GPS World articles from January 2007

GPS World archives from January 2007

Best intentions.(OUT IN FRONT)
January 1, 2007... The magazine has not carried much GLONASS news in recent months, yet we continue to cover Galileo with some assiduousness and we devoted several pages to Beidou in December. In all three cases, we find an absence of real news in the sense of...

Galileo test environment.(Galileo Test and Development Environment)
January 1, 2007... The Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE) is a ground-based realistic test environment for developers of receivers, applications, and services for the future satellite navigation system Galileo. Currently under construction, GATE will...

Who invented GPS?(LETTER TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... In your August 2006 issue, you raised the question: Who was first with GPS? And you concluded that a debate may not be useful. You may be right. In spite of Richard Easton's Internet claim that his father, Roger Easton, invented GPS by filing...

And not fade away--old Block IIA sat reactivated for tests.(THE SYSTEM)
January 1, 2007... SVN23, the first Block IIA satellite to be launched (as PRN23), has been reactivated as PRN32. This satellite was launched on November 26, 1990, and initially decommissioned on February 13, 2004, after more than 13 years of service. SVN23/PRN32...

GPS III faucet opened.(THE SYSTEM)(Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp. gets contract from United States Air Force Global Positioning Systems Wing)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Co-competitors Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corp. and Boeing Co. each received a $49,999,000 cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification to accomplish a GPS III system design review (SDR) in March, 2007, towards a key decision point B in June,...

Galileo guess who.(THE SYSTEM)
January 1, 2007... No fewer than eleven European Union (EU) member states have their hands in the ring to grab hosting of the Galileo Supervisory Authority, tasked to take over from the Galileo Joint Undertaking on January 1, 2007, and manage the EU satellite...

Modern space receiver.(THE SYSTEM)(General Dynamics Corp., ITT Corp. gets contract from United States Air Force)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... ITT Corporation and General Dynamics each received a contract from the GPS Wing to develop a modernized space receiver (MSR) to operate in space on low-earth orbit satellites and capable of receivng new, modernized GPS signals. Each will...

Pay As You Drive insurance gets Brit road test.(AVIONICS & TRANSPORTATION)
January 1, 2007... Under a plan offered by British insurer Norwich Union, GPS helps determine how much drivers pay for their auto insurance. The company's Pay As You Drive plan uses GPS to calculate monthly insurance premiums based on how often, when, and...

Philips exits PND market before entry.(LOCATION-BASED SERVICES)(Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., personal navigation device )(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Philips Electronics, the Netherlands-based electronics giant that is Europe's largest consumer electronics company, said in June, 2006 that it would enter the personal navigation device (PND) market in the fall, to compete with Garmin, TomTom,...

Trimble acquires @Road, Spacient.(TRANSPORTATION & AVIONICS)(Trimble Navigation Ltd., Spacient Technologies)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Trimble will acquire @Road, Inc. of Fremont, California for $496 million. This expands Trimble's role in mobile resource management (MRM), formerly known as fleet tracking. Trimble acquired Spacient Technologies, an MRM software supplier, in...

Driving for dollars: Urban Challenge purse put at $3.5 million.(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
January 1, 2007... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will award $2 million, $1 million and $500,000 awards to the top three robotic finishers who complete its new Urban Challenge course in November, 2007. Under Secretary of Defense for...

Accuracy on the move.(American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is developing standards for global positioning equipment)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) announced an effort to develop a standard on the dynamic accuracy of GPS equipment used in precision agriculture. In unveiling Project X587, Assessment and Reporting of GPS...

Cingular TeleNavs mobiles.(Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s location-based service )(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Cingular Wireless has launched its first generally available, location-based service with TeleNav Inc's GPS Navigator. Cingular business and government customers can get turn-by-turn voice and onscreen GPS directions, while driving or walking,...

Critical GNSS: safety, financial, and legal.(Global Navigation Satellite System)
January 1, 2007... The use of satellite navigation in civil aviation and other safety-critical navigation applications drove the development of satellite-based augmentation systems and differential networks to track and augment GPS, providing the prerequisite...

A single position.(Lionel Garin of Nemerix)(Interview)
January 1, 2007... Lionel Garin (LG), chief technology officer at Nemerix, speaks with the magazine this month. Alan Cameron: How will the next wave of innovation blend multiple non-GNSS location technologies to provide location anytime, anywhere? LG:...

GNSS accuracy: lies, damn lies, and statistics.(Global Navigation Satellite System)(Cover story)
January 1, 2007... This update to a frequently requested article first published here in 1998 explains how statistical methods can create many different position accuracy measures. As the driving forces of positioning and navigation change from survey and...

2007 Receiver Survey.
January 1, 2007... Now in its 15th year, the annual GPS World Receiver Survey provides the longest-running, most comprehensive database of GPS equipment available in one place. With information provided by 73 manufacturers on 542 receivers, it assembles data...

The International GNSS Service any questions?(Global Navigation Satellite System)
January 1, 2007... COLLABORATION IS CONSIDERED by many to be an inherent aspect of human society. It is through collaboration that society advances in different ways. In particular, progress in science depends on individuals and organizations collaborating with...

GPS adventure game out the window.(The Interactive Institute's Backseat Playground )(global positioning system)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Looking out the window during a long car trip becomes an interactive adventure with a new GPS-based game developed by The Interactive Institute in Stock-holm, Sweden. The Backseat Playground uses GPS to turn passing sights such as forests,...

In the know over snow leopards.(British Broadcasting Corp. BBC News used Global Positioning System)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... In the first study of its kind, a female snow leopard received a GPS collar that will provide researchers with precise data on the endangered animal's movements and habitat use, reports BBC News. The 78-pound snow leopard was captured...

Geotagging: giving photos context.(adding location information to photos)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The New York Times highlighted the value of geotagging in a lengthy November 2 feature story, "Pictures, With Map and Pushpin Included." Geotagging enables users to plot where they have taken their pictures. "It's kind of a geek...