GPS World

Tag: Topcon

  • Topcon GRS-1 and Tesla Compatible with ArcGIS Mobile

    The Topcon Tesla and the Topcon GRS-1 are compatible with ArcGIS Mobile using the new Topcon eGPS GNSS configuration utility, announced Topcon today. ArcGIS Mobile allows GIS users to deliver GIS tools and data to the field and utilize GIS data while adding accurate position and attribute information to GIS databases.
     
    “With Topcon eGPS running on the Tesla and GRS-1, with ArcGIS Mobile you can tap into high-end GPS/GNSS receivers to easily update database accuracy and attribute information with one compact device," Jason Hooten, North American GIS sales manager, said.
     
    Topcon’s new Tesla is a “cross-over controller for all field applications and accuracies. The Topcon Tesla has the benefits of a larger handheld screen without the heavy burden of a Tablet PC,” Hooten said.
     
    Topcon’s GRS-1 is a 72-channel, dual-frequency L1/L2 GPS receiver with an integrated cellular modem. It can be used to dial up to a local reference station network for real-time corrections and is scalable from sub-meter to centimeter level accuracy.

    “The Topcon eGPS configuration utility enables ArcGIS Mobile users to access Topcon’s full range of GPS products for any accuracy needed in the field. Now all accuracy levels are available for ArcGIS Mobile users with a simple interface,” Hooten said.

  • Topcon introduces eGIS software

     

    Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS), announces the release of a new mobile GIS field software – eGIS.

    According to the announcement, eGIS is compatible with Topcon’s FC-25, FC-236, Tesla and GRS-1 controllers, and makes all accuracy capabilities from autonomous measurements to RTK centimeter level accuracy easy to achieve. The new software makes it easy to collect and maintain databases for a variety of uses – electric utilities, gas pipelines, disaster management, water and wastewater operations, forestry, highway maintenance, environmental studies, as well as other mapping projects.

    Jason Hooten, TPS national sales manager for GIS products, said, “As applications for GIS data collection continue to expand, we are pleased to offer an easy-to-use field software solution. The customization and graphical interface aspects of this software make it very simple to collect, view, download and export GIS data.”

    Key features of eGIS include:

    • ESRI compatible (Native Shapefile format);
    • Fully integrated GRS-1 GNSS functions;
    • Capture, edit, analyze and display geographic information;
    • Quality control of real-time positioning;
    • High-resolution camera integration; and
    • Customizable toolbars and functions  

  • Topcon Helps Search for Evidence of UFOs in New Show

    Chris Carter’s famous X-Files slogan,“The truth is out there,” is put to the test when a team of pioneering investigators pushes the limits to find the truth behind unexplained UFO sightings, using modern technology for data collection and analysis. Topcon’s IS-3 imaging station is featured in "Chasing UFOs," which premieres June 29 on the National Geographic Channel.


    Topcon’s Scott Langbein (right) provided training on the Topcon equipment to
    investigator Ben McGee (left) during the filming of the series “Chasing UFOs.”

    According to the National Geographic Channel (NGC), these real-life “Scullys and Mulders” are not looking for more stories on extraterrestrial activity — they want answers. An investigative team comprised of one believer, one skeptic and one independent thinker, the dynamic team examines a well-documented UFO sighting (Roswell, N.M.), meets with an alleged alien abduction survivor in Colorado and even tracks glowing orbs near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
     
    NGC’s new eight-part series “Chasing UFOs,” premieres Friday, June 29, 2012, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with a second all-new episode airing at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
     
    A Topcon IS-3 imaging station is used to gather site data for analytic research in three episodes — the June 29 series premiere “Texas is for sightings,” July 13 “UFO landing zone,” and July 20 “Abducted in Arizona.” In Texas, the experts witness lights in the skies that leave them with new questions.  In the July 13 episode, the three thrill-seekers explore the famed crash site in Roswell where they challenge a possible military cover-up and in the July 20 episode, the team collects video footage of unusual-shaped lights over Arizona.

    Scott Langbein, Topcon Positioning Systems director of product marketing, served as onsite technical consultant for the New Mexico shoot, working with the team on the use of the IS-3 imaging station for pinpoint scanning and mapping of the Roswell site.
     
    Langbein said, “Topcon was invited to meet up with the investigative team in Roswell. The IS-3 imaging technology of measurements and photo documentation is powerful, so a little training was required. They picked it up really fast and were able to take the gear with them to their other scenes.  It was a lot of fun to see the IS-3 used in a unique way. Who would have thought an IS-3 would be used to investigate UFOs?


    Investigator Ben McGee, shown here while shooting the new series “Chasing UFOs”
    at night, used the Topcon IS-3 imaging station to quickly establish onsite reference grids.

     

    “The three investigators — Ben McGee, Erin Ryder and James Fox — were completely professional in their scientific approach to the project, and quickly picked up how beneficial the IS-3 scanning speed and image collection could be for the investigations.”

    The IS-3, in addition to taking the industry’s longest scanning range (to 6,500 feet), provides industry-best accuracy, automatic scanning speed as well as on-board features providing quicker scanning definition, faster image collection and real-time preview of scanned data.

    Ben McGee, an experienced geologist, radiation scientist and field explorer said, “As a field geoscientist, I cannot speak highly enough of Topcon's survey, scanning and imaging equipment. Holding up under the most demanding field conditions and shrugging off the rigors of off-grid travel, we were able to rely on the IS-3 to help us quickly establish onsite reference grids for scientific data and sample collection, survey key topographic features, and digitally preserve the site using 360-degree panoramic imaging — all from a single tripod.  With this unit, we were able to accomplish multiple days' worth of work in a fraction of the time.”

    McGee said, “On the Roswell UFO debris field and at the alleged century-old UFO crash site in Dublin, Texas, we established reference survey grids of appreciable size of the sites we were investigating.

    “Additionally, the imaging station was also used to create detailed panoramas of the famed ‘Fire in the Sky’ Travis Walton UFO abduction site in the deep forests outside of Snowflake, Arizona, and used for onboard ranging to identify the precise locations of historical tree core sampling.”
     
    McGee said, “Survey projects that would have taken hours and days 10 years ago, with the aid of Topcon's IS-3, now take only seconds and minutes. The IS-3 allowed us to hit all our goals and objectives quickly and with incredible accuracy.”

  • Webb Simpson Wins the 2012 U.S. Open on Putting Surfaces Built with Topcon Precision Measurement Technology

    Last Sunday, when 156 of the world’s best golfers gathered together at The Olympic Club Lake course in San Francisco, California, to compete in the 2012 Men’s U.S. Open golf tournament, it signaled the culmination of years of work at The Olympic Club Lake course that included the complete tear-down and reconstruction of all 18 green complexes using Topcon’s precision measurement technology. Webb Simpson took the title, the first major for the Charlotte, North Carolina, resident.

    Over the course of many months in 2008 and 2009, all 18 green complexes were completely torn down and rebuilt in preparation for the 2012 U.S. Open. Roundworms were eating away at the greens and drainage needed to be fine-tuned. The challenge was issued: members at the privately held Olympic Club were happy with the slopes and contours of fourteen of the eighteen greens at the Lake course. That meant fourteen greens had to be torn down and rebuilt exactly the same. Every contour, every slope and every shape had to be precisely recreated in order for a golf ball to roll the same.

    The Lake Course superintendent Brian Koffler said “the membership washappy with those 14 surfaces. The club was very adamant about putting the exact contours back on those putting surfaces, exactly as-is.”

    In order to precisely rebuild the greens, high-precision construction equipment capable of vertical and horizontal measurement precision within six millimeters was required.

    Golf course builder Frontier Golf of Jones Mills, Pennsylvania was selected as the contractor to perform the work. Frontier’s support team included Topcon sales consultant Dave Krautz of Productivity Products and Services, Inc (PPS). Krautz recommended Topcon’s high-precision GPS/GNSS receiver technology as well as Topcon’s patented Millimeter GPS laser leveling technology. Krautz recommended Topcon’s Millimeter GPS technology because it improves vertical precision up to 300 percent over existing GPS-based systems.

    “The whole process moved much quicker than we originally had planned”, said superintendent Koffler. He said other contractors who had expressed interest in the project were forecasting two to three times the manpower to complete the project than what Frontier accomplished with Topcon equipment.

    With the success at the Olympic Club's Lake course, Topcon's Millimeter GPS technology left Nicholas Scigliano, president and CEO of Frontier Golf, suitably impressed. "On our next greens restoration project, I'm going to turn to (Topcon’s) Millimeter GPS right out of the gate. The vertical accuracy is right on," he said. "It's pretty neat stuff," he said of the Lake Course project. "We are doing stuff here that’s unique in our field."

    In addition to rebuilding 14 greens, Topcon’s Millimeter GPS technology was used to reshape the 18th green at the Olympic Club Lake course that was the source of controversy at the end of the 1998 U.S. Open. With the pin placed on a ridge at No. 18, a number of putts were rolling well past the pin. As a result, the green was flattened in 2000, but as Koffler explained, Olympic Club members felt it had become a little too flat; it had gone from perhaps too challenging to not challenging enough – they could two-putt from anywhere on the green, so the Olympic Club decided to return some of the challenge on the 18th green.