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Location-based services are unseen guides

HERE Mapmaking allows users to create detailed interactive maps of private sites, outdoors and indoors. This includes sites not covered by public maps, such as warehouses, yards, farms, mines and ports. (Photo: HERE Technologies)

Location-based services (LBS) are software services that allow apps to function as intended by collecting geodata and providing users with pertinent information based on their location. Examples include search, navigation, transportation, entertainment, social networking, marketing, shopping, remote health monitoring, parental control and asset tracking. These services rely on mobile networks to transmit and receive data and connect to analytics software operating on a remote server to process and send relevant data to the user.

They have existed since the early 1990s but only gained traction after May 2000, when the U.S. government stopped degrading the civil GPS signal (a policy known as Selective Availability). This increased GPS accuracy by an order of magnitude overnight, making many more civilian applications possible. Since then, software engineers and developers have been designing LBS and building location-aware apps to deliver contextually relevant experiences to end users.

Adoption of LBS has been extensive because these services produce quality geodata with personal, spatial and temporal dimensions. Although most people think of GPS when they think of geolocation, LBS is the unsung hero powering location-based online activities.

LBS combines various positioning solutions — including GNSS, and trilateration from cell towers, Wi-Fi hotspots and other signals of opportunity — to collect the most accurate location data possible outdoors and indoors.

LBS capitalizes on cell tower signals and Wi-Fi networks to gather geolocation when satellite reception is poor or entirely blocked, such as in urban canyons and underground parking lots. Although these alternative positioning systems are not as accurate as GNSS, the approximate location information they provide is generally sufficient for the purpose of the services — such as to find a store in a mall or a grader on a construction site.

Monetizing LBS

The advent of Web 2.0 and the mobile revolution have empowered Internet users to interact with their immediate physical world digitally. Suddenly, finding the shortest route in a new city, choosing from numerous restaurants for lunch, searching for the nearest gas station, consuming relevant stories on social media and snagging limited-time coupons and discounts are all possible at the tap of a button.

Physical location has become instrumental in personalized online experiences, hence the need for location-aware apps. Software vendors have embedded seamless data collection capability into electronic devices, creating a business ecosystem surrounding people’s location details.

Geodata collection is effortless but permission-based. While laws governing LBS vary by jurisdiction, they generally require users to accept an LBS-supported app’s privacy policy, which spells out what it does with location data. Additional steps include running the app and activating the device’s location service in the settings or approving on-screen permission request prompts before tracking can begin. Such a process helps ensure that users are aware of geodata collection and understand its inherent risks.

In the early days of LBS, tech pundits argued that marketers would capitalize on the technology to bombard consumers with ads. Those were prophetic words — many heavily used apps today use LBS. The tech companies behind them leverage geodata to create valuable products and sell advertising space through their platforms.

Although it is challenging to count the number of ads populating sites and apps, rough estimates say that average Internet users see thousands daily. It does not feel this way because in-your-face ads are no longer the norm in cyberspace — the discrete ones are, and they work. Experts predict that the $96 billion location-based advertising market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 15.1% from 2023 to 2030.
Unsurprisingly, tech titans enjoy the lion’s share of digital advertising revenue. In the United States, Google, Meta and Amazon collectively accounted for about 62% of the pie in 2023.

Other corporate models exist to monetize geodata. The LBS-based game Pokémon Go is free to play, so it can grow a massive user base quickly and earn profits through in-game purchases. In addition to living off ad revenue, Tinder uses freemium pricing for its geographic matchmaking business and simplifies socialization and dating for paying subscribers.

Moreover, Uber, Lyft and Airbnb swell their coffers through commissions, earning a cut for every transaction on their platforms. Big box store Target blends indoor mapping, beacon technology and geofencing to enable shoppers to pick up their orders at the nearest store’s entrance when they arrive. Aside from mostly Silicon Valley titans that have developed and gainfully used LBS for themselves to increase their valuations, others have decided to help non-tech enterprises innovate by integrating location-based technology into their operations.

Democratizing Mapmaking

Disrupting cartography is a low-hanging fruit. Humans have been drawing maps for millennia, yet many areas remain unmapped. Public maps usually exclude private locations. When they are part of the picture, these areas lack meaningful details to aid navigators.

Solutions such as HERE Mapmaking aim to address these challenges. By combining GNSS positioning with satellite imagery, location data from cellular networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, and signals from a variety of sensors, HERE enables automotive and mass-market devices to map areas and features with sub-meter accuracy. To deliver a faster time-to-first-fix and display the positions of navigation devices correctly, this provider of digital mapping and location data leverages a full positioning technology stack, including power-efficient sensors and map tiles.

Built on the HERE platform, this mapmaking solution primarily caters to automakers, transportation and logistics enterprises, e-commerce brands, public agencies and more. However, the company ensures its solution is powerful enough for developers by providing CLIs and APIs. At the same time, the platform remains intuitive for casual or less-technical users, such as students and data journalists, thanks to HERE XYZ — an interoperable, real-time, open location data management service.

“Various elements of HERE XYZ are now embedded within HERE Mapmaking,” said Alex Gevrenov, senior director of product management at HERE Technologies. “This is where users can create unique (owned / proprietary), routing-capable maps that can be used at scale using simply our developer tools and HERE location services and SDKs.”

The inclusion of HERE XYZ gives users live access to uploaded data and more flexibility in using rendering tools to pinpoint the precise whereabouts of devices and assets in indoor and outdoor settings. It also enables them to instantly share location data via the cloud. These capabilities are helpful when building offline and online interactive maps with spatial intelligence for location-aware apps with no or little code.

Customization and responsiveness are crucial in interactive cartography. HERE XYZ complements the platform’s routing, geocoding and search functionalities.

Furthermore, Gevrenov explains that with the rollout of UniMap — a new automated mapping system — interactive maps built on the HERE platform can now detect and reflect changes in the physical environment within 24 hours. “We are now externalizing these cutting-edge capabilities to make mapping at scale easy for our customers and partners.”

October 22, 2024
EAB Q&A: Promising approaches to non-GNSS PNT and modernizing the system

(Illustration: sumkinn/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)

Question: What are currently the most promising approaches to non-GNSS PNT for applications that do not require high accuracy?

Answer: The DOD PNT strategy posits use of space-based, regional and local sources of information to ensure PNT resilience if GPS is disrupted. Resilience does not require GPS-quality accuracy but must enable service continuity for operations while GPS is unavailable. Local sources are viable for limited areas; however, regional sources are necessary for broader coverage. Enhanced Loran (eLoran) can be a viable and affordable backup to GPS. It broadcasts at a much higher power and at a different frequency than GPS, is virtually un-jammable over wide areas, is receivable underwater, and offers a communications channel. eLoran has been recommended as a critical infrastructure backup to GPS by the National PNT Advisory Board and directed by the U.S. Congress. Yet, lacking federal interest or resources, its infrastructure is heedlessly being dismantled — while Russia, China and Iran invest in their own Loran-based backups. What do they know that the United States does not?

Q: What reforms in GPS governance would help accelerate the modernization of the system?

A: Today, modernized GPS is not enough, though it remains the cornerstone of the national PNT Enterprise. Attention to the entire Enterprise is urgently needed. With GPS, the United States enjoyed a dominant GNSS position for nearly three decades. Absent PNT attacks or mishaps, a sense of ‘business-as-usual’ lethargy impedes GPS improvements and the adoption of complements. Leadership watches GPS modernization slide to the right while its complements and needed domestic critical infrastructure backups languish. Within DoD, GPS is no longer a discrete program, and there is no other joint program to command resources and bring urgency and coherence to resilient PNT efforts. Structural changes and experienced, competent acquisition managers are necessary to focus resources and deliver capabilities, and committed leadership is essential for continuity. They must acknowledge PNT as vital to our national security and economy — while our adversaries and competitors leverage its value and can exploit any unaddressed vulnerabilities.

October 21, 2024
Precision agriculture is transforming farming and the US economy
Photo: Daniel Balakov / E+/ Getty Images

Many of us mindlessly shop for food, fuel, clothing, home goods and more without thinking much about where it all comes from, forgetting that in most cases it all started on a farm. Most people are unaware that a key component of agriculture production, besides the soil beneath our feet, is the use of critical technologies such as GPS and other GNSS contstellations. When fully leveraged, technology can be a part of the solution to many of the challenges farmers face today and be a tool in feeding a growing global population.

With technology at their fingertips, farmers across the globe can enhance their productivity through precision agriculture — a practice that uses GNSS technology to maximize agricultural outputs, while reducing farmer inputs and improving sustainability. Precision agriculture is used to till, plant and harvest crops such as corn, soybeans, cotton, peanuts, wheat, tubers and alfalfa. For example, techniques including yield mapping for fertilizer application have been used on fields across the country for more than three decades.

Social and Economic Benefits of Precision Agriculture

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), total U.S. farm output tripled from 1948 to 2021 largely due to advancements in technology — even as farm labor, land and other inputs declined. Farmers needed 8 million fewer acres to produce the same wheat yields in 2018 as in 1990, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation report.

A closer look at four crops commonly tilled, planted and harvested using precision agriculture techniques highlight technology’s economic benefits:
- Sweet Corn: The United States is the largest producer of sweet corn at roughly 315 million tons per year, accounting for 34% of global production. There are more than 316,000 U.S. corn farms, 95% of which are family-owned. In 2021, Florida was the largest producer of sweet corn, followed by California, Washington and Michigan. The United States exports 69 million tons of sweet corn annually, yielding a value totaling $9.2 billion. China is the largest buyer of U.S. sweet corn, purchasing 31% of all U.S. exports.
- Peanuts: In 2023, the United States produced roughly $1.6 billion in peanuts, led by Georgia — with 55% of total U.S. peanut production — followed by Texas (10%), Alabama (10%), and Florida (9%). In 2023, the United States exported more than $889.5 million worth of peanuts, with Mexico and Canada as top destinations. With new techniques to adjust digger conveyor speeds, yield continues to improve.
- Cotton: The United States produces roughly 15 million bales of cotton each year, contributing to a $21 billion industry. Texas boasts the highest number of planted acres with 40% of the U.S. supply (6 million bales), followed by Georgia at about 2.5 million bales. The United States is the world’s leading exporter of cotton, totaling 35% of the total global supply. Farmers are increasingly using autosteer technology to help grow and harvest cotton — with the adoption of precision agriculture equipment jumping from 46% in 2008 to 86% in 2023, according to a survey conducted by Cotton Grower.
- Wheat: The United States produces roughly 7% of the global wheat supply — accounting for roughly $12.7 billion — with Kansas, North Dakota, Montana, Texas and Oklahoma producing the most wheat across the country.
Precision agriculture also helps farmers work toward important conservation goals. Auto guidance capabilities and seeding sensors increase tractor and seeding efficiencies, reducing herbicide use by 9% and fossil fuel use by 6%. These small but important changes contribute to a wider effort to employ more sustainable agriculture practices, with precision agriculture and GPS technology sitting front and center.

Through it all, GNSS remains at the forefront of a strong, efficient agriculture system. Whether it’s auto-steering tractor technology or strengthened hydrology practices, new precision agriculture technologies are released every year. If broader adoption of precision agriculture technologies continues, the United States can increase its national crop production by 6%, bolstering the agriculture economy even further.

Photo: VR_Studio / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

GPS and GPSIA in the Field

GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) members Deere & Company and Trimble are at the forefront of advancing precision agriculture techniques globally, creating more opportunities for farmers to boost their productivity and reduce crop loss with innovative GPS and GNSS technologies.

Deere & Company offers several receivers that use GNSS technology to plant crops with accuracy down to the centimeter and coupled with the sensors and computer vision, allow farmers to plant at quicker speeds without damaging crops — including its fully autonomous 8R tractor unveiled in 2022. While Deere & Company had been developing new GNSS receivers for years, a critical partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 2004 was groundbreaking. Deere & Company modified its GNSS receivers to tap into the agency’s network of ground stations and incorporated JPL’s software. The innovation allowed them to introduce autonomous tractors worldwide, revolutionizing precision agriculture and leading to a wider acceptance of autonomous tractor technology.

Trimble has brought innovative solutions to precision agriculture since the company first began producing its agricultural GPS receivers in 1997. Since then, the company has unveiled state-of-the-art technologies to support farmers, including RTX technology which uses precise point positioning (PPP) to allow farmers to plant seeds and farm with sub-inch GNSS accuracy. Trimble also has announced several partnerships that strengthen the company’s precision agriculture capabilities from CNH and CLAAS (2011) to Horsch (2021) to AGCO (2023).

In 2022, Trimble deepened its partnership with agricultural machinery manufacturer CLAAS to integrate Trimble’s GPS PILOT system and SAT 900 GNSS receiver with CLAAS’ CEMIS 1200 display, providing farmers greater accuracy when tilling, seeding, spraying, or harvesting their fields. In April 2024, Trimble created a joint venture with AGCO to accelerate the pace of innovation and increase farmer’s access to precision agriculture technology.

Critical Role of Broadband in Precision Agriculture

Reliable broadband connectivity goes hand-in-hand with GNSS technologies and allows full use of agriculture technology and its resulting benefits. According to the USDA, more than 20% of rural households and farms do not have reliable access to broadband, limiting access to new technologies that would enhance efficiency and help farmers grow their businesses.

Industry leaders are working to ensure that farms across the country can reliably access the Internet. For example, Deere & Company, in partnership with SpaceX, is working to close the connectivity gap among farmers with satellite communications (SATCOM) services. Later this year, Deere & Company will begin to offer Starlink satellite communications technology to farmers across the United States and Brazil.

Beyond industry investment, the USDA’s Rural Development Broadband ReConnect Program provides grants and loans to strengthen broadband infrastructure and equipment in eligible rural areas. In addition, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is overseeing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, intended to expand high-speed Internet access for communities across the country with little to no Internet connectivity. Establishing tech-neutral policies within these and similar programs as well as focusing on delivering coverage to uncovered agriculture lands to the last acre is key to improving efficient agriculture production.

Precision Ag on the Hill

Precision agriculture is also making its way into policy conversations at all levels of government as awareness around agriculture technology and its benefits are realized.

The 2018 Farm Bill established the Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States (“Precision Ag Connectivity Task Force”) within the Federal Communications Commission. The Task Force is currently completing its third and final term this year and will have produced three comprehensive reports with related recommendations for policymakers.

The 2018 Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30, 2023, but was extended for one year to allow the U.S. Congress additional time to come to agreement on the next five-year reauthorization bill. The Farm Bill presents a key bipartisan legislative opportunity to include incentives for agriculture technology adoption. Lawmakers should consider previously introduced standalone legislation, including the PRECISE Act and the PAL Act, to accomplish this goal. Together, these bills would expand existing USDA programs to include precision agriculture technologies and create a new loan program.

Small family farms account for roughly 88% of all farms in the United States but make up less than 20% of all U.S. agricultural products sold. To increase yields and better compete with large-scale farms, farmers are increasingly turning to precision agriculture technologies — though availability remains a challenge. Understanding these statistics, efforts to promote equal access to precision agriculture enjoy bipartisan support from both chambers of Congress.

Reflection

GNSS technology’s role in precision agriculture continues to save farmers time and money, while simultaneously providing conservation-oriented solutions for farmers, consumers and the planet. GPSIA members Deere & Company and Trimble have contributed innovative solutions to precision agriculture technology for decades, enhancing efficiencies through groundbreaking partnerships and expanding opportunities for farmers to use the technology. These innovations, coupled with recent rural broadband expansion efforts, ensure farmers can access the most cutting-edge technology and continue to innovate. The focus on precision agriculture on Capitol Hill is an important reminder of the wider implications of GNSS in our everyday lives and how GNSS systems fit into the U.S. agriculture industry. GPSIA is proud to support its members as they continue to promote the use of innovative GNSS technologies in agriculture.
October 14, 2024
Lidar helps unlock secrets in Amelia Earhart mystery

Elevation map of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. (Photo: topographic-map.com)

The Discovery Channel’s recently released “Finding Amelia” documentary explores the latest expedition aimed to uncover Amelia Earhart’s mysterious fate, featuring the participation of SPH Engineering. The film investigates the theory that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have crashed in Papua New Guinea during their 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

SPH Engineering joined the search nearly two years before the expedition, leveraging its experience from successful UAV operations in Greenland. The team’s mission focused on the dense jungles of New Britain, an island in Papua New Guinea, where they employed UAV technology to search for Earhart’s aircraft.

Planned routes for lidar scans in SPH Engineering’s UgCS flight planning software. (Photo: SPH Engineering)

Technology and challenges

The documentary follows the testing for the mission, which began in February 2021. The team conducted experimental detection of aircraft engines using UAV-mounted magnetometers. These experiments led the team to request satellite imagery and elevation maps of where the expedition was planned. This map was essential for studying the terrain and preparing for the mission. According to the analysis, the average expected vegetation height of 10 to 15 m allowed for the detection of aircraft engines using a magnetometer.

The SPH Engineering team arrived on-site with a suite of UAVs equipped with magnetometer, lidar and photogrammetry tools.

During the search, a small UAV equipped with a camera was first used to create precise maps of the search area. These maps were essential for planning subsequent flights. The team then conducted lidar scanning from a safe altitude to build digital surface models (DSM) and digital terrain models (DTM) to plan magnetic surveys.

The next step was to conduct the survey using a UAV-based magnetometer. The team found that while the average height of trees allowed for the detection of aircraft engines using a magnetometer, the presence of extremely tall trees made magnetic flight planning difficult.

Processed lidar data showing potential Japanese troop trails. (Photo: SPH Engineering)

Janis Kuze, director of special projects for SPH Engineering explains the challenge. “In contrast to what we saw in satellite data available before the expedition, the average height of the trees was a bit greater, but the main problem was real ‘skyscrapers’ towering up to 60 m. These extremely high trees were totally missed in satellite elevation data. Despite the challenges, we had relative success detecting magnetic anomalies over the B-17 bomber crash site.”

Processed lidar data showing the object resembling the shape and size of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft. (Photo: SPH Engineering)

Operation and results

Due to the high trees and the limited amount of magnetic ferrous metal in airplane engines, reliable detection using magnetometers proved difficult. The team then decided to switch back to lidar. Dozens of low-altitude lidar flights were conducted, using previous scans for flight planning, to build a detailed map of the ground surface beneath the trees.

The results revealed what is believed to be hidden Japanese troop trails and something resembling the shape and size of Amelia Earhart’s aircraft, the Lockheed Electra.

October 10, 2024
First Fix: Spoofing’s insidious threat to airliners

On Sept. 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines flight KAL007, with 269 people on board, went 360 miles off course and strayed into prohibited airspace over one of the Soviet Union’s most sensitive military installations. The pilots, who had missed some radio calls and warning shots, were unaware. Then an air-to-air missile hit the plane.

This tragic Cold War episode helped GPS technology spread from military to civilian use because President Ronald Reagan’s deputy press secretary, Larry Speakes, said that to help prevent a repeat of the tragedy, “the President has determined that the United States is prepared to make available to civilian aircraft the facilities of its Global Positioning System when it becomes operational in 1988.” Civilian use of GPS had been envisioned from the program’s beginning, but Reagan’s announcement now guaranteed the future availability of GPS to civilians. That, and later smartphones, spawned the development of the commercial and consumer GPS industry.

More than 40 years later, however, civilian airliners are increasingly at risk of being shot down, as well as many other equally disastrous outcomes, due to spoofing and its percolating effects on many aircraft systems. GPS Spoofing: Final Report of the GPS Spoofing Workgroup, released on Sept. 6, reports a 500% increase in spoofing this year compared to last year, with an average now of 1,500 flights spoofed per day. Among the many dangers this poses, the report states that it has led to “aircraft entering other Flight Information Regions without clearance or authorization, which creates risk of misidentification and, in the extreme case, interception or shootdown.”

The report, based in part on a questionnaire returned by nearly 2,000 pilots — 56% of them working for airlines and 72% captains — found that more than 90% of all crew members rated their concern as moderate or higher. The three most insidious aspects of spoofing for aircraft are that pilots may not be aware of it; that GNSS receivers may continue to yield incorrect positions long after the aircraft leaves the spoofing area; and that bad data from the GNSS receiver has “severe and cascading effects” on many other systems, including the flight management system, the Ground Proximity Warning System, Hybrid IRS, the aircraft clock, weather radar, CPDLC, ADS-B and ADS-C. Spoofing also affects air traffic control, which is inundated with requests for radar vectoring during and after spoofing.

The report finds “an overall sense of complacency and muted interest across a broad section of the aviation industry.” Two of its many recommendations to mitigate the problem jumped out at me: synching a mechanical watch to a known source at dispatch “in preparation for aircraft clock failure” and positioning a handheld GPS receiver “low down in the cockpit such that it only has a direct line of sight to the highest elevation satellites,” which makes it possible “that it may not get jammed and spoofed as easily as the externally mounted antennas.”

Why has it come to this? What will we do about it? You can read the report here.

October 8, 2024