In a striking contrast, the positive and negative sides of unmanned aerial vehicles were highlighted in a single day, July 17. First, in a government-approved demonstration, drones were used to deliver prescription medicine to patients at a temporary health clinic in rural Virginia, reports the Wall Street Journal. The event, reported previously by GPS World, aimed to show how UAVs can alleviate the problem of health-care access while creating economic opportunity for communities.
A manned aircraft carried the packages most of the way, and the flight plan originally called for the drone to make six round trips to carry a total of 10 pounds. But after two successful deliveries, officials decided to send the rest of the payload in one flight.
In stark contrast to that beneficial use of drones, efforts by firefighters to battle a fierce wildfire in California on July 17 were hampered by hobbyists flying consumer drones to capture video of the flames. Planes attempting to deliver water drops found their flights delayed or blocked by the presence of the drones, with private drones flying over the wildfire grounding firefighting aircraft for almost half an hour.
State lawmakers in California are drafting a bill that would impose heavy fines and potential jail time on anyone whose personal drone interferes with firefighting efforts.
GPS World held a webinar on new unmanned aircraft initiatives on May 21 led by a panel of experts. On hand were Don Mark of the law firm Fafinski, Mark and Johnson; James Spicer and Adrien Perkins, both students in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University; and Peter Cosyn site manager and director of research and development at Gatewing, a Trimble company. I also participated.
Alan Cameron, editor-in-chief and publisher of GPS World, hosted the event and introduced the participants. Around 300 people signed up to listen to the webinar and ask questions.
Don Mark provided a legal overview of the FAA’s regulations for UAS, FAA and U.S. Senate initiatives, James Spicer and Adrien Perkins reviewed the Jäger UAV jammer detection project, and Peter Cosyn provided an overview of the Gatewing/Trimble UX5 UAS solution. I provided insight into recent UAS industry.
Finally, the panel discussed a few of several written questions submitted by the webinar attendees. We promised to publish both these questions and our attempt at providing answers. Please bear in mind that this is new area of technology, applications and regulations governing operations — so we welcome clarifications and inputs as we may miss the mark occasionally!
Q&A for GPS World Webinar:
“New Frontiers in Unmanned Flight: Hey You, UAV!”
Is the FAA going to keep requiring a pilot’s license to operate a UAV?
The draft sUAS rulemaking proposed by the FAA does not require a pilot’s license. Instead, there’s a requirement to pass an aeronautical knowledge test, obtain an FAA UAS operator certificate and to pass an FAA knowledge test every 24 months. However, the Section 333 exemptions granted by FAA so far have all required that the operator have a private pilot’s license.
What are the effects (operational, legal) of GNSS receiver failures in UAV missions and what are some technical measures to avoid them?
Most UAS used within a critical or commercial operation not only carry GNSS, but also have some form of navigation back-up system — MEMS inertial being the most common — so navigation is still possible, albeit for a short time with any degree of accuracy. And in the event of a communications link failure, the norm is to have the UAV follow a pre-programmed “return-to-base” route, so the vehicle returns safely to a known location.
What is the development of UAVs in the healthcare industry?
There are a number of ongoing and proposed applications of drones that are health related. A prototype system in Delft, Netherlands, carries a defibrillator to be used to revive heart-attack victims. The concept is that a network of geographically distributed drones would be called from a cellphone, and the closest UAV would be dispatched and would be able to arrive much quicker than a conventional ambulance.
This drone is part of a prototype healthcare delivery system in Delft, designed to carry a defibrillator to heart attack victims and caregivers.
Other healthcare applications could include the rapid delivery of vaccines, medications and supplies delivered right to the source of an outbreak. This could more rapidly reduce the incidence of life-threatening communicable diseases. Communication equipment, mobile technology and portable shelters could be delivered in a rapid fashion to areas where critical infrastructure damage would prevent ground or typical air transport. Drones have also been used extensively in disaster relief efforts.
Also, in July, unmanned aerial vehicles will deliver medical supplies to a free health clinic in Wise, Virginia. The most urgent prescriptions will be provided by pharmacies located out of town. To get the medicine to the community as soon as possible, the pharmacies will deliver them to their local airport, where they will be collected by NASA’s fixed-winged aircraft and be flown to Lonesome Pine Airport. When the prescriptions arrive there, they will be loaded onto Flirtey drones and delivered to the Wise County Fairground. Flirtey drones are expected to deliver around 24 packages of prescription medication.
Please describe LiDAR systems available for UAVs.
There are many lightweight LIDAR systems on the market for UAV applications — some even come integrated within their own operational drone system. Coupling drone-mounted LiDAR systems with vision cameras, advanced computer processing and GPS, it has now become possible to create a remotely piloted flying LiDAR scanner.
Routescene’s LiDAR pod attached to the belly of a UAV.
Update us on legal matters within the European Union?
The EU has been very active in preparing for the commercial use of UAS, so drone use in the EU appears to be significantly higher than in North America because of the proactive effort of regulators to introduce drones into regular commercial applications. This Forbes article summarizes the approach being taken and the progress towards introducing regulations within the EU by the end of 2015.
You speak of “UAV navigation in environments where traditional GPS receivers may fail.” Are you considering indoors navigation or “just” urban environment?
It’s true that drones are being operated indoors — for instance, within restaurants. In these environments, all the typical indoor navigation techniques will be viable — RF/magnetic fingerprinting, Bluetooth beacons, Wi-Fi source databases, cellphone signals including small cells, and even optical sensors, all often combined with indoor maps.
Urban environments with a restricted view of the sky also continue to challenge GNSS only navigation, which has led to extensive use of integrated inertial/GNSS navigation sensors.
Modularity of UAVs? Different sensors for different types of applications using the same UAV?
A number of professional drone manufacturers offer UAS that could carry different payloads. However, most manufacturers seem to focus on particular applications (flying camera, LIDAR and/or video survey) and don’t carry an extensive range of optional third-party payload equipment.
What regulations are there for self-made UAS?
It’s hard to imagine that the regulations would be different for a commercially manufactured drone or a home-built UAS. Only time will tell as regulations are developed that include this category of UAS.
What background and abilities should a team possess if it wants to develop a UAV?
An engineering team that takes on developing a UAV needs to be aware of the basics of flight, navigation and control/communications — these are the principle elements of UAV operations.
Do you exploit software-defined radio techniques?
Software-defined radios may find their way into UAVs whenever weight/volume are an issue, but they potentially require higher computing capability, and maybe somewhat higher power to run co-processors. Weight and power consumption are at a premium on small UAVs, so any initiative that saves in these areas will no doubt be welcomed.
What are the emerging application areas for UAVs?
It would seem that the application areas for UAVs are virtually unlimited. High interest areas include agriculture, pipelines, buildings and transmission line inspection, aerial survey, filmmaking and newsgathering, wildlife and environmental monitoring, fishing and military reconnaissance/weapons delivery. But there are many, many applications, some of which might not fit into this summary of applications.
When will the UAV market move beyond focusing on the drone itself and get to the important topic of what sensor technology and back-office systems provide the best value to the user? The UAV is a commodity.
Good comment — the utility of the UAV comes from the payload it carries and the analysis of the data it collects and how it can be operated.
I’m curious if the UAV mission will be used in conjunction with autonomous agricultural tractors and construction machinery. I’m assuming an off-site tractor operator would benefit from the aerial data for their scope of work.
Absolutely — another possible UAV application.
Do you know when high-altitude long-endurance solar-powered UAVs will start being used?
The key application being pursued by Google using high-altitude, long-endurance, solar-powered drones is to provide Internet coverage in areas that currently have no ground infrastructure. A number of countries around the world would benefit from connection to the Internet using this approach. Unfortunately, the prototype aircraft built by Titan Aerospace recently crashed. But Google has vowed to continue with its efforts. Another development, called Project Loon, involves the use of high-altitude balloons and is already well underway.
I am currently enrolled in the UAV Pilots Certificate Training Program offered through the Unmanned Vehicle University. Is this certificate, which costs $3500, going to actually benefit me in my future commercial operations? Does the FAA recognize it as anything valid? So unless the certificate provides me some practical advantage, I’m not sure if it was legitimate or a scam. Any thoughts on this or experience with this “University”?
A recent Senate bill seeks to establish the six FAA test centers as the authorities for training UAS pilots. However, it would appear that currently no universal training course has yet been developed or approved for UAS pilot training — so it may be premature at this stage to engage with third parties for training until guidelines are published by the FAA.
What is the positional uncertainty associated with the locational measure of GPS systems on these UAVs? What will it be in five years?
Depending on the application, accuracies between 1 meter and a few centimeters are being achieved. For higher accuracy requirements such as precision surveying, post-processing of data collected during a survey can provide accuracies within a few millimeters.
In five years’ time there will be more satellites in more constellations, and it’s possible that accuracies could improve further. However, the most benefit will come from having more reliable signals, more often, thereby reducing re-test and operational costs.
What industry do you see being the fastest adopter of UAV technology in the USA?
The U.S. military is already leading in the number of applications, number of operational UAS and number of different types of vehicles. Commercial applications have increased substantially now that the FAA has authorized a large number of civilian operations in the last year or so. There are a number of film and TV applications for movie-making and newsgathering, and this appears to be a growing area for commercial UAS. Aerial survey is also growing in popularity, and there is a huge range of monitoring applications for building inspection, pipeline and transmission line inspection, and also for crop growth monitoring — which may turn out eventually to have the highest number of applications in the U.S.
How do you think the industry should protect UAVs from GPS spoofing and other forms of remote or internal component (example ICS or SCADA) attacks?
Solutions to mitigate GNSS spoofing and signal jamming are currently high on the list of most receiver manufacturers’ development agendas, with several options already having reached the market. Anti-jam antennas, improved signal rejection in RF front ends, and algorithms that claim to be able to deduce and overcome spoofing attacks — these are the leading solutions that have been fielded. But we have only just scraped the surface of deceptive techniques being used and the frequency with which they are being encountered, so we should continue to see the solutions evolving to counteract more sophisticated interference and spoofing capabilities over time.
Will the upcoming regulations only impact commercial users, or will they also directly affect non-commercial and/or recreational operators?
In the U.S., regulations governing the operation of recreational or hobby aircraft appear to be less stringent than, say, a drone operating commercially. As long as common sense rules are observed, hobby aircraft operators have been able to operate without the FAA looking over their shoulders — provided they stay below 400 feet in an open space away from sensitive areas such as schools or hospitals and don’t make an inordinate amount of noise, no one has yet proposed more restrictions for hobbyist model aircraft operators. The focus for the FAA is currently on bringing drones safely into the national airspace system for commercial operations, so regulations so far have been mostly formulated to enable this to happen.
Proposed legislation in the USA refers to one pilot per vehicle; no mention is made of swarming or control of multiple vehicles per pilot. Is it worth developing apps that use swarms of UAVs at the moment?
Certainly, it’s been difficult for the FAA to introduce regulations for UAS that are acceptable for most anticipated commercial operators, while still respecting and protecting current manned aircraft operations. So far, we’ve had case-by-case approval for specific operations, while regulations for small UAS (sUAS) have only just been circulated for comments — and a huge number of comments have been received. So regulations for “regular-sized” and operated drones and for larger vehicles have not yet seen the light of day. So, the more complex applications involving the operation of a swarm of UAS may not yet have been even considered by the FAA. It has taken years to get this far, and we still don’t have any published regulations for any class of UAS in commercial applications, so it’s doubtful that there is any work underway on regulations for swarming drones. So develop apps if you wish, but don’t expect much regulatory support for some time yet.
What assurance do we have that a UAV operator won’t deliver a weapon instead of an Amazon purchase?
The exemptions that have been published allow certain well-defined, specific commercial operations of UAS. The unmanned vehicle has to be registered to an individual and get a unique tail number. The operators have to be identified and must regularly demonstrate proficiency and adequate knowledge to become a recognized operator. So authorities get to inspect the UAV, know the owner and know the operator, and even get to review and approve the location of each UAS operation — not that that would prevent someone subsequently modifying the vehicle to carry ordinance, or knowingly attacking a target. It would, however, be pretty easy to track down the offender, but that doesn’t really prevent “weaponization” or delivery. But we are only at the small-vehicle-level currently, so its doubtful if major damage would be possible with small weapons, but an individual attack might still be lethal. Careful screening of individuals seems to be the route the regulators have taken to minimize this risk. This is still a difficult issue that is going to take some policing and close control.
Instead of an actual pilot’s license required for legal flight of a UAV, do you think an all-encompassing UAV pilot’s license will be required? I ask because I am a trained Trimble UX5 pilot, but I do not have my pilot’s license. I also build UAVs, and I am curious how I would get a UAV pilot’s license for a UAV I built? Unless they had an all-encompassing training course for pilot/flight safety.
The FAA proposed rulemaking for sUAS operations did not require operators to have a pilot’s license. Instead, UAS operators are required to undertake a specific recurrent training course for UAS operators, administered by FAA qualified trainers. Regulations relating to “home-built” UAS have yet to emerge, and may be some time away from publication.
It is said that mainland China has over 70% of the world UAV market? How did we fall so far behind?
Lack of regulations in the U.S. may have held back U.S. industry — see related comments by Amazon in testimony to the U.S. Congress.
But also the absence of restrictions in other countries may have helped overseas manufacturers get established and to gain initial market share. While the majority of done R&D was initially within the U.S., it’s clear that DJI and its Phantom line of drones have become very popular, very quickly. Strangely enough, the largest concentration of buyers and operators currently appears to be in the U.S.
Insurance against UAVs crashing and causing damage to humans: what progress has been made in this area?
Several insurance companies are now writing risk-coverage policies for UAS, including Global Aerospace, USAIG, Allianz and AIG.
We are operating a GNSS reference network in Greece, SmartNet-Greece (Leica Geosystems). Is there a tested NTRIP system on UAVs, to be connected and monitored to Ntrip caster? How could this augment real-time GNSS accuracy of UAVs?
Seems like you are trying to get RTCM corrections from a ground network to a flying UAV – correct? So do we need an Internet connection to get your ground network RTCM corrections onto the UAV? I’m not an expert on available mobile Internet hook-ups, but most smartphones have one, so it can’t be that hard to add this onto a UAV. Alternatively, wouldn’t it be easier to have the GNSS receiver on the UAV listen to a PPP broadcast from one of the several services providing these corrections? We could get down as far as 10 cm accuracy with one of these commercially available correction services.
Talk about the possibilities of precise positioning in UAVs, instead of mapping.
Precise real-time positioning on a UAV is a question of which GNSS receiver is onboard and which PPP or local RTK network transmissions are available in the area of UAV operations. Positioning accuracy is possible of a few centimeters down to a few millimeters post-processed.
Realistically, how close are we to being able to fly UAVs for commercial applications such as topographic surveys and earthworks applications such as mining sites?
As we heard during the webcast, obtaining an FAA section 333 exemption is quite possible for these applications, and some have already been granted. The FAA has been streamlining the process recently to reduce the time it takes to obtain these authorizations.
What is a practical ceiling for UAV flight?
The FAA has limited UAS operations to below 400 feet in the Section 333 exemptions that have been granted, while 500 feet is used as the maximum ceiling in the proposed draft sUAS regulations.
What is status of technology for “see and avoid” requirements for UAVs?
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) and Honeywell International Inc. have successfully demonstrated a UAS proof-of-concept sense-and-avoid (SAA) system. GA-ASI worked with NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center to integrate the new system aboard NASA’s Ikhana research aircraft, a civilian version of the company’s Predator B. The flight-test campaign in November and December 2014 evaluated the SAA system in a wide variety of collision-avoidance and self-separation encounters between two remotely piloted aircraft and various manned aircraft and included a sensor-fusion algorithm being developed by Honeywell.
NASA’s Ikhana Predator B drone.
An RTCA subcommittee is also working in parallel to develop the requirements for an SAA system, and these flight-test evaluations will contribute to those technical standards.
Other companies that are also thought to be active in SAA development include Rockwell/Collins, Sierra Nevada and Insitu/ Queensland University of Technology Australia.
So, a large number of questions on a pretty wide range of subjects — hopefully some of the answers we’ve provided will be of assistance — but please provide us with your comments if you have information to share.
Disclaimer: The statements, questions, views and opinions presented in this article are those of the author and webcast audience, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of GPS World magazine, its owners or staff. Readers are also warned that the answers are provided on a best-effort basis and could be less than 100% correct.
Drone experts will join with those from the medical field in a demonstration July 17 in Wise, Va. The event, “Let’s Fly Wisely,” aims to show how unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can alleviate the problem of health care access while creating economic opportunity for communities.
Many people in Virginia and across rural America are beyond reach of essential health services and basic supplies, ranging from bandages to medicine, according to event organizers. The drones will deliver essential medical supplies to an annual medical clinic held at the Wise County Fairgrounds every summer, organized by Remote Area Medical (RAM) USA and the Health Wagon.
At the clinic, thousands of medical specialists provide free eye, dental and health care services to people in urgent need, in what event organizers say is the largest free health care outreach in the nation.
The UAS used for the demonstration will be a completely autonomous rotorcraft, designed by Flirtey, capable of delivering small payloads of drugs and medical equipment to isolated areas, and a larger, fixed-wing aircraft operated by NASA Langley Research Center, capable of carrying up to 600 pounds of cargo.
The most urgent prescriptions will be provided from pharmacies located out of town, reports Startup Daily. To get the medicine to the community as soon as possible, the pharmacies will deliver them to their local airport, where they will be collected by NASA’s fixed-winged aircraft and flown to Lonesome Pine Airport. When the prescriptions arrive there, they will be loaded onto Flirtey drones and delivered to the Wise County Fairground. Flirtey drones are expected to deliver around 24 packages of prescription medication.
The FAA-approved research flights will put UAS technology to work for medical relief, to show how unmanned aircraft can help health professionals provide care more easily and efficiently, closing the gap between those who can offer medical help and those who need it most.
“In doing so, we will demonstrate the promise of a technology that offers a bright future for our youth — right here in Virginia, where Wise County is rapidly becoming a center for technology manufacturing and testing. We believe Let’s Fly Wisely is much more than a novel use of technology in healthcare. It is an example of the self-reliance, ingenuity and wherewithal of the American people and Virginians in particular,” organizers said.
The collaboration includes nonprofits, universities, corporations and government organizations, including Virginia Tech Institute of Critical Technology and Applied Sciences. The Federal Aviation Administration selected Virginia Tech in December 2013 as one of six national test programs to conduct research on integrating unmanned aircraft into the nation’s airspace.
Other partners include:
The Appalachian College of Pharmacy
Flirtey, Inc.
Health Wagon
The Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership
NASA Langley Research Center (pending approval of the Space Act agreement between NASA Langley Research Center and Virginia Tech)
Remote Area Medical
Rx Partnership
SEESPAN, Inc.
Wise County Economic Development
The video below shows how Australian start-up Flirtey delivers packages with its drones.
The Brevis GNSS antenna is the latest addition to Antenova’s gigaNOVA family of miniature antennas. The small antenna is designed to be used in portable handheld devices that have GNSS receivers — for example, in devices and applications that have a tracking capability or location accessories such as in transport, navigation, wearables and eHealth.
The multi-GNSS antenna is designed for embedded applications, with a high efficiency-to-size ratio. It is intended for use in applications where there is no ground beneath the antenna. It has near omni-directional characteristics which will provide good performance for any device.
The Brevis operates with the following GNSS bands: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou. Brevis GNSS is a low-profile, small-footprint antenna designed for surface-mount device (SMD) mounting, so it can simply be placed on a printed circuit board (PCB) to add wireless connections to any device.
Full technical specifications for the Brevis GNSS antenna and contact details for regional distributors are available on Antenova’s website.
This year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the biggest ever, with 95,000 attendees and thousands of booths, conferences and people with sore feet walking a cavernous exhibition hall. While the Geneva Auto Show ran close to the same dates, connected vehicle companies and technology were prominently featured. What was interesting, however, was the rise of indoor positioning companies and mobile advertising agencies with interest in location.
BARCELONA — Joining the 95,000 or so Mobile World Congress attendees were about three dozen companies who are offering indoor location and location advertising services. These companies have exhibited at previous conferences, but not in the numbers this year.
At the huge Fira convention center where MWC was held March 2-5, Los Altos, Calif.-based Pole Star installed more than 600 beacons for indoor location. Visitors were able to be guided to booths and other areas through an interactive map. “Business was good in 2014, we sold 10,000 beacons. We are making money,” said Christian Carle, Pole Star CEO.
One analyst said that the big change at MWC wasn’t the number of indoor positioning companies and demos, but the maturity and breadth of the technology. “Intel announced indoor positioning capabilities in their Wi-Fi chip, and had a demo that was very impressive. Many smaller companies that in past years were showing raw technology were showing polished solutions this year, such as Quuppa, MTI and Sensewhere, said Bruce Krulwich, Grizzly Analytics president, who has authored a report identifying 150 indoor positioning companies. “I definitely see a shake-out coming up, but it won’t be one technology prevailing over another. Different technologies meet different needs in the industry, and different technologies fit different sites. There are technologies that deliver universal indoor positioning, without any infrastructure or preparation, such as Wi-Fi multilateration and sensor fusion.”
Krulwich said that there is a shake-out that’s already started because there are too many companies working on similar technologies. “Start-ups in the area that don’t have differentiating innovation, don’t have integration into retail or other back-end systems, and don’t have market penetration, are already finding themselves in a challenge. But companies with clear innovations and commercial deployments will do fine,” he said.
United Kingdom-based Sensewhere is using crowdsourcing in its indoor positioning software. The software uses radios to scan for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to allow an IP location to reference the sources and form a location database.
“It’s what we call the universal indoor positioning versus venue specific indoor positioning, which can work anywhere — we just need a crowd of people. Our target partners are handset manufacturers, network operators, social media, social network providers, and also chipset guys as well,” said Rob Palfreyman, Sensewhere CEO. “So, there are obviously a lot of companies like Google looking at venues; there is Micello and TomTom looking at add-ins in the indoor location, which is great news, but it just needs to have a technology that can drive the blue dot on their map, and we feel that Sensewhere is the right place to provide that blue dot because of the crowdsourcing global nature of our approach.”
One company, which has developed a popular mobile game, is using its network to attract advertisers for its location-based ad platform. “We already have the infrastructure in place because of our mobile game. With our platform, we can allow advertisers to launch campaigns using our beacon signals and geofencing,” said Pedro Jahara, CEO of Brazil-based RevMob.
New location technology like the ability to track SIM cards was rolled out at MWC. W-Locate, which is partnering with Morpho in Thailand, is tracking SIM cards with its XimLoc product, which the company said is more accurate indoors than other technology.
Even such companies as Geotab, which is a strong player in the fleet market, are leveraging MWC to continue a foothold in the European market. The company displayed its IOX-CAN system that can send data from a mobile device to the MyGeotab system, which can be viewed an analyzed by fleet managers, said Maria Sotra, Geotab marketing manager.
Geotab also partnered with Telefonica in November 2014 to focus efforts in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, Sotra said.
At MWC, location-based advertising market is gaining traction as advertisers are seeing the benefit of locating and attracting customers. New York-based xAd said it has doubled its revenue for the second year. “We have billions of mobile ads processed and billions of ad impressions. The company is profitable,” said Dipanshu Sharma, xAd founder and CEO.
He said the company has expanded into France and Germany and added China to its global ad network.
Another company that is using location technology as a differentiator is Airpush, which had another big presence at MWC. The company’s Abstract Banners was a big draw to attendees. Location, particularly geofenced areas, have created a call to action for consumers, which is attractive to advertisers, said Cameron Peeples, Airpush vice president of marketing.
Connected Car Still Big Opportunity at MWC
Although the Geneva Auto Show was starting as the MWC was ending, there were still several big announcements by connected car companies in Barcelona. Even the well-publicized Samsung S6 and S6 Edge and HTC One M9 handset rollouts included Mirrorlink, the connected vehicle standard from the Connected Car Consortium.
In another big announcement, Audi and AT&T said that all 2016 model vehicles equipped with Audi connect will come with the carrier’s 4G LTE or 3G coverage. This increase in services is big because the auto giant just rolled out 4G AT&T service in Audi A3s last year.
AT&T selected Airbiquity to provide end-user registration and device management connected vehicle services for select customer programs. “Airbiquity will deliver these services to AT&T using our Choreo cloud-based connected vehicle services delivery platform and project management, engineering, and operations teams,” said David Jumpa, Airbiquity chief revenue officer. “This is a ‘white label’ agreement whereby AT&T will integrate Airbiquity’s service delivery capability into AT&T’s connected vehicle customer solutions.”
Another location company is making huge inroads in connected vehicle markets with its Glympse for Autos product. Glympse will be installed in select Volkswagen and Peugeot models through MirrorLink, said Bryan Trussel, company co-founder and CEO.
The app allows users to share location from their vehicle by setting the recipient and timer, and hitting send. The company has a similar app for Gogo inflight aviation networks to allow a person on the ground to know where an airplane is for picking up passengers.
In other connected car news, Accenture is providing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles the capability of in-car, Internet-based services. Starting with the new Fiat 500X, Uconnect Live services, which was co-developed by Accenture, will power an infotainment system that offers music and news services, social network access, the ability to monitor driving style and a range of diagnostic services.
Accenture also partnered with Visa for an IoT-based connected car commerce test. At MWC, the company tested a scenario where drivers could order food from the car using cellular, Bluetooth and beacon connectivity. Accenture deployed a similar system with BMW’s ConnectedDrive, which allows customers to choose services in real time for a vehicle.
Health Market Even Has Location Potential
Niche location applications are growing as Internet of Things, or IoT, markets start to grow. One company taking advantage of the mobile market is Annapolis, Md.-based TCS, which featured its VirtuMedix platform in its MWC booth.
The platform is tailored to emergency physicians as part of the growing market for video telemedicine products and mobile health, said Jay Whitehurst, TCS commercial software group president. “It’s already saving lives,” he said of the platform, which combines encryption, navigation, mapping and messaging.
While the product, now being rolled out in a North Carolina emergency medicine group, provides patients with an alternative to urgent care centers and emergency rooms, it also can be used for longer term cases such as assisted living and rehab centers, the company said.
Whitehurst said TCS has made several company acquisitions that have played a part in new product rollouts, which include the company’s Trusted Location. The application allows financial firms, online gaming companies and others to identify and prevent credit-card fraud. The application identifies and validates a device’s location worldwide.
In other Mobile World Congress news:
Spirent said its simulators have the capability to evaluate Wi-Fi Offload and Wi-Fi performance of mobile devices on its test framework. The new product allows companies to test multiple devices on a single unit to cover Wi-Fi/LTE mobility and interoperability. The testing is important in light of wireless carriers’ strategy to extend VoLTE in areas where cell coverage is limited, said Saul Einbinder, Spirent vice president, venture development.
Google Waze said its Google Mobile Service (GMS) will be available as a preinstall option on mobile devices. OEMs and carriers can preinstall the app on their handsets so consumers can use the service immediately, the company said.
Trimble’s ALK said its ALK Maps and route visualization software is now available in Europe. ALK Maps, launched in the United States in 2012, allows users to overlay routing, geocoding points, weather and other features, the company said.
GTX Corp, a personal location wearables company, has entered a strategic partnership with Life Button 24, a division of World Wide Security Group and provider of life safety, dispatch and monitoring services since 1979.
Under the strategic partnership, GTX Corp will offer Life Button 24 services to its GPS SmartSole customers, providing 24/7 access to live dispatch operators that can assist caregivers when a loved one goes missing. The premium service will be offered through GTX on a monthly subscription basis as an add-on to existing monthly tracking service plans provided by GTX.
“Our GPS SmartSoles were specifically designed for caregivers to be able to react in real time to find a loved one who has wandered off,” commented Andrew Duncan, director of GTX Corp. “By partnering with Life Button 24, we will now offer our U.S. customers an enhanced level of service and extra layer of protection. The service will be able to provide a caregiver with the ability to contact a live person, who can assist in coordinating the successful search and rescue of the loved one, or assist in notifying the proper authorities if needed. By offering this service, we enable individual caregivers and assisted living staff, among others, with an additional level of 24/7 human response, when critical support is most needed.”
“Life Button 24 is thrilled to provide 24-hour emergency response services in partnership with the GTX Corp SmartSole GPS system,” said Jeff Katz, director of project development for Life Button 24. “Addressing wandering issues of individuals afflicted with Alzheimer’s and autism is a growing concern for the millions of families and caregivers. Life Button 24 looks forward to being part of a greater solution that delivers peace-of-mind through advanced tracking technology and customized emergency response services, which were designed specifically to support applications such as the GPS SmartSole.”
“With initial delivery dates for our GPS SmartSoles to consumers being confirmed next week and several pilot agreements with large organizations kicking off this month, the timing of this partnership with Life Button 24 couldn’t be better. “After several months of integrating and testing our platform and services and having socialized this new offering with some of our larger partners in law enforcement and the assisted living community, we are extremely excited to start offering this service and look forward to a successful partnership with the Life Button 24 team.” Commented Patrick Bertagna CEO of GTX Corp.
Ricoh Americas Corporation has made major improvements to its water-, dust- and shock-resistant G800 camera. The G800SE model includes GPS and a barcode-reading capability that helps streamline workflows across a wide range of industries.
The new Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled Ricoh G800SE allows for dynamic information capture in industries such as automotive, logistics, government, healthcare, emergency services and more. For example, a car dealership can scan the barcode on a new car, photograph the vehicle, and have the photograph and vehicle information flow directly to the dealership website for customers to see. This new workflow saves hours of painstaking information retrieval and organization, Ricoh said. With a standard camera, clerks would need to manually match images to each car, introducing the possibility of error at every step.
“By embedding critical data into images, the Ricoh G800SE epitomizes information mobility, the ability for employees to access just the information they need in the form they need it to make important decisions,” said Matt Sakauchi, vice president, Technology Marketing, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “This is just one way we’re making customers’ business information work for them in this new world of work.”
The Ricoh G800SE includes a host of upgrades over the previous generation of ruggedized Ricoh wireless-enabled camera, the Ricoh G700SE. For example, a higher-resolution image sensor provides a new ability to capture images under low-light conditions. The Ricoh G800SE also takes advantage of higher wireless transmission speeds and the more secure “enterprise” Wi-Fi increasingly seen in healthcare facilities and government agencies. It leverages the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), an emerging standard in enterprise wireless security.
A flexible password lock feature enables organizations to create separate passwords for administrators and users with each one unlocking different sets of permissions. A smartphone connection enables users to remotely operate the camera via their mobile devices. Using a smartphone or tablet, they can preview, zoom, shoot and capture image data, including GPS position. The capability is also intended for surveillance applications.
Organizations can manage fleets of Ricoh G800SE cameras via remote management software with the ability to upgrade firmware, adjust camera settings and update memo functions. An alternative for camera configuration is distributing SD cards with prescribed settings.
Figure 1. Mammograms in last two years; percent of respondents, by counties.
Trends Discerned in the National Cancer Institute’s Geospatial Databases Carry the Fight Forward
Location matters in cancer, as in many other things. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recognized this fact more than 40 years ago, and its researchers have been investigating striking geographic differences in many cancers ever since. Most studies have found that these differences were due to lifestyle differences, such as levels of smoking and diet, although research into possible environmental causes are hampered by a lack of exposure data during the relevant period, 20–30 years prior to diagnosis.
Geospatial tools serve NCI in a variety of applications, including:
the identification and display of the geographic patterns of cancer incidence and mortality rates in the U.S. and their change over time,
the creation of complex databases for the study of cancer screening, diagnosis, and survival at the community level,
environmental exposure assessment through satellite imagery,
spatial statistical models to estimate cancer incidence, prevalence, and survival for every U.S. state,
communication of local cancer information to the public and public health professionals through interactive web-based tools,
the identification of health disparities at the local level through the comparison of cancer outcomes across demographic subgroups, and
development of new methods of displaying geospatial data for clear communication to the public and for examination of complex multivariate data by researchers.
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
The Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP) and the Surveillance Research Program (SRP) support grant research to use GIS in cancer research and the development of methodologies to accomplish this research. EGRP also funded the development and maintenance of a geographic information system for breast-cancer studies on Long Island (LI GIS). The LI GIS is available to researchers and can be used to study other types of cancer and conditions as well.
Surveillance Research Program
The Statistical Methodology and Applications Branch (SMAB) contributes to GIS research by developing statistical methods for the analysis, display, and web-based communication of geo-referenced cancer data.
The Surveillance Systems Branch (SSB) oversees the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, an integrated, comprehensive, multiple population-based reporting system of cancer registries covering 26% of the U.S. population. Cancer incidence information is provided at the state, county, and census-tract level. Investigators in SEER’s Rapid Response Surveillance Studies (RRSS) are exploring and applying GIS technology in several areas.
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics
The Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program (EBP) has a long history of publishing the NCI cancer atlases.
The Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) has an active research program in using satellite imagery to estimate the potential exposure to cancer-causing environmental agents by individuals living in agricultural areas.
As to the finer granularity customarily seen in GIS databases by professionals using them in mapping, natural resource and asset management, utilities, and other sectors, researcher Linda Pickle of Pennsyslvania State University and StatNet Consulting comments:
“The SEER program at NCI does get the census-tract identification from the registries, but you have to get permission to use it. Mortality is only reported to NCHS at the county level. Therefore, all nationwide maps of cancer rates (incidence or mortality) must be at the geographic level available for all states, that is, county. Each state has the option to present its own data at smaller levels.
“Figure 2 gives an example of sub-county maps published by California Cancer registries. California is densely populated in many counties, and so the state has defined aggregations of census tracts for their maps. Some of California is in the SEER program; other parts have registries funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).”
Figure 2. Breast cancer data for Los Angeles County.
“Another state example: the Kentucky SEER registry has developed a useful online tool to explore Kentucky cancer patterns,” Pickle said. “See Figure 3. This design has been used by CDC for an online U.S. cancer atlas and by other states.”
Figure 3. Cancer incidence rates in Kentucky.
FURTHER READING
Visualizing Data Patterns with Micromaps By Daniel B. Carr and Lindia Williams Pickle
Cancer surveillance — an assessment of the number and type of cancer cases that occur in an area and in a specified population — provides critically important information needed for determining geographic variations in cancer rates and for planning cancer control intervention programs.
By Li Zhu, Linda W. Pickle, Zhaohui Zou, and James Cucinelli
This article is about projecting from the data that were available from surveillance/data-collection efforts to get estimates of the number of new cancer cases that would occur in the upcoming calendar year. That is, we used data from up to four years previous (because of the time it takes to find cases, process data, and so on) to get a current estimate of the number of cases.
We developed the statistical model to do this in 2006, then validated it, modifying the temporal projection method a few years ago. This method was then adopted by the American Cancer Society to produce the numbers of new cases published in their annual Cancer Facts & Figures reports, the most cited cancer reference in the world.
Since the models did not break out childhood cancers, we repeated the modeling process to do that, resulting in the paper cited here.
The method requires first a spatiotemporal prediction across the extensive years of data, since not all cancer registries have data for every year, and secondly a four-year temporal projection from the most current data point to the current calendar year. Here we use this same process applied only to childhood cancer data.
The generalized linear mixed effects model is applied to observed childhood cancer case counts reported to the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries over 1995– 2006 to predict case counts and incidence rates for every U.S. state and the U.S. total (for patients aged 0 to 19 and for major cancers among childhood). Covariates included in the model are measures of income, education, housing, urban/rural status, health insurance coverage, smoking, obesity, and cancer screening. Temporal trends and spatial distribution patterns are compared among childhood cancers for males and females.
Results. A total of 15,168 new cancer cases was projected for the 0–19 age group, with 10,032 childhood cancer cases younger than age 15, and 5,136 cases in the 15–19 age group, in the United States for 2010. There are more male cancer cases than female cases in all three age groups for most cancer sites. The order for the most common malignancies diagnosed in children differs by age group and sex. The study also identifies differences in the geograhic patterns at a small geographic area level by gender, and temporal trends by gender and subsites of childhood cancer incidence.
Conclusions. The resulting set of predictions provides annual estimates for states that did not provide data at all, and projections ahead in time to the current calendar year for every U.S. state and the United States in total. These projections fill in the data gaps for recent years of diagnosis and state registries to provide complete count and rate estimates for childhood cancers for all states, regions, and the U.S. in total for the current calendar year.
(The full article, “Trends and patterns of childhood cancer incidence in the United States, 1995–2010,” appears in Statistics and Its Interface, Volume 7 (2014), pp. 121-134.)
Figure 1. Rates, Ages 0–19 of All Childhood Cancers at HSA Level, 1995–2006, Female. From lightest to darkest: 10.0–14.5,14.6–15.5,15.6–16.5,16.6–17.5,17.6–22.2 per 100,00.Figure 2. Rates, Ages 0–19 of All Childhood Cancers at HSA Level, 1995–2006, Male;
Urban Sprawl, Obesity, and Cancer Mortality
Cross-Sectional Analysis and Methodological Challenges
By David Berrigan, Zaria Tatalovich, Linda W. Pickle, Reid Ewing, and Rachel Ballard-Barbash
Urban sprawl has the potential to influence cancer mortality via direct and indirect effects on obesity, access to health services, physical activity, transportation choices, and other correlates of sprawl and urbanization.
Methods. This paper presents a cross-sectional analysis of associations between urban sprawl and cancer mortality in urban and suburban counties of the United States.
A major focus of our analyses was to adequately account for spatial heterogeneity in mortality. Therefore, we fit a series of regression models, stratified by gender, successively testing for the presence of spatial heterogeneity. Our resulting models included county-level variables related to race, smoking, obesity, access to health services, insurance status, socioeconomic position, and broad geographic region, as well as a measure of urban sprawl and several interactions.
Results. Total cancer mortality rates were higher in less sprawling areas and contrary to our initial hypothesis; this was also true of obesity-related cancers in six of seven U.S. regions (census divisions) where there were statistically significant associations between the sprawl index and mortality. We also found significant interactions between region and urban sprawl for total and obesity-related cancer mortality in both sexes.
Conclusions. Despite higher levels of obesity in more sprawling counties in the U.S., mortality from obesity-related cancer was not greater in such counties. Identification of disparities in cancer mortality within and between geographic regions is an ongoing public health challenge and an opportunity for further analytical work identifying potential causes of these disparities. Future analyses of urban sprawl and health outcomes should consider exploring regional and international variation in associations between sprawl and health.
“Urban sprawl, obesity, and cancer mortality in the U.S.: cross-sectional analysis and methodological challenges,” in International Journal of Health Geographics, January 2014.)
GPS-Measured Physical Activity in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
By C.L. Granger, L. Denehy, C.F. McDonald, L. Irving, R.A. Clark
Physical activity (PA) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We investigated PA using GPS, tracking individuals with NSCLC and similar-aged healthy individuals.
Methods. Fifty individuals with NSCLC and 35 similar-aged healthy individuals without cancer were included. Primary measures were triaxial accelerometery (steps/day) and GPS tracking (outdoor PA behavior). Secondary measures were questionnaires assessing depression, motivation to exercise, and environmental barriers to PA.
Results. Individuals with NSCLC engaged in significantly less PA than similar-aged healthy individuals and had higher levels of depression and lower motivation to exercise. Daily outdoor walking time and distance traveled away from home were not different between groups. Individuals with NSCLC spent less time outdoors in their local neighborhood area. A greater number of steps per day was seen in patients who were less depressed or had better access to nonresidential destinations such as shopping centers.
(The full article, “Physical Activity Measured Using Global Positioning System Tracking in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: An Observational Study,” appears in Integrative Cancer Therapies, July 2014.)
Averna, a developer of test solutions and services for communications and electronics device-makers worldwide, has acquired U.S.-based Cal-Bay Systems, a privately owned provider of test systems, test and measurement solutions, automated testing and vibration monitoring tools. This move is intended to strengthen Averna’s presence in the consumer electronics, medical device, and vibration monitoring markets, as well as providing the company with strategic positioning on the U.S. West Coast.
Averna has acquired 100-percent share of Cal-Bay Systems for an undisclosed amount and will take on management of its U.S. and European offices. The current owners, Buck Smith and Patrick Kelly, will continue to participate in the day-to-day operations and expansion plans. Cal-Bay Systems, headquartered in San Rafael, California, brings to Averna 20 years of test expertise and customer relationships in comprehensive, automated test and measurement processes for mission-critical applications.
“We are thrilled with the acquisition of Cal-Bay, as it is very synergistic with our portfolio of test engineering services and expertise, and constitutes another building block of our growth plan,” said Averna President and CEO André Gareau. “Cal-Bay’s customer base and strategic location on the U.S. West Coast are a great addition to our current operations. This is also a fantastic growth opportunity for Cal-Bay’s team and we welcome them into the Averna family.”
Gareau continued, “These are exciting times for our company and shareholders. This acquisition brings a wealth of business opportunities for our company, and could not have been accomplished without the talented team that we have assembled.”
Berg Insight estimates that revenues for remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions reached € 4.3 billion in 2013, including revenues from medical monitoring devices, mHealth connectivity solutions, care delivery software platforms and monitoring services. RPM revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 35.0 percent between 2013 and 2018, reaching € 19.4 billion at the end of the forecast period.
The findings are discussed in the report “mHealth and Home Monitoring” (PDF brochure).
Savings attributable to payers and care providers will by far exceed this amount as connected care solutions can allow better health outcomes to be achieved more cost efficiently. The new care models enabled by these technologies are furthermore often consistent with patients’ preferences of living more healthy, active and independent lives.
While the healthcare industry is advancing towards an age where connected care solutions will be part of standard practices, this progress is still far from uniform. “The growth in the remote patient monitoring market is today centred on very specific market verticals and regions. Most of the market growth in the sleep therapy segment has for instance occurred in the US and France, where frequent compliance audits are becoming more common,” said Lars Kurkinen, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.
He added that the telehealth market benefits from local and regional project financing in several European countries, whereas remotely monitored medication dispensers gain traction among home care providers in the Benelux and Nordic countries in particular.
In addition to this, the first pharmaceutical companies have recently initiated rollouts of connected adherence monitoring solutions that are bundled together with specific drugs. “Another high-level development that will have a major impact on the use of connected care solutions in several countries during the coming years is the shift from fee-for-service reimbursement systems to pay-for-performance structures that emphasize cost-effective delivery of quality care,” said Mr Kurkinen. In the U.S., one example of this development is the large number of RFPs for telehealth solutions that are being issued due to the hospital readmission reduction programs.
The Motion J3600 by Motion Computing is a rugged and powerful tablet PC for field professionals who need a tough device for working in harsh mobile conditions such as construction, field services, and healthcare. With third-generation Intel Core processors, the Motion J3600 offers high processing power while reducing power draw to deliver uninterrupted performance throughout the workday.
Running Microsoft Windows, the J3600 can be operated with touch navigation or a stylus. It has integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, and enhanced Gobi connectivity with integrated GPS. Geotagging and date stamping with the integrated digital camera can document work in seconds.
u-blox, the Swiss positioning and wireless chip and module company, has been chosen for global positioning and embedded 2G/3G wireless technologies by MobileHelp, an American provider of M-PERS (Mobile-Personal Emergency Response System) technology. Based on u-blox’ LISA 2G/3G wireless modem and MAX GPS modules, the comprehensive system includes compact, portable alert devices that function in and around the home, and while traveling.
“As the population ages, more and more people are choosing to remain independent for as long as possible” said Robert Flippo, President of MobileHelp. “With the help of u-blox’ reliable, low-power positioning and wireless technologies, our MobileHelp medical alert systems are giving a whole generation of people the freedom to live in their homes and travel independently knowing that simple and fast emergency assistance is just a push-button away.”
Unlike traditional 911 direct dial services, MobileHelp devices deliver instant positional information as well as personalized medical data to an emergency response center at the touch of a button. The system is integrated with nationwide wireless voice, data and satellite GPS technology to provide real-time medical monitoring services, location tracking, and instant voice contact with trained emergency response operators. MobileHelp also offers Caregiver Tools, an innovative event notification and online tracking platform that keeps families and caregivers informed of an emergency event. With AT&T as connectivity partner, the devices work in 97 percent of the inhabited areas of the USA.
MobileHelp comes in three configurations, “Classic” for home-monitoring over fixed line telephone, “Solo” for travelling and at homes without a fixed line telephone connection, and “Duo,” for travelling and at homes that have a fixed line telephone connection.
MobileHelp’s alert products have been developed with Singapore-based Daviscomms, a design and manufacturing partner providing advanced engineering services to customers in the consumer and industrial markets worldwide.
