baseboard up.
Several years ago, rugged handheld computers lagged considerably behind consumer devices in terms of processing power, memory, storage, connectivity, and other features, limiting the enterprise in what it could do with a rugged handheld. However, technology advances and more aggressive product development by rugged computer manufacturers now enable businesses to obtain cutting-edge speed, communications, and integrated features with all the protection that a rugged handheld offers.
IP and MIL-STD-810G
Two basic standards, Ingress Protection (IP) ratings and MIL-STD-810G, determine the ruggedness of handheld computers. The IP rating uses two numbers to describe how well the unit is protected against incursion by dust and water. The first number (1 to 6) measures dust protection; the second number (1 to 8) describes water protection.
MIL-STD-810G consists of a series of U.S. military testing criteria that have gained acceptance in industries beyond the military for their methods of objectively determining whether a device can withstand potentially destructive elements such as drops, dust, water immersion, vibration, and altitude or temperature extremes. Initiated in 1961, MIL-STD-810 has seen seven revisions over the past 50 years.
Semi-Rugged
These computers can handle rougher treatment than a consumer-grade handheld, but they are not fully waterproof or dustproof, generally have a narrower temperature range, and do not meet all MIL-STD-810G specs. Most semi-rugged handhelds come with an IP rating of IP54. That means the unit is protected, though not sealed, against dust. It is resistant only to light splashing, but it cannot withstand jet sprays or immersion.
Rugged
These hardy warriors come with an IP65+ rating, which means they are sealed against dust. Dust cannot get inside the sealed form factor, even through the USB and serial ports. Plus, they can survive temporary immersion. They have passed a full battery of MIL-STD-810G tests, including drops, vibration, immersion, and temperature extremes. The higher the IP rating, the tougher the device. An IP68 device, for example, can survive salt-water immersion.
In a year of ho-hum location deals, or the lack of any, the recent Google purchase of Waze for more than $1 billion is a big one. In fact, readers of GPS World magazine’s LBS Insider would have to go back to the summer of 2007, when TomTom purchased Tele Atlas and Nokia bought Navteq, to find an industry acquisition as big as this one.
The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Israel-based mapping startup Waze, according to published reports. The big issue is that while Waze’s revenue was too low to trigger automatic review by the FTC, it may have hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
The fact that Google’s acquisition of Waze has caught the FTC’s attention is not unusual, said Mike Dobson, TeleMapics president, who authors a location industry blog at www.telemapics.com. “Google, in an attempt to speed the acquisition, declared that the assets of Waze based in the United States are worth less than the $70.9 million that requires an antitrust review. Google maintains, and I agree, that the majority of the [intellectual property] for which they were willing to pay $1 billion was created in Israel, where it is currently located, and in that location it continues to be revised and enhanced,” he said.
One of the supposed reasons, which were publicized in media reports, is that the deal with Facebook fell through because the social media giant wanted to relocate the Waze development activities to the U.S. and the Israel-based company declined.
Google’s purchase of Waze ends months of rumors and stops other suitors, including Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, from moving in on the mapping startup. Google has said that its mapping technology will be incorporated into Waze.
The Waze deal may strengthen Google, but won’t be the deciding factor on whether it has an unfair advantage in the [location] market, said Marc Prioleau, president of Prioleau Advisors. “They will have that regardless of Waze. I am not sure the criteria for the FTC, but I think Waze is just a spark to trigger a look at Google’s mapping position overall,” he said. “The FTC will have a hard time making the case that Google dominates the industry when Google can point to market share for Apple Maps, Nokia/Here [through its own sites as well as Bing, Amazon, Facebook and others] and even MapQuest, which stubbornly hangs on to a high market share with the over-50 demographic.”
When it comes down to it, it is all about money. “It appears that the FTC’s preliminary interest in the Google acquisition of Waze is in determining if the U.S.-based assets are worth more than $70.9 million, and whether or not Google’s position regarding the Waze IP being located in Israel is justified,” Dobson said. “Many would argue that a considerable portion of the value of the Waze IP affects consumers in the United States, resides on cell phones of users in the United States, and has a functional impact in the United States beyond the $70.9 million that Google is claiming. Functional impact is a difficult issue, but since Waze generates little income, Google is probably in a good position here.”
Dobson said that other pundits are commenting that the problem here is that Noam Bardin, Waze CEO, described Google as its only competition during a recent press conference. “Oh, how unusual, someone selling their company trying to increase the value of the company,” he said. “Has everyone forgotten about Nokia and TomTom? Does anyone really think they are incapable of competing with Google, Waze or the combination of both companies?”
Google Made Strategic Decision Not to Buy Tele Atlas and Navteq
Dobson said that, more troubling for the FTC and other antitrust interests, is this: If Google wanted to monopolize the mapping world, why did it not choose to bid (or counterbid) when Navteq and Tele Atlas were sold in 2007?
“I think the answer to this question is quite plain. Google did not participate in either acquisition because it had tried both companies’ data and found that the content quality and spatial coverage was not quite what Google had set as goals when developing its strategy for mapping. Instead, Google built its own ‘map machine’ and has managed to out-innovate either of these companies over the last several years,” Dobson said. “In addition, both Nokia and TomTom have fallen on hard times, not because of Google’s success, but because both companies overpaid for the assets they acquired, just before a worldwide economic downturn. Reduced budgets (for research and compilation) at TomTom and Nokia have had a lot to do with Google’s success in the mapping world.”
The big deal in Google’s interest in Waze lies in the success that the mapping startup has had in capturing traffic information, as well as how it has attracted a large user community willing to contribute traffic data, Dobson said.
“I doubt that Google will find that the map coverage provided by Waze has data they have not already mapped and mapped more exhaustively than Waze. However, it is somewhat camp to be an ‘anybody but Google’ fan boy and I suspect conspiracy theories about the acquisition will abound,” Dobson said. “I doubt that the FTC will find anything actionable. If Google were to announce next week that it was acquiring Inrix, I suspect that the FTC might have a real case with real antitrust issues.”
While Waze hasn’t generated much revenue, its real-time maps and traffic information are valuable. This value was magnified last year when Apple tried to replace Google Maps on the iPhone with a not-so-good alternative.
Analysts are looking around at what other companies are out there as potential acquisition targets — particularly as the smartphone industry becomes even more competitive. The apps on the smartphones will need to be distinguishable, particularly the mapping systems and capability, say several analysts.
One company that stands out as a potential acquisition target is TomTom, which is the last independent provider of digital maps, now that Navteq was gobbled up by Nokia.
Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd., maker of popular GPS devices such as the nuvi, has announced its first Wi-Fi-enabled outdoor handheld GPS running the Android operating system, Monterra.
Monterra has a vivid, sunlight-readable touchscreen, and users can easily access the Google Play Store and download apps through an available Wi-Fi connection on the device. Developers can create new apps that are suited for the rugged, waterproof, and sensor-loaded handheld device.
“Monterra provides outdoor professionals and enthusiasts with the ultimate ability to customize their GPS device to perfectly suit their personal and professional needs,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “With a four-inch, color, multi-touch display, unique 3D MapMerge, and the ability to create new apps, Monterra takes the outdoor GPS to a whole new level, and users are able to take advantage of the features no matter how adverse the terrain may be.”
With the Android operating system, users are able to access popular outdoor-related Android apps, such as Peak Finder, as well as professional apps like construction estimators and ArcGIS to extend some office functions to the field. Monterra also has a built-in FM radio and NOAA weather radio with SAME alerts, so users can receive watches and warnings related to their location. Users can either listen with headphones or through the built-in speaker.
Monterra has a built-in 3-axis compass with accelerometer and gyro, which indicates the user’s direction even when standing still or not holding the device level. Its barometric altimeter has the ability to track changes in pressure to pinpoint precise altitude, and it can also plot barometric pressure over time to monitor weather conditions. It also has a built-in UV sensor so users can monitor the intensity of the sun, and reduce exposure if necessary. With its high-sensitivity, dual-band GPS and GLONASS receiver, Monterra finds its location quickly and maintains signal lock even in heavy cover and deep canyons.
New to the Monterra is a unique mapping feature: 3D MapMerge. With this feature, users can combine two maps — like TOPO, basemap, or BirdsEye Satellite Imagery — then view the new unique map in three dimensions. Hills, valleys, lakes, roads, and points of interest combine to give Monterra’s maps unequaled detail and richness. Combine BirdsEye with TOPO US 24K, or a GIS-based water table map with a shaded relief basemap, then zoom in, pan out, and rotate the 3D map using multi-touch.
Monterra has a built-in 8-megapixel autofocus digital camera that takes geotagged photos, plus a 1080p HD video camera with LED flash. Users can download photos and videos to their computer for either work or sharing using Garmin Adventures. Monterra has 8 GB of internal memory built-in plus a microSD slot for even more extra storage.
Monterra features a vivid and highly durable mineral glass display that uses sunlight in combination with the unit’s LED backlight to increase brightness and view-ability. It has an IPX7 waterproof rating and also uses a dual-battery system, which allows users the option of using the rechargeable Li-ion pack (included) or traditional AA batteries. It is also compatible with the same mounts as the Garmin Montana, so users can take Monterra anywhere.
Wireless sharing is easy with Monterra. It has WiFi, ANT+, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC capabilities, which allows users to share data, maps, waypoints, tracks, routes, and geocaches with other wireless compatible devices. Additionally, Monterra is compatible with BaseCamp, a free software download that lets you view and organize maps, waypoints, routes and tracks.
The new Garmin Monterra will be available third quarter 2013 at a suggested retail price of $649.99 (Worldwide with preloaded worldwide basemap), and $699.99 (U.S. with preloaded TOPO U.S. 100K with Navteq roads).
Tallysman Wireless announces the TW4421 and TW1421 antennas, which offer a step forward in performance for small GNSS antennas, the company said.
The TW4421 is a low-cost dual-feed magnetic mount antenna covering the GPS L1, GLONASS L1, Galileo and SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS & MSAS) frequency band (1574 to 1606 MHz). The TW4421 features a 25-millimeter dual-feed wideband patch element that provides excellent multipath rejection with a more linear carrier phase response, by virtue of a low axial ratio across the full frequency bandwidth, Tallysman said. It is especially suitable for high accuracy applications, and also offers high out-of-band signal rejection.
The TW4421 is housed in a compact IP67 magnetic mount enclosure and is available with a wide range of connector options.
The TW1421 embedded antenna is lightweight (30 gm) and features a very small footprint (35 mm diameter x 7.25 mm). The TW1421 is suited for use in applications where performance and small size are of paramount importance, such as extreme-sport-wearable tracking devices and UAVs.
“Most small low-cost GPS/GLONASS/Galileo antennas are narrow-band devices with an elliptically polarized response at the GPS and GLONASS frequencies,” said Gyles Panther CEO of Tallysman Wireless. “The TW4421/1421 antennas feature a 40-percent wider bandwidth patch, with a dual-feed structure, which provides unparalleled multipath rejection previously only available in much larger, more expensive antennas.”
On June 6, the FCC, following a unanimous vote of the commission, issued an order enabling NextNav, LLC to begin commercial operation of its advanced positioning network, which is designed to support 911 emergency first responders. NextNav is deploying its nationwide network using Part 90 Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service licenses that are held by its affiliate, Progeny LMS, LLC. NextNav has been operating a fully-deployed location network for trial, testing and other non-commercial purposes in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than three years.
“We are pleased that the Commission has unanimously approved our ability to enter into commercial service,” said Gary Parsons, CEO of NextNav. “The commission conducted an extremely thoughtful review of the technical characteristics of our innovative system, and this order will allow us to offer location services that have the potential to significantly enhance 911 and public safety applications.”
NextNav’s high-performance terrestrial positioning network is designed to complement GPS in urban areas and inside structures, places where GPS is significantly degraded or denied due to blockage of the fainter, satellite-based GPS signal. The FCC-chartered Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council Working Group III found that NextNav’s system delivered 90 percent smaller search rings then existing technologies in challenging indoor urban environments, and was the only technology tested capable of providing floor-level height accuracy.
The operation of this system is significantly enhanced by its use of Part 90 M-LMS spectrum licenses, which are designated for the location of mobile devices. The spectrum licenses used by NextNav cover nearly all major U.S. urban centers and over 93 percent of the U.S. population.
Trusted Positioning has released the Trusted Portable Navigator (T-PN) indoor location software. Available for any operating system, this mobile embedded software allows mobile users to navigate shopping centers, airports, and subway stations. No additional hardware or infrastructure required.
The T-PN combines the use of existing smartphone motion sensors with wireless updates (such as Wi-Fi and GNSS) for a complete solution with no extra hardware or infrastructure needed.
T-PN needs no additional infrastructure: This enables a consumer to navigate through an environment with no existing navigation technology. T-PN integrates with existing sensors such as Wi-Fi and GPS when available and utilizes significantly less power than either GPS or Wi-Fi positioning. The company reports that accurate positioning can be maintained while the phone is swinging in a hand, a call is answered, the phone is in a pocket or purse, or the consumer is texting.
