GPS World articles from March 2009

GPS World archives from March 2009

IEDs, nomads, DC4S, and otterboxes.(improvised explosive devices)(Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Hardly a day goes by without someone in theater being killed or injured by an IED, and something must be done. It is clear that an accurate initial report of the location of the IEDs saves time, resources, and lives, but with our antiquated...

Mr. President, Sir.(GPS industry)
March 1, 2009... The American electorate placed you in the highest office in the land based on a clearly delineated platform of Yes We Can and Change Is Now. The American GPS industry--and, I dare say, the worldwide GNSS community--stand squarely upon on those...

Keep up the pace.(Olympics)
March 1, 2009... Watching the Olympics in Beijing this year inspired awe at the performances. One sport in particular, running, offered some of the greatest entertainment, as sprinters and marathoners alike showed why putting one foot in front of the other is...

To-do list for a new CTO.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... A reader of GPS World's Utilities & Communications Pulse newsletter responds to the January 22 column by Editor Janice Partyka, "Obama to Name Nation's First CTO," available at www.gpsworld.com/CTO. I enjoyed your article. I think we all...

U.S. radionav plan waffles on back-up: policy and system news and developments.(THE SYSTEM)
March 1, 2009... The U.S. National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) posted on its website--on January 23, 2009--the 2008 edition of the Federal Radionavigation Plan, official source of radionavigation policy and...

Galileo shows the money, China shows fight.(THE SYSTEM)
March 1, 2009... The Second Call for Galileo and EGNOS project proposals under the European Commission's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) provides [euro]40 million to encourage European businesses to develop new applications and services for Galileo's...

In memoriam: Sherm Francisco.(THE SYSTEM)(Obituary)
March 1, 2009... Sherman (Sherm) Gowdy Francisco, a GPS pioneer, died on January 7 at his home in Rockville, Maryland, at the age of 75. He was chief engineer and driving force for the GPS Control Segment during his time with IBM, Loral, and Lockheed Martin....

GLONASS 729.(Briefly Noted)
March 1, 2009... GLONASS 729 was set healthy on February 12, bringing all three GLONASS satellites launched on December 25 into commissioned, healthy status. Thus, the GLONASS operational constellation has reached 19 satellites, with one more currently under...

Northrop Grumman.(Briefly Noted)
March 1, 2009... Northrop Grumman completed a system design review for the GPS next-generation Operational Control Segment (OCX) program for the U.S. Air Force, the final major milestone under a $160 million Phase A contract. Northrop Grumman and teammates...

Australia CORS.(Briefly Noted)
March 1, 2009... A recent study in Australia has projected that a national continuously operating reference station (CORS) network could contribute between 1.1 and 2.1 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) by facilitating the adoption of precision GNSS in...

Industry report card.(MASS MARKET OEM)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Severe disappointment grips me as I think how long it has taken to build the consumer GPS market, only to see it cracked and shattered in its most popular segments. It started with the over confidence of increasing prices and profitability, and...

The beginning of the battle.(global navigation satellite system)(Leica Geosystems AG)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... This year will be the beginning of the battle between Trimble/Spectra and Topcon/Sokkia You have to give Topcon some credit. They've really pulled it together this decade and put together a formidable GNSS product line-up. This isn't to say...

SiRF, CSR to merge; Kanwar Chadha's perspective: industry news and developments.(MASS MARKET OEM)
March 1, 2009... SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc., of San Jose, California, and CSR plc, formerly Cambridge Silicon Radio, headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, will merge in a stock-for-stock transaction to create a new company, which will automatically...

Ericsson and STMicro complete mobile merger.(TELECOMMUNICATIONS)
March 1, 2009... STMicroelectronics and Ericsson have closed their agreement merging Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture. The deal was completed on the terms originally announced on August 20, 2008. The new company is...

Honeywell T-Hawk micro vehicle heads for U.K.(MILITARY & GOVERNMENT)
March 1, 2009... Honeywell received an order for six T-Hawk micro air vehicle (MAV) systems from the U.S. Navy, the contracting agency for the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the T-Hawk MAV system procurement, in a contract valued at USD $5.7 million. ...

Spirent Federal GPS training conference.(EVENTS)(Conference news)(Calendar)
March 1, 2009... www.spirentfederal.com/gps/training East Coast Conference: March 18-19, Washington, D.C. West Coast Conference: March 24-25, Anaheim, California Both conferences feature training presentations, workshops and open labs on...

Epson, Infineon develop tiny single-chip receiver.(MASS MARKET OEM)
March 1, 2009... Seiko Epson Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, and Infineon Technologies AG of Neubiberg, Germany, have developed a GPS single-chip design, the XPOSYS, which is optimized for mobile devices for the consumer market--especially cellular phones with...

u-blox launches cards for mobile computers.(THE BUSINESS)
March 1, 2009... A GPS PCI Express Mini card from u-blox (Thalwil, Switzerland) enables next-generation laptop, netbook, mobile internet device and Ultra Mobile PC OEMs to provide GPS and location-based services (LBS) such as personal navigation, services and...

Qualcomm launches chipset for low-cost smartphones.(THE BUSINESS)
March 1, 2009... Qualcomm, Inc., has launched the Mobile Station Modem MSM7227 chipset designed to enable high-performance, sub-$150 smartphones. The MSM7227 chipset features integrated Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS, a 600-MHz applications processor with a floating...

Broadcom combos GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio system-on-chip.(THE BUSINESS)
March 1, 2009... Broadcom Corporation of Irvine, California, has released BCM2075, a new, integrated GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio in a single-chip design, targeting location-based services (LBS) applications. The processor reduces the host and application...

Growing Galileo by chips and apps.(Leadership Talks)
March 1, 2009... The Growing Galileo Conference, sponsored by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority in Brussels on January 27-28, marked the official roll-out of the FP7 second call for Galileo exploratory applications--and [euro]40 million of available...

Seamless outdoor-to-indoor positioning DGPS + UWB; Ultra-wideband's relative immunity to multipath makes it a promising candidate for combination with GPS in hostile signal environments. This study demonstrates seamless maintenance of a solution from outdoors to indoors, retaining meter-level accuracy suitable for pedestrian navigation.(global positioning system)
March 1, 2009... Ubiquitous location and navigation represents an ideal that many in industry and science pursue. That user expectation, however, remains currently unattainable due the difficulty of detecting GPS satellite signals indoors. Once it has been...

Another look indoors GPS + RFID: Radio-frequency identification (RFID) shows promise for positioning in complex environments, in combination with GNSS signals. The authors demonstrate a combination of RFID cell-based, trilateration, and fingerprinting, and propose an intelligent software system to automatically switch between the three.(UTILITIES & COMMUNICATIONS)
March 1, 2009... Most of the developed systems for pedestrian navigation, and guidance services rely on GNSS, sometimes in combination with other sensors and positioning methods. Our approach in the Ubiquitous Cartography for Pedestrian Navigation (UCPNAVI)...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2009... In the 2009 Antenna Survey in the February issue, Topcon Positioning Systems' name was inadvertently dropped from files sent to the printer, so that its antennas CR3, PG-A1, PG-A2, PG-A5, MG-A1, MG-A2, MG-A5, CR-4, G3-A1, and CR-G3 appeared to...

Comb filtering: improving acquisition and tracking in GNSS receivers.
March 1, 2009... GNSS signals are all spread by pseudorandom sequences, often called pseudorandom noise (PRN). Each GPS satellite, for example, is known by its PRN number, which identifies the particular code, which that satellite is using to spread its data...

It snow problem with GPS: GNSS technologies in the popular media.(SEEN + HEARD)
March 1, 2009... The Cincinnati, Ohio, City Council is investigating a way for residents to track snowplows using GPS, so they know when snowplows will clear their streets, reported WCPO-TV. The city already tracks 48 of its 80 snowplows, which were installed...

Georgia bill would ban hidden trackers.(SEEN + HEARD)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... A proposed bill is in the Georgia Legislature to outlaw GPS tracking devices, reported WSB-TV. Rep. Kevin Levitas wrote the legislation to protect Georgians. The bill provides exceptions for parents tracking children, cops tracking criminals,...

Scouting for fire hydrants.(SEEN + HEARD)
March 1, 2009... A group of Eagle Scouts used GPS to pinpoint the location of every fire hydrant in Bridgewater, New Jersey--more than 1,300 of them, reports the town's Courier News. Now, when firefighters are on their way to an incident, they know which way...

Global Pops System.(SEEN + HEARD)
March 1, 2009... Global Pops System. Contributing Editor Richard Langley takes note of how GPS awareness has popped up in pop music: "Although there are many references to GPS on TV and in the movies these days, we know that GPS has really made it into...