SpaceCurve, developers of a platform built for organizing and enabling the analyses of large-scale spatial data, will exhibit at the Esri Federal GIS Conference, held Feb. 9-10 in Washington, D.C.
SpaceCurve fuses geospatial, sensor, Internet of Things (IoT), social media, location and other streaming and historical data and makes the data immediately available for analytics and operational intelligence.
SpaceCurve enables Esri users to seamlessly deploy spatiotemporal data analytics initiatives, across billions of records in real-time, within their existing Esri environment. All spatial records can be accessed from a single silo, and without latency, for true real-time queries of those records as they stream in real time, according to SpaceCurve. It also eliminates common PostGIS or SDE geodatabase issues within Esri by speeding up access to that data.
SpaceCurve partners include AirSage, Esri and L-3, and with customers in government, defense, transportation, location analytics and telecommunications.
A senior Chinese government space official on Feb. 5 said precision-navigation user receivers in China will be fitted with chipsets receiving satellite signals from BeiDou, GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, according to Space News. The move could accelerate the trend among navigation chipset and receiver makers to build gear for multi-constellation reception, and at the same time undermine regional measures to promote one system over others.
Chen Zhi, deputy chief designer of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., said China’s early deployment of satellite navigation receivers for precision agriculture already feature multi-constellation GPS-Beidou receivers.
The United States and European Union have signed World Trade Organization agreements for their constellations, GPS and Galileo. China and Russia are not part of the agreements.
Geospatial Solutions’ and GPS World‘s Art Kalinski is reporting live from the 2015 Esri Federal GIS Conference, held Feb. 9-10 in Washington, D.C. Check back on our websites for more video updates, or follow GPS World (@gpsworld) and Geospatial Solutions (@GSS_NCM) on Twitter.
Geospatial Solutions‘ and GPS World‘s Art Kalinski is reporting live from the 2015 Esri Federal GIS Conference, held Feb. 9-10 in Washington, D.C. Check back on our websites for more video updates, or follow GPS World (@gpsworld) and Geospatial Solutions (@GSS_NCM) on Twitter.
The Lehmann L-A 300 drone is designed for mapping.
Lehmann Aviation has rolled out a new version of its OperationCenter, a flight preparation and mission control software program for automatic orthomosaic flights. Also, the company dropped the price for its L-A 300 fully automatic professional drone designed for mapping, because of an uptick in demand and increased production.
The new version of Lehmann OpsCenter, designed for Windows 8.1 tablets and PCs, now includes:
New mission control functions (holding, auto return, non-flying zone)
Terrain awareness during mission preparation, for safer flights in mountain areas
Integration with Google Earth for flight preparation and replay
New easier upgrade and update procedures directly through the web
New options to manage new cameras (GoPro, Canon) for orthomosaics and surveying.
Priced at $2,890, the L-A 300 is a professional drone designed for accurate mapping and digital elevation models (DEMs) that works with the GoPro, Canon S110 and multispectral cameras. It flies automatically for 30 to 45 minutes at a trajectory pre-prepared by the user in the OpsCenter (the range is 18.5 miles).
“In 2014 we significantly increased our production volume thanks to numerous orders from all around the world,” said Benjamin Lehmann, founder and CEO of Lehmann Aviation. “This enabled us to reduce the price for our best-sellers, all L-A-series drones. We also made the decision to follow our strategy of offering really high-tech aerial solutions at fair prices.”
LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, has released an update to its free iOS GeoViewer application for viewing geospatial imagery and vector overlays. The release was announced at the Esri Fed GIS Conference, being held this week at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
GeoViewer for iOS enables iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch users to view MrSID and JPEG 2000 imagery on their mobile devices. GeoViewer includes measurement tools, image band selection, and more.
The latest release includes free support for bookmarks and base maps. Users can purchase additional functionality such as displaying web map service (WMS) imagery, area measurement, and address search via a single in-app purchase of $4.99, which includes support for additional projection systems and tracking a user’s current location for measurement purposes.
To download GeoViewer for iOS, visit the LizardTech website or the iTunes Store.
Attendees at the conference can learn more at LizardTech’s booth, number 619.
Esri has launched a website to help citizens discover organizations sharing open data around the world and provide direct access to thousands of open government datasets. Citizens can search, download, filter, and visualize this data through their web browser or mobile device.
Since July 2014, more than 1,200 organizations from all levels of government, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Muroran, Japan, have used Esri’s ArcGIS Open Data to configure custom open data sites to serve local citizens and businesses. Now the public can search across these sites to find authoritative data by location and topic.
“We are excited about the large number of organizations currently sharing open data and believe we have a great opportunity to boost global support for open data and open knowledge,” said Andrew Turner, CTO of Esri’s DC R&D Center. “As more of the 380,000 organizations we work with across the globe begin to contribute open data, we will be able to help foster innovation by connecting the millions of datasets created by government agencies and shared through ArcGIS Open Data.”
A U.S. judge dismissed the bulk of two lawsuits by LightSquared and equity owner Harbinger Capital Partners, reports Reuters. The suits accused Trimble, Garmin and Deere & Co. of misleading them about interference concerns and hastening the company’s fall into bankruptcy.
In an opinion issued Feb. 5 in Manhattan federal court, Judge Richard Berman threw out Harbinger’s lawsuit, and denied nine of 11 claims by LightSquared.
LightSquared has been in bankruptcy since 2012, when the Federal Communications Commission revoked its license to build a planned wireless network over concerns it could interfere with GPS.
The lawsuits alleged that Deere, Garmin International , Trimble Navigation Ltd, and a GPS industry group led LightSquared to believe the planned network would not pose an interference risk. It wasn’t until LightSquared had pumped $4 billion into the project, the plaintiffs argued, that the GPS industry voiced their concerns.
Judge Berman dismissed many claims from both plaintiffs, including breach of contract and civil conspiracy, leaving alive only LightSquared’s claims for negligent misrepresentation and constructive fraud.
Because the judge did not dismiss all claims, LightSquared could still be able to probe the GPS companies’ books and records during discovery.
A city hall built in Minecraft. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Safe Software is offering a webinar that discusses how the popular building game Minecraft offers a gaming approach to real-world geospatial scenarios. The presenters will discuss examples such as rapid design prototyping to increasing citizen and youth engagement, and helping urban planners create the perfect city block.
The presenters say they also will show attendees how they can integrate GIS, CAD, and BIM data sources with Minecraft in an automated way.
One of two Galileo satellites, safely in its protective container, is unloaded from an Air France Boeing 747 at Cayenne–Félix Eboué Airport in French Guiana.
News from the European Space Agency
Another two Galileo satellites have touched down in French Guiana ready to take their place in Europe’s satellite navigation constellation. The pair, safely cocooned inside their air-conditioned containers inside an Air France Boeing 747, landed at Cayenne–Félix Eboué Airport yesterday.
They were then taken by lorry to be installed in the cleanroom surroundings of Europe’s Spaceport to begin final preparations for launch.
The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites will be launched together by Soyuz in late March, resuming the interrupted building of the satnav constellation. The previous Soyuz launch saw the satellites released into the wrong orbit.
Galileo satellite in its protective air-conditioned container, about to be unloaded from the Air France cargo plane.
The reason for the malfunction has been pinned down to an installation error in the Fregat upper stage that delivers the satellites into their final orbits. A hydrazine fuel line was bracketed next to a liquid helium line, freezing the hydrazine and resulting in Fregat’s faulty orientation.
Arrival in French Guiana is the final stop in a complex production and test line that snakes back across Europe. The satellites are built by OHB in Bremen, Germany, with their navigation payloads coming from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in Guildford, UK, both companies being supplied in turn by subcontractors across much of the continent.
The complete satellites are then delivered to ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, home to Europe’s largest satellite test centre.
There, a series of tests reproduces every aspect of the space environment, including acoustic noise and thermal vacuum simulations, to ensure their readiness for space.
Each satellite is also plugged into the entire worldwide Galileo ground network for days on end to check it works as planned.
Their testing ended with a clean bill of health and they received clearance on Tuesday to travel to French Guiana. Loaded onto lorries on Wednesday, they arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport later that day, taking off for French Guiana on Thursday.
These two satellites are planned to be launched during last week of March, following the European Commission’s endorsement of the resumption of Galileo launches.
The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites were flown on this Air France Boeing 747 from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France to Cayenne–Félix Eboué Airport in French Guiana on Feb. 5
Harris Corporation and Exelis Inc. today announced a definitive agreement under which Harris will acquire Exelis in a cash and stock transaction valued at $23.75 per share, or an approximately $4.75 billion enterprise value. The agreement has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
The transaction is expected to close in June 2015 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and Exelis shareholder approval.
Exelis is a global aerospace, defense, information and services company with a 50-year legacy. It was previously under the ITT Corporation umbrella, but spun off in 2011. Headquartered in McLean, Va., Exelis employs about 10,000 people.
Exelis employs about 10,000 people. the combined Harris/Exelis company will have about 23,000 employees. including 9,000 engineers and scientists.
One of Exelis’ biggest product offerings in the past year has been its Signal Sentry 1000, which detects and locates sources of intentional and unintentional interference to GPS signals and provides users with actionable intelligence. Exelis navigation payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite ever launched and have more than 700 years of accumulated on-orbit success.
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Fla., the company has about $5 billion of annual revenue and 13,000 employees. Harris is engaged in a five-year contract with Aireon LLC that will create the first global satellite-based aircraft tracking system. The company’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) 1090 Extended Squitter receiver payload has been successfully tested and qualified for simulated operation in the harsh environment of space for more than 12 years.
Under the terms of the transaction, Exelis shareholders will receive $16.625 in cash and 0.1025 of a share of Harris common stock, based on Harris’ closing price as of Feb. 5, for each share of Exelis common stock. Upon closing, Harris shareholders will own approximately 85 percent of the combined company, and Exelis shareholders will own approximately 15 percent. On a pro forma basis for the latest 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2014, the combined company would have had more than $8 billion in revenue and about 23,000 employees globally, including 9,000 engineers and scientists.
“Acquiring Exelis is transformational for Harris,” said William M. Brown, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Harris. “The combination of the two companies’ highly complementary core franchises creates a competitively stronger company with significantly greater scale. We are expanding in a market, where we have decades of success and a workforce dedicated to providing our customers with innovative and cost-effective solutions for some of their most complex challenges.”
“This agreement to become part of Harris Corporation represents an exciting new chapter for Exelis,” said David F. Melcher, chief executive officer and president of Exelis. “Combining the companies not only creates shareholder value, but the commitment to excellence and innovation that both companies share will significantly benefit customers and provide new opportunities for employees.”
Melcher also noted, “Our 2014 was another strong year, and we expect to report revenue of approximately $3.25 billion and adjusted operating margin between 12.4 and 12.5 percent, which is in line with our previous guidance.” Exelis indicated that approximately $25 million of its anticipated free cash flow for 2014 shifted into 2015 due to some delayed collections, but that its estimate for 2015 free cash flow is being increased to approximately $275 million. Exelis also expects depreciation and amortization of approximately $106 million in 2014, net debt of $139 million and a net unfunded pension liability of approximately $1.9 billion at the end of 2014. Exelis ended the year with an estimated $2.8 billion in funded backlog.
Integration plan. Harris said it has developed a detailed execution plan to ensure seamless integration and achieve identified cost synergies. The dedicated integration team will have executive leadership and be comprised of senior members of both organizations. Harris is confident in its ability to effectively combine these two companies and provide the organizational alignment to achieve full strategic value, the company stated in a news release.
At the 2014 ION GNSS+ Conference Sept. 9-12 in Tampa, Fla., Lori Thompson of Exelis provided GPS World readers with updates about the company’s activities.
Google has reaffirmed its commitment to Project Tango, moving it from the Advanced Technology and Projects Group (ATAP) to a new home inside the company itself, reports Digital Trends.
Project Tango, unveiled in 2014, aims to make it possible to create a 3D model of the space around a smartphone. For instance, a user can map an area, such as a home, by walking around with the phone.
ATAP is Google’s mobile-focused project development laboratory, and shifting Tango from there to a new base suggests Google is happy with the way the project is progressing and ready to take it to the next level, Digital Trends reports.
Google has been collaborating with universities, research labs, and industrial partners in nine countries to concentrate the past 10 years of research in robotics and computer vision into a mobile phone.
Project Tango devices contain customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the device to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating its position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.
Early prototypes run Android and include development APIs to provide position, orientation, and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine.
SpaceCurve, developers of a platform built for organizing and enabling the analyses of large-scale spatial data, will exhibit at the Esri Federal GIS Conference, held Feb. 9-10 in Washington, D.C.
SpaceCurve enables Esri users to seamlessly deploy spatiotemporal data analytics initiatives, across billions of records in real-time, within their existing Esri environment. All spatial records can be accessed from a single silo, and without latency, for true real-time queries of those records as they stream in real time, according to SpaceCurve. It also eliminates common PostGIS or SDE geodatabase issues within Esri by speeding up access to that data.
