GPS World

Tag: DigitalGlobe

  • Esri, DigitalGlobe partner to expand World Imagery Map

    DigitalGlobe Inc., Earth imagery and information company, today announced an agreement to make more current satellite imagery of the entire world available to users of Esri’s ArcGIS product family.

    The new long-term partnership with Esri will enhance the World Imagery Map and give ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Data Appliance users access to current and complete high-resolution satellite imagery mosaics. The World Imagery Map is foundational to Esri’s vision of connecting people with maps, data and apps through geographic information systems (GIS).

    The multi-year subscription features DigitalGlobe’s Basemap +Vivid and Basemap +Metro products, which will be refreshed with the latest content throughout the contract term. New imagery will start flowing into the World Imagery Map later this year.

    In addition, the two companies will work together over the coming months to explore new ways to connect Esri’s ArcGIS Online and marketplace to DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data platform, GBDX, allowing users to perform advanced analytics at scale against a 15-year time-lapse image library to solve complex problems.

    “Esri’s global user base can now create even more powerful and effective products that enable decisions to be made with confidence and improve our collective understanding of the world,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe president and chief executive officer.

    “We have enjoyed collaborating with DigitalGlobe and look forward to a long-term partnership,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president and founder. “Their superior quality imagery will benefit Esri and our users.”

  • Mapping ‘Hell on Earth’

    A mapping feature from GPS World magazine’s June issue.

    STILL BURNING: This false-color image shows burned areas in yellow and healthy vegetation in purple. The bright spots are where the fire was actively burning when the image was taken.
    STILL BURNING: This false-color image shows burned areas in yellow and healthy vegetation in purple. The bright spots are where the fire was actively burning when the image was taken. (Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe, © 2016)
    On May 1, a wildfire ignited southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. At first, wildfire MWF-009 seemed like others residents had experienced — smoke and haze, but no real danger. Two days later, the winds shifted.

    The fire swept through Fort McMurray, destroying more than 1,600 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history.

    People described it as hell on Earth, comparing the disaster to movies, war, and the apocalypse. By the end of the week, the fire had grown to more than 101,000 hectares, significantly larger than the city of Calgary.

    BURN SCAR: On May 4, the Landsat 7 satellite’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus acquired this false-color image combining shortwave infrared, near infrared and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal hot spots of fire (red), smoke (white) and burned areas (brown).
    BURN SCAR: On May 4, the Landsat 7 satellite’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus acquired this false-color image combining shortwave infrared, near infrared and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal hot spots of fire (red), smoke (white) and burned areas (brown).

    The entire city population of 88,000 evacuated in a rush, many through falling embers from wildfires beside roadways.

    On May 5, DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite (WV-3) peered through smoke using shortwave infrared to take the image on the left. GIS analysts can also measure the intensity of the fire using the image.

    As of press time, the fires continue to spread across northeast Alberta, impacting Canada’s oil sand operations, and into the neighboring province of Saskatchewan.

    The wildfire may become the most costly disaster in Canadian history.

  • Mapping ‘Hell on Earth’

    A mapping feature from GPS World magazine’s June issue.

    STILL BURNING: This false-color image shows burned areas in yellow and healthy vegetation in purple. The bright spots are where the fire was actively burning when the image was taken.
    STILL BURNING: This false-color image shows burned areas in yellow and healthy vegetation in purple. The bright spots are where the fire was actively burning when the image was taken. (Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe, © 2016)
    On May 1, a wildfire ignited southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. At first, wildfire MWF-009 seemed like others residents had experienced — smoke and haze, but no real danger. Two days later, the winds shifted.

    The fire swept through Fort McMurray, destroying more than 1,600 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history.

    People described it as hell on Earth, comparing the disaster to movies, war, and the apocalypse. By the end of the week, the fire had grown to more than 101,000 hectares, significantly larger than the city of Calgary.

    BURN SCAR: On May 4, the Landsat 7 satellite’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus acquired this false-color image combining shortwave infrared, near infrared and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal hot spots of fire (red), smoke (white) and burned areas (brown).
    BURN SCAR: On May 4, the Landsat 7 satellite’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus acquired this false-color image combining shortwave infrared, near infrared and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal hot spots of fire (red), smoke (white) and burned areas (brown).

    The entire city population of 88,000 evacuated in a rush, many through falling embers from wildfires beside roadways.

    On May 5, DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite (WV-3) peered through smoke using shortwave infrared to take the image on the left. GIS analysts can also measure the intensity of the fire using the image.

    As of press time, the fires continue to spread across northeast Alberta, impacting Canada’s oil sand operations, and into the neighboring province of Saskatchewan.

    The wildfire may become the most costly disaster in Canadian history.

  • DigitalGlobe Expands Partnership with Orbital Insight

    This image depicts how Orbital Insight is detecting building shadows in Nanjing, China, to monitor construction rates in the area.
    This image depicts how Orbital Insight is detecting building shadows in Nanjing, China, to monitor construction rates in the area.

    DigitalGlobe has expanded its partnership and offering with Orbital Insight, a market intelligence and data science company that analyzes socioeconomic trends at global, regional and hyper-local scales.

    Within DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data platform, Orbital Insight’s machine vision engineers, artificial intelligence experts and data scientists now have access to 400 terabytes of high-resolution imagery, an increase of nearly 80 times the data that was available for analysis under the previous partnership agreement.

    The partnership is enabling Orbital Insight to more quickly validate its hypotheses and understand a variety of trends in the commercial and humanitarian markets. Having access to this volume of DigitalGlobe’s data allows the ability to visualize and analyze even larger areas of interest around the globe, allowing users to better understand the economic trends impacting industries and markets, according to DigitalGlobe.

    “Orbital Insight’s customers — hedge funds, Fortune 500 companies, and global humanitarian organizations — will now be able to understand near real-time global economic trends with even greater precision and scale,” DigitalGlobe writes in a blog. “In one recent project, Orbital Insight leveraged DigitalGlobe imagery to process 4 trillion DigitalGlobe pixels in a 48-hour period, counting 700 million cars that yielded tradable insights into national shopping behavior for the company’s customers on Wall Street. This fall, Orbital Insight expects to release several new data analytics products, including worldwide monitoring of crude oil storage inventories and monitoring construction rates across the major cities in China, which are powered by DigitalGlobe’s image library and Geospatial Big Data platform.”

    “This expanded partnership with DigitalGlobe accelerates the realization of Orbital Insight’s vision for a macroscope, a scientific instrument for helping human society to see itself in a new light,” said James Crawford, CEO of Orbital Insight. “The partnership enables us to more quickly validate our hypotheses and understand a variety of trends in the commercial and humanitarian markets. Having access to this volume of data gives us the ability to visualize and analyze even larger areas of interest around the globe, allowing us to better understand the economic trends that are impacting industries and markets.”

    “The era of geospatial big data has arrived,” said  Shay Har-Noy, DigitalGlobe’s Senior Director for Geospatial Big Data. “DigitalGlobe’s platform provides the largest commercial library of current and historical satellite imagery available, integrated into a cost-effective environment where meaningful insight can be extracted from the data through algorithms built by companies like Orbital Insight.”

    To learn more about DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data platform, visit developer.digitalglobe.com.

  • DigitalGlobe, Saab Join on Vricon to Create the Globe in 3D

    Defense and security company Saab and DigitalGlobe Inc., a global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, have created the joint venture Vricon Inc. to produce photo-realistic 3D products and digital elevation models for enterprise and government geospatial markets.

    Vricon combines Saab’s 3D technology and know-how with DigitalGlobe’s archive, which contains billions of square kilometers of high-quality commercial satellite imagery. Together, the Vricon joint venture will establish high-scale production capabilities that will make highly accurate photo-realistic 3D products and elevation data of the earth accessible via its visualization platform and standard- based data formats.

    Vricon serves the entire professional geospatial market, with an initial focus on defense, security, and infrastructure. Vricon’s technology enables imagery content to accurately represent all visible objects on the earth in 3D, and its products provide customers with value and utility, superior coverage relative to aerial-derived elevation models, and superior fidelity and availability relative to other satellite-derived models.

    DigitalGlobe and Saab will combine their strengths to both support and own Vricon. Under the agreement, Vricon will be headquartered in Reston, Va., with ownership set up as 50 percent DigitalGlobe and 50 percent Saab. “Our customers will benefit from global access to geospatial data of unprecedented quality. It is a win-win situation with long-term value creation for both parent companies, which will give us a market position ahead of competition,” said Magnus Brege, Vricon CEO.

    “By combining DigitalGlobe’s unrivaled imagery archive with Saab’s leading edge technology, we will deliver the globe in 3D at a scale never before possible,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe President and Chief Executive Officer. “By delivering this breakthrough product to our customers, this collaboration will drive growth and shareowner value creation.”

    “The establishment of Vricon is another great example of Saab’s ability to leverage innovation and transform it into business value,” said Dan Jangblad, head of Saab business area Industrial Products and Services. “Together with DigitalGlobe, we are taking our revolutionary new 3D technology and applying it to benefit our global customer base. At the same time, we also take another step forward on our long-term path for growth in the United States.”

  • CartoDB, DigitalGlobe Partner to Make Satellite Imagery Available

    CartoDB and DigitalGlobe are partnering to bring satellite data to mapmakers everywhere in order to help them visually explain the events and information shaping the world. The new offering will provide users of all levels with access to the latest satellite content from DigitalGlobe, enabling journalists, publishers, bloggers and web developers to easily incorporate high-resolution imagery into their online content in a matter of minutes.

    CartoDB is an open-source mapping and visualization tool that allows anyone to create interactive maps with their own data. The cloud-based solution includes the CartoDB Editor, an online tool that enables anyone to analyze and visualize location data, enabling publishing features and collaboration tools. Those looking to do even more with their data can use the CartoDB Platform, a mapping engine that offers a set of APIs and libraries to help users create maps, manage their data and run geospatial analyses. For examples of maps created using CartoDB, visit the Map Gallery.

    “Our collaboration with DigitalGlobe is a significant development for anyone who publishes stories about our world,” said Javier de la Torre, co-founder and CEO of CartoDB. “This partnership will democratize access to high-resolution satellite imagery and data on-demand, incorporating satellite images into interactive stories and content at an affordable price point. The combined power of DigitalGlobe’s extremely current satellite imagery and CartoDB’s easy-to-use platform will enable creative storytellers to communicate and contextualize data with the simple click of a button.”

    The platform enables access to high-resolution imagery captured as recently as 24 hours ago, and archive imagery dating back to 2011. A CartoDB Enterprise account is availale. 

    “Seeing a better world just got easier and faster for journalists, media outlets, and researchers who want to add geospatial context to their online content,” said Josh Winer, sales manager of DigitalGlobe. “With the ease of CartoDB’s mapping tools and platform, customers of any size can quickly and easily integrate high-resolution satellite imagery into their online maps and stories. We’re thrilled to partner with CartoDB and look forward to empowering their community.”

  • DigitalGlobe Offers Satellite Images of Nepal Earthquake

    In response to the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck central Nepal on April 25, DigitalGlobe has made high-resolution satellite imagery of the affected areas freely available online to all groups involved in the response and recovery effort through the company’s FirstLook initiative.

    This imagery can be accessed via http://services.digitalglobe.com.

    Username: nepal
    Password: forcrisis​

    The below before and after images show the destruction of the nine-storey Dharahara Tower, which was built in 1832 and was a UNESCO World Heritage site.

    The Dharahara Tower in Kathmandu, in a DigitalGlobe satellite image taken in October 2014. (Image credit: DigitalGlobe)
    The Dharahara Tower in Kathmandu, in a DigitalGlobe satellite image taken in October 2014. (Image credit: DigitalGlobe)
    The Dharahara Tower is shown leveled following the earthquake (Image credit: DigitalGlobe).
    The Dharahara Tower is shown leveled following the earthquake (Image credit: DigitalGlobe).

    Specifically, DigitalGlobe activated FirstLook, the subscription service that provides emergency management and humanitarian workers with fast, web-based access to pre- and post-event images of the impacted area. DigitalGlobe captured imagery of the area April 26 through heavy cloud cover with its WorldView-1, and WorldView-3 and GeoEye-1 satellites. WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 have been tasked to image the area again April 28. Pre-event imagery dating back to April 1 is also available to aid understanding and coordination for on-the-ground missions.

    In addition, DigitalGlobe has activated Tomnod, the crowdsourcing platform that allows web-connected volunteers around the globe to help disaster response teams by mapping damage from this earthquake. While satellite imagery on its own is useful, greater benefit comes from extracting meaningful information that can be used by first responder and recovery agencies.

    By visiting the Tomnod website, users can participate in the Nepal campaign by tagging damaged buildings, roads, and areas of major destruction to inform disaster response teams on the ground. Whether a person donates five minutes or five hours, anyone can analyze DigitalGlobe imagery to help make a difference.

  • DigitalGlobe Makes Available 30-cm Satellite Imagery to Customers

    DigitalGlobe-satellite-imagery-W

    DigitalGlobe is making available its 30-cm satellite imagery products. Access to the high-resolution commercial satellite imagery captured by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite will improve decision making, enable more efficient operations, and enhance a variety of applications for customers in the civil government, defense and intelligence, energy, mining and global development sectors.

    In addition, many customers who previously relied on aerial imagery can now benefit from the improved economics, global availability, and faster refresh rate that DigitalGlobe can provide with its 30-cm satellite imagery, the company said. Imagery of this resolution was previously only available from aerial platforms, which are difficult, costly, or impossible to access in many parts of the world.

    DigitalGlobe’s 30-cm imagery products are also a rapid and affordable alternative in locations where aerial imagery is readily available. New imagery orders can be delivered on timescales of days or weeks, as opposed to months, in many cases, and customers can also have access to a rapidly growing volume of available 30-cm archive imagery.

    The suitability of 30-cm satellite imagery for aerial imaging applications is confirmed by the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS), which is used by the imaging community to define and measure the quality of images and performance of imaging systems. DigitalGlobe’s 30-cm imagery achieves a rating of NIIRS 5.7, meaning it can resolve objects on the ground such as above-ground utility lines in a residential neighborhood, manhole covers, building vents, fire hydrants, and individual seams on locomotives.

    “DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite data is the highest quality satellite photo data that PhotoSat has ever processed,” said Gerry Mitchell, president of PhotoSat, a satellite elevation mapping provider for energy, mining and engineering firms. “In one test, an elevation mapping grid extracted from stereo WorldView-3 satellite photos matched a highly accurate LiDAR elevation grid to better than 15 cm in elevation. This result takes satellite elevation mapping into the engineering design and construction markets and directly competes with LiDAR and high-resolution air photo mapping for applications like flood plain monitoring.”

    The DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 commercial imaging satellite is capable of collecting imagery with 30-cm ground sample distance — five times the detail of the company’s nearest competitor. The satellite also features unique shortwave infrared (SWIR) capabilities that will enable new applications such as seeing through smoke and haze, identifying minerals and manmade materials, and assessing the health of crops and vegetation.

    The SWIR imagery that the satellite collects has never before been available to commercial customers with this level of spatial and spectral resolution, and it will provide unique value to users in the energy and mining industries, as well as others, DigitalGlobe said. DigitalGlobe also launched a beta program for 7.5 m SWIR imagery, working with partners, customers and users to explore new uses for this capability.

    “Companies should be exploiting the competitive advantages of the WorldView-3 data to look for potential ore-related alteration that will have been missed by the previous satellites used for alteration mapping,” said Dan Taranik, managing director of Exploration Mapping Group, a service provider to the global mineral exploration industry. “Detailed inspection of remote areas on the peripheries of alluvium or younger volcanics would be a competitive advantage that could help reveal concealed deposits.”

  • UN, DigitalGlobe Sign Agreement on Satellite Imagery, Geospatial Solutions

    Digital-Globe-better-world-W
    Screenshot from DigitalGlobe.

    DigitalGlobe, a global provider of high-resolution satellite imagery and geospatial solutions, has signed of a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations.

    Under the agreement, DigitalGlobe and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) will take stock of their combined expertise in the use of earth observation technologies for economic, social, and scientific development and improved decision-making, particularly in developing countries.

    UNOOSA and DigitalGlobe will work to develop an online platform to provide easy access to imagery catalogues as well as data and analytical services specifically tailored for the needs of the United Nations. Under the agreement, DigitalGlobe will provide advisory services on remote-sensing imagery and geospatial analytics, working with UNOOSA to advance and accelerate adoption of geospatial and satellite imagery-based analytics across the entire United Nations System.

    The cooperation will also extend to DigitalGlobe’s participation in relevant UNOOSA-supported events and activities, including those of the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) and of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG).

    “Cooperation and collaboration in the area of geospatial information and analytics will improve how the United Nations, including its member states and its system of organizations, can address global economic, environmental, geopolitical, and societal issues,” said Simonetta Di Pippo, director of UNOOSA.

    “DigitalGlobe is thrilled to partner with UNOOSA, the United Nations body that promotes international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe president and CEO. “The arrangement provides an ideal platform to explore how high-resolution satellite imagery and geospatial analytics can be more efficiently and effectively shared across the entire United Nations System, thus propelling us toward our purpose of ‘Seeing a Better World.”

    Watch a video of the Seeing a Better World project.

  • DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data Platform Enabling New Commercial Solutions

    DigitalGlobe, Inc., has agreed to provide another commercial customer access to its Geospatial Big Data (GBD) platform, paving the way for new analytic products serving the insurance, forestry, oil & gas, and mining industries, the company said.

    Exogenesis is a provider of advanced analytics, algorithm development, and predictive modeling and simulation. The company has subscribed to DigitalGlobe’s GBD service to facilitate new product development enabled by large-scale data analysis.

    The agreement includes access to algorithms, expertise, and petabytes of high-resolution satellite imagery collected over the past 15 years. DigitalGlobe customers Orbital Insight and Cuende have also subscribed to the service and are introducing unique products to their commercial markets.

    DigitalGlobe’s cloud-based GBD offering is a “platform as a service” model that provides access to DigitalGlobe’s vast image library. It is designed to create a new ecosystem in which partners and developers can leverage their expertise and API’s to create new customer solutions without the cost of owning and operating costly IT infrastructure, DigitalGlobe said.

    The GBD platform is one of the strategic initiatives propelling DigitalGlobe toward its vision of becoming the indispensable source of information about the planet, the company said.

    “Exogenesis is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with DigitalGlobe, the biggest name in commercial satellite imagery,” said Sean Anklam, president of Exogenesis. “As an early adopter of DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data platform, we will be able to provide the most advanced decision support information derived from source imagery of the highest quality.”

    “It’s a privilege to bring our Geospatial Big Data capabilities to the market with an innovative partner like Exogenesis,” said Shay Har-Noy, DigitalGlobe’s Senior Director for GBD. “We are committed to investing in Geospatial Big Data in order to create a living digital inventory of the surface of the earth, enabled by our unmatched satellite constellation, commitment to ecosystem partners, and ability to convert imagery at scale into searchable, analytics-ready information layers.”

  • DigitalGlobe Launches WorldView-3 High-Resolution Commercial Satellite

    DigitalGlobe, a  provider of commercial high-resolution Earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions, successfully launched WorldView-3, the company’s sixth and most advanced super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite.

    The satellite launched August 13 on a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

    “The successful launch of WorldView-3 extends DigitalGlobe’s commanding technological lead and will enable us to help our customers see through smoke, peer beneath the ocean’s surface, and determine the mineral and moisture content of the Earth below — all with unprecedented clarity,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe.

    WorldView-3 will collect super-spectral imagery at 0.31 meter resolution — delivering five times the clarity of the company’s nearest competitor. In addition, WorldView-3 will offer the most spectral diversity available commercially, the company said, and will offer multiple shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands that allow for accurate imaging through haze, fog, dust, smoke and other air-born particulates. The satellite will also offer CAVIS — a cloud, aerosol, water vapor, ice and snow atmospheric correction instrument — which monitors the atmosphere and corrects data for an unprecedented level of consistency.

    “The unmatched abilities that WorldView-3 brings to our constellation will enable us to provide our customers with information and insight never before possible and advance our efforts to create a living digital inventory of the Earth,” Tarr said.

    The satellite and atmospheric monitoring instrument called CAVIS were built by Ball Aerospace. Exelis built the integrated, super-spectral payload consisting of a telescope, sensor and shortwave infrared system, making WorldView-3 the first commercial satellite to carry such capabilities. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle provided by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) delivered the satellite into orbit.

  • Missing Plane, New Mapping Abilities, and GPS Jamming

    As the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 riveted our attention, many sprang into action. More than two million volunteers scoured online satellite images for signs of the plane via Tomnod, a crowdsourcing project of DigitalGlobe.

    Volunteers like Robert Wilkinson are asked to view satellite photos and tag any signs of wreckage, rafts, oil spills and other objects that may be of interest. “It took me the first hour to understand that I was looking at waves or tidal pools rather than debris or anything useful to the search,” said Wilkinson. “After that, I might have seen one or two things that I couldn’t explain, but I tagged them appropriately.”

    All images that are tagged are reviewed by special algorithms before being viewed by experts. Tomnod reported that more than 650,000 objects had been tagged, and the maps had been viewed more than 98 million times.

    Calls on Flight 370. This month, the Internet was full of questions about mobile communications and the missing Malaysia airplane. People didn’t understand why passengers on board the flight hadn’t made mobile emergency calls. On September 11, 2001, it was widely recalled, some passengers were able to make phone calls from the hijacked planes. Flight 370 was likely too high or going too fast to enable phones to register with cell towers. Experts say that planes flying above 5-10,000 feet would have difficulty making connections. Radar analysis estimated that the plane may have been flying as low as 12,000 feet or as high as 45,000 feet. On 9/11, passengers made calls when the plane was low or used satellite air phones available in business class.

    GPS and Football. Security at places where large crowds congregate is always a concern. At last month’s Super Bowl, GPS devices tracked and monitored the team vehicles. To protect the GPS, a product from Exelis was used to detect and locate GPS interference sources to protect critical GPS signal-dependent infrastructure. Eight sensors were positioned in an array pattern to detect and locate any jamming sources.

    Lost in Space. Google’s Project Tango is showcasing a prototype phone brimming with software and sensors that creates a 3D map of the environment. A select group of developers has been given the device and are expected to create innovative applications, including navigation by sight. We do know that one of these devices will be heading to the International Space Station and will be part of a project to enable robots to explore the inside and outside of the craft. The terrestrial uses of the device will include being able to map the interior of a house (the sofa goes where?), navigate through complicated buildings, provide accessibility for those with impaired vision, and emergency response. Project Tango may find interesting uses with 3D printing, which is riding a wave of interest.

    GPS and LED Lights. Philips has been demonstrating an indoor location-based shopping service based on location positioning from LED lighting infrastructure. The system works by using lighting fixtures that form a dense network that not only provides light, but also acts as a positioning grid. Each fixture is identifiable and able to communicate its position to an app on a shopper’s smart device. ByteLight is another company with LED indoor location technology. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons are more established for indoor positioning.

    Truck Market on the Move. Market demand remains strong for mobile resource management (MRM) devices, particularly among local fleets, reports C.J. Driscoll & Associates. “Manufacturers of light and heavy commercial vehicles are becoming increasing involved with telematics,” says Clem Driscoll. “Heavy truck manufacturers are primarily focused on enabling remote vehicle diagnostics.” Many of the large MRM companies are establishing added offices around the world.

    Awkward Timing. INRIX is launching Russia’s first comprehensive traffic information and driver services platform. Russia has many challenges including difficult traffic conditions. The service, available on Audi cars, was developed through an exclusive partnership with Russia’s navigation services provider cdcom. INRIX XD Traffic in Russia provides real-time traffic and incident information covering more than 236,000 kilometers of roadways across 55 cities.