GPS World articles from March 2002

GPS World archives from March 2002

They like to watch. (The View from Here).(Editorial)
March 1, 2002... We live in an anxious age. The events of the past six months have made us feel more security-conscious and less secure. Knowledge of real-time location -- our own, our loved ones', the bad guys'--has risen on the list of psychological...

GPS: Budgets past and future. (Washington View).
March 1, 2002... GPS programs did well in the recently approved fiscal year 2002 (FY02) budget cycle. And, although details are sketchy, no major program changes have appeared, as yet, in the President's proposed FY 2003 budget. Even so, revenue limitations...

GPS Spared...for now: FCC Rules on UWB use. (Global View).
March 1, 2002... Vigorous lobbying by civil and military agencies appears to have thwarted -- temporarily at least -- proposals to allow unlicensed ultra-wideband (UWB) devices to operate in the GPS frequencies. But GPS advocates remain concerned that further...

E911 roundtable. (Application Challenge).
March 1, 2002... When a cell phone user makes an emergency call, operators of public safety answering points (PSAPs) must rely on the caller in distress to determine and clearly communicate their location, and dispatchers have only a general idea of where to...

The technology provider's view. (Hands-on Exercise).
March 1, 2002... At 5:00 am. on a February morning in 2001, a car traveling on the Florida Turnpike veered off the road and lunged into a canal. The driver dialed 911 on her cell phone and spoke with an emergency dispatcher for three minutes before her car...

The system integrator's view. (Carrier Choices in Location).
March 1, 2002... Wireless carriers face a variety of challenges in implementing Phase II E911 and location-based services. In many cases, innovations chosen years earlier to provide increased capacity, call security, or improved voice quality now work in...

Synergies in handset architecture. (GNSS + Wireless Location).
March 1, 2002... With increasing interest for synergistically integrating GPS into wireless handsets, researchers and design engineers are looking at ways to share functional components in integrated products to reduce cost, power requirements, and size. This...

Near the speed of flight: Aerial mapping with GPS/INS direct georeferencing. (Challenge Integration).
March 1, 2002... All-digital multi-sensor mapping systems have progressed considerably during the last decade and have been widely accepted in many applications due to their fast turnaround time in producing digital image maps. The introduction of airborne...

Assisted GPS: A low-infrastructure approach. (Innovation).
March 1, 2002... Have you ever tried to use a GPS receiver indoors? Chances are, unless you were on the top floor of a wood-frame house and using a receiver with ample antenna gain, you couldn't get a position fix. GPS is a marvelous positioning tool but it...

Spirent's PPS simulator: U.S. subsidiary targets DoD. (GPS Inside).(Precise Positioning Service)
March 1, 2002... Spirent Communications has announced the formation of a subsidiary, Global Secure Systems, to provide classified GPS simulation products to the U.S. Department of Defense. These will include equipment capable of generating the Precise...

NovAtel names: Ladd CEO. (GPS Inside).(Jonathan W. Ladd)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... NovAtel Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, appointed Jonathan W. Ladd as president and chief executive officer, effective February 19, 2002. Jim Close, chairman of NovAtel, named Ladd to succeed David Vaughn, who had filled the positions since...

IEC SAASM, Missile Defense. (Deals).(Interstate Electronics TruTrak)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC) division of L-3 Communications has introduced its Tru Trak 12-channel Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM)-based GPS receiver for military applications. TruTrak meets high-G platform...

Events. (GPS Inside).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The European Navigation Conference (GNSS 2002) takes place May 27-30 in Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted by the European Group of Institutes of Navigation and the Nordic Institute of Navigation. Conference themes include GNSS status, architecture,...

Bytes. (GPS Inside).(Statistical Data Included)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Trimble, located in Sunnyvale, California, announced total revenue for 2001 of $475.3 million. Fleet and Asset management revenues were 12 percent, Components Technologies 12 percent, Agriculture 5 percent and portfolio Technologies 7 percent....

NEC puts SiRF in driver's seat. (GPS Inside).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... SiRF Technology and NEC Electronics (Europe), based in Dusseldorf, Germany, have announced a licensing agreement to integrate SiRF's GPS technology into NEC's integrated circuits designed for the automotive marketplace. The partnership targets...

Z/I, Applanix units score. (GPS Inside).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Aerial photography provider Simmons Aerofilms has selected the POS Z/I 510 position and orientation system with inertial measurement unit from Z/I Imaging, the Huntsville, Alabama-based joint venture between Intergraph Corporation and Carl...

CSI, Ag, GIS entry. (Launches).(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... CSI Wireless has launched its SERES GPS receiver/antenna combination for precision agriculture, geographic information systems (GIS), and mapping applications. In addition to GPS, the unit uses dual-channel tracking to receive signals from the...

Leica GeoMoS. (Launches).(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Leica Geosystems has introduced its Geodetic Monitoring System (GeoMoS), a software package for precise deformation monitoring and analysis. Designed to support single-sensor monitoring stations or multi-sensor networks for bridges, tunnels,...

GPS rides cable cars, Olympic trains. (GPS Inside).
March 1, 2002... The city of San Francisco has contracted with NextBus Information Systems of Emeryville, California, to provide real-time arrival information for its public transit systems (MUNI) fleet of a thousand-plus buses and trains. Even San Francisco's...

GPS/Inertial Vehicle Systems. (GPS/Inertial).(Applanix POS LV 220)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The POS LV 220 (Position and Orientation System for Land Vehicles 220) provides continuity of positioning and orientation measurements during GPS outages under overpasses or foliage and in other obscured areas. A lower-priced version of...

Evaluation Kit. (Receivers).
March 1, 2002... The iTrax02 Evaluation Kit includes an evaluation unit with an iTrax02 receiver mounted on a motherboard, external interfaces (antenna, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), serial) and GPS workbench software for Windows. The software allows...

GPS demonstrator kit. (Receivers).
March 1, 2002... Xemics XE 1611 GPS demonstrator kit evaluates low-power applications that use the XE1610 GPS receiver chipset. The kit includes the XE 1610 board (an 8-channel L1, C/A GPS receiver that requires less than 3mW of power), a power supply interface...

OEM receiver. (Receivers).(Axiom Navigation Swift B2)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Axiom Navigation's Swift B2 GPS receiver uses a 12-channel WAAS-enabled SiRFStar II chipset. It reportedly has a satellite reacquisition time of 100mS and cold start of under 45 seconds. Axiom states that its accuracy is 1-5 meters with U.S....

Iono-free DGPS. (DGPS Services).(from Thales)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Thales SkyFix Premier service mitigates sunspot-based ionospheric DGPS errors, supplying a reportedly iono-free GPS signal. The service is available throughout the world's equatorial regions and some northern locations. The MultiFix 3...

GPS simulator. (GPS-Related Hardware).(Spirent Communications SS4100)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2002... Spirent Communications has announced volume shipments of its GSS4100 GPS simulator, a single-channel simulator for manufacturing tests of GPS receivers. The GSS4100 evaluates Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile devices with chipsets...

System testing. (GPS-Related Hardware).
March 1, 2002... The CAST-4000, designed for government customers who test GPS receivers and navigation systems, can generate up to 20 satellite signals including P-Code, up to eight jammers, and six kinds of interference. It has an embedded GPS inertial...

Asset Tracking. (GPS-Related Hardware).
March 1, 2002... NavCom Technology, a subsidiary of John Deere, has launched its NCT Tracking and Monitoring system. The system uses a combination modem and NCT 2000D "All-In-View" GPS receiver in conjunction with the Internet to enable OEMs to manage their...

Calendar 2002.
March 1, 2002... MARCH 17-20 GITA Conference XXV Tampa, Florida. The Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA) annual conference focuses on automated mapping, facilities management, geographic information systems, and related geospatial...

Chinese GPS Group. (GPS Inside).(International Association of Chinese Professionals in Global Positioning Systems)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The International Association of Chinese Professionals in Global Positioning Systems (CPGPS) is a new non-profit professional organization whose members are Chinese and other interested professionals from academic institutions and industrial...