GPS World articles from March 2006

GPS World archives from March 2006

Position on position.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
March 1, 2006... This is GPS World. We're clear on that. But the magazine has never limited itself to coverage of the U.S. Global Positioning System. Obviously, we have also chronicled the development of GLONASS and Galileo; of WAAS and LAAS and NDGPS and...

GPS healthy--but send money.(Global Positioning System)(Viewpoint essay)
March 1, 2006... The recent Defense Science board (DSB) Study on GPS brought to mind some history and reinforced the adage that those who refuse to learn from past mistakes will continue to repeat them. Over the past 40 years or so (my timeline), there have...

GPS accuracy improves.(GLOBAL VIEW)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The U.S. Air Force GPS Joint Program Office--with participation by Lockheed Martin, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Aerospace Corporation, and Applied Research Laboratories, the University of Texas at Austin--has upgraded the...

Inmarsat moves WAAS satellite.(Wide Area Augmentation System)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Inmarsat, the company that operates the two satellites providing Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) signals, has begun moving one of its satellites west to a new orbit above the Pacific Coast, purportedly to derive more revenue from its...

Galileo underway with a will.(GLOBAL VIEW)(Galileo Industries)
March 1, 2006... The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a [euro]950 million contract for the development and construction of the first four Galileo constellation satellites and part of the ground infrastructure, including full subsystem testing, to Galileo...

GPS pioneer roger Eaton.(GLOBAL VIEW)(Roger L. Easton received National Medal of Technology )
March 1, 2006... On February 13, Roger L. Easton received the National Medal of Technology in a ceremony at the White House, in recognition of his achievements in spacecraft tracking, navigation and timing technology that led to the development of the...

Correction.(GLOBAL VIEW)(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... The essay "Galileo, GLONASS, and GPS," printed in the February issue, omitted a remark quantifying progress of the Russian satellite navigation system. The essay's author, Javad Ashjaee, wished to state that "GLONASS, too, is halfway there and,...

Boeing readies IIF satellite.(GLOBAL VIEW)(GPS Launch Anomaly and Disposal Operations Release 1 Element Qualification Test)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Boeing announced that the first GPS IIF satellite has successfully completed initial electromagnetic compatibility and interference testing at the company's Satellite Development Center in El Segundo, California, and finished the first pass...

New, improved GPS: the legacy accuracy improvement initiative.(SYSTEM DESIGN)(GPS Legacy Accuracy Improvement Initiative)
March 1, 2006... Doubling the amount of data available to the GPS Master Control Station by adding data from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) GPS Monitor Station Network, the GPS Legacy Accuracy Improvement Initiative has yielded three...

Wireless choices for LBS: control plane and user plane architectures.(TRACKING & WIRELESS)(location-based services)
March 1, 2006... The choice between two standardized architectural approaches to deploying A-GPS location services--control plane and user plane--can influence the quality, applicability, and success of the service offering. Differing requirements for both...

2006 receiver survey addenda.(Topcon Positioning Systems Inc.'s GPS receivers)(Table)
March 1, 2006... By an inadvertent error, information on Topcon GPS receivers and antennas was omitted from the surveys published in January and February. It follows here. TOPCON: 7400 National Drive, Livermore, CA 94551 Phone: (925) 245-8300 Fax:...

2006 antenna survey addenda.(Topcon Positioning Systems Inc.'s GPS receivers)(Table)
March 1, 2006... User Intro. Environ. Manufacturer Model Date (1) Size Topcon Positioning CR3 2002 (*) 32.6 [empty set] x 10.1 Systems, Inc. ...

Call me a cab: network links GPS-AVM systems; The mobility and flexible availability of private cars constrains efforts to curb their use to reduce congestion and pollution. A Japanese proposal uses GPS and automatic vehicle monitoring to dispatch taxis more efficiently, effectively incorporating taxi fleets into the public transit system.(TRACKING & WIRELESS)
March 1, 2006... Today, people face a strong need to switch from private cars to public transportation to prevent problems such as global warming and energy depletion. Different forms of public transportation--such as railways, buses, and taxis--must be...

GPS + modernized GPS + Galileo: signal timing biases.(global positioning system)(Column)
March 1, 2006... GPS TIMING AND NAVIGATION USER SOLUTIONS ARE BASED ON PSEUDORANGE MEASUREMENTS MADE by correlating user-receiver-generated replica signals with the signals broadcast by the GPS satellites. Any bias resulting from this correlation process within...

RFID/GPS for containers.(TRACKING & WIRELESS)(Savi Networks LLC's SaviTrak)
March 1, 2006... Savi Networks LLC of Sunnyvale, California, introduced its SaviTrak real-time, supply-chain information network to track container shipments in September 2005 when it used the radio-frequency identification (RFID) system to track commercial...

NovAtel GPS + GLONASS.(NovAtel Inc.'s OEMV GPS receivers )(global postioning system)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... NovAtel Inc. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) announced that its OEMV GPS receivers will be able to track GLONASS signals as well as GPS signals. The first OEMV-2 and OEMV-3 receivers will include dual-frequency GLONASS measurements as an option....

Simrad--Lowrance merger.(NAVIGATION & GUIDANCE)
March 1, 2006... Simrad Yachting AS (Egersund, Norway) has acquired all outstanding shares of Lowrance Electronics Inc. (Tulsa, Oklahoma) for approximately $215 million as part of a merger agreement. Under the agreement, Lowrance will become a wholly owned...

Correction.(GPS INSIDE)(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... The Company Directory for the 2006 GPS World Receiver Survey in the January issue incorrectly listed the address for Septentrio. The correct mailing address is Septentrio NV, Ubicenter, Philipssite 5, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.

European Navigation conference 2006.(GPS INSIDE)
March 1, 2006... The Royal Institute of Navigation hosts the European Navigation Conference 2006 (ENC 2006) in Manchester, United Kingdom, May 8-10, 2006. On May 7, the European Group of Institutes of Navigation and the International Association of Institutes...

SiRF slimming GPS for mobiles.(SiRF Technology GSCi-5000 global positioning system receiver)
March 1, 2006... SiRF Technology of San Jose, California, has launched a bevy of new products and ventures addressing the space and cost constraints of cellular handsets. "Thin is in," according to Kanwar Chadha, company founder. "Ultra-slender phones are...

Verizon navigates on new Motorola phone.(Verizon Wireless Inc. introduced VZ Navigator map service)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Verizon Wireless (Bedminster, New Jersey) has introduced VZ Navigator, providing mapping, audible turn-by-turn navigation, and the ability to find more than 14 million points of interest. The service is initially available on the new Motorola...

TCS assisted GPS patent.(LBS INSIDE)
March 1, 2006... TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS), of Annapolis, Maryland has received a patent for "Improved Culled Satellite Ephemeris Information Based on Limiting a Span of Inverted Cone for Locating Satellite In-Range Determinations." The patent...

Expander module.(NAVIGATION & GUIDANCE)(Eagle Tree Systems)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The micro GPS Expander Module from Eagle Tree Systems works with the company's Recorder and Seagull telemetry systems to log vehicle position and graph position against a photographic image. Designed for use with model aircraft, the expander...

Receiver module.(NAVIGATION & GUIDANCE)
March 1, 2006... Position's GSU-53 series GPS receiver module is designed to detect the status of an antenna line--normal, short-circuited, or disconnected--and output that status by serial connection and, in the case of a short circuit, automatically cut power...

GPS software for BlackBerry PDAs.(NAVIGATION & GUIDANCE)
March 1, 2006... Skylab Mobilesystems' Spot software version 1.2.0 is designed to work with the GPS functions of BlackBerry model 7520 and 7100i PDAs. The software accesses Internet mapping services such as street-level maps, geological surveys, altitude...

Symbian mobile navigation software.(LOCATION SERVICES SOFTWARE)
March 1, 2006... Telmap's Polaris mapping and navigation software is available in a Symbian-native platform in addition to the previously available Java and BlackBerry formats. Polaris software enables cellular telephone and wireless device users to perform...

Personnel tracking software.(LOCATION SERVICES SOFTWARE)
March 1, 2006... Xora's GPS Time Track software lets employers track employee location, record shift and break times, and capture work order information using GPS-enabled cellular telephones or BlackBerry PDAs. Employees must enter information when they clock...

Point and learn.(touring historic sites using hand held devices)
March 1, 2006... What if you could tour a historic park and learn about specific sites just by pointing a handheld computer and pressing a button? What if you were at Disney World and wanted to find the ride with the shortest line? What if you took a class of...