GPS World articles from May 2007

GPS World archives from May 2007

Mighty morphin' locateens.(OUT IN FRONT)(Column)
May 1, 2007... Whoa! Did I pick up the right magazine?" That's the reaction I hoped to provoke with last month's cover. After decades of migration, we have finally crested the rise and now look down into the fertile valley, the promised land: the Great...

GPS users alliance.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I recently overheard one man tell his grown son what an incredible tool he had found GPS to be. I was amazed how articulate the father was in describing the technology's capabilities, while being naive about how and why he had access to the...

Inventing GPS.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... The January letter from Gunther Greulich seemed to us at first to be another interesting observation on the current Internet brouhaha over the recognition of the invention of GPS. We recall many of the referenced events since we were actually...

GNSS in the year 2017.(Global Navigation Satellite System)(Column)
May 1, 2007... What will GNSS service be like 10 years from now? Such a fascinating question, especially for those who have over recent years witnessed the explosion of GPS capabilities and applications! For more than a decade, GPS has enriched our lives,...

Solar burst impacts GPS.(THE SYSTEM)
May 1, 2007... On December 6 last year, the sun emitted a burst of radio energy that impacted the performance of GPS receivers all over the sunlit side of the Earth. That the sun produces radio emissions is not surprising. What is surprising is that on this...

Sneak preview L5.(THE SYSTEM)
May 1, 2007... In late-breaking news that arrived just as this magazine goes to press, the U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $6 million contract to develop and demonstrate a payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal, on the L5...

Lockheed, Boeing complete GPS III SDR.(THE SYSTEM)
May 1, 2007... Lockheed Martin, with teammates ITT and General Dynamics, completed a system design review (SDR) of the U.S. Air Force's GPS Block III in early April. The competing Boeing team completed its SDR with government and military representatives on...

Paradigm shift.(THE SYSTEM)
May 1, 2007... The Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center's GPS Wing announced a new contract to the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) team for systems engineering and integration (SE & I). Contract value is $217 million if all...

Boeing can mix GPS with Iridium.(THE SYSTEM)
May 1, 2007... The Boeing Co. announced concepts for combining the GPS network with the Iridium low-Earth orbit telecommunication satellite network to improve accuracy and signal acquisition in urban environments. Boeing delivered the briefing at the National...

NovAtel, Septentrio to sell Galileo receivers.(SYSTEM DESIGN & TEST)
May 1, 2007... The European Space Agency (ESA) has granted licenses to both NovAtel Inc. and Septentrio to sell Galileo/Giove-A receivers. Space Engineering received the license to sell Galileo antennas. Septentrio received authorization to ship receivers...

Magellan offers new RTK survey system.(ProMark3 RTK )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Magellan pushes the RTK envelop by introducing an L1 RTK survey solution for the ProMark3. Historically, RTK systems have used both L1 and L2. Using only L1, the ProMark3 RTK offers an economical alternative to more expensive L1/L2 RTK systems....

Tool analyzes GPS, Galileo products.(Chronos Technology Ltd.'s Symmetricom TimeMonitor geographic information system software)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Symmetricom TimeMonitor software tool, marketed by Chronos Technology of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, is designed for evaluation and analysis of GPS and Galileo receiver-based products for timing stability investigation and...

Female drivers feel safer.(CONSUMER)
May 1, 2007... Most women drivers in the U.S. look to GPS to give them a sense of security and reassurance, especially while driving in new or unfamiliar neighborhoods, according to a December 2006 Zoomerang poll sponsored by TeleNav. The survey revealed...

Fugro acquires EarthData.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Fugro (Leidschendam, Netherlands) has signed an agreement to acquire USA-based EarthData group, which is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, and includes Horizons Inc., based in Rapid City, South Dakota. Fugro, parent company of...

SiRF, Motorola harmonize.(LOCATION-BASED SERVICES)
May 1, 2007... Nearly two years after it acquired Motorola's GPS chipset production lines, SiRF Technology of San Jose, California, is teaming with Motorola (Schaumburg, Illinois) to harmonize the companies' location-enabling application programming...

infoUSA.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... infoUSA of Omaha, Nebraska, will license its U.S. and Canadian business databases to mapping software maker ALK Technologies. The agreement enables ALK Technologies to integrate infoUSAs point-of-interest database of select businesses in the...

Navteq.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Navteq has announced new agreements with software companies Autodesk and deCarta, both of which will provide tools and support to the developer community through the Navteq Network for Developers site.

Topcon Positioning Systems.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Topcon Positioning Systems (Liver-more, California) is offering version 6.11 of its Topcon Tools software, with enhancements to its post-processing, GIS, and design modules. Version 6.11 of TopSURV field software is also out.

Leica Geosystems.(IN BRIEF)
May 1, 2007... Leica Geosystems (Heerbrugg, Switzerland) has released version 1.3.1 of its GNSS QC software for quality control and analysis of GPS/GLONASS data.

Fleet management blossoms in China.(TRANSPORTATION)
May 1, 2007... After a slow start, the market for Chinese commercial telematics services, such as GPS-enabled fleet management systems, has grown rapidly in the past two years, and market researcher ABI expects that trend to continue. The Chinese market for...

Trimble upgrades Construction Manager.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)
May 1, 2007... Trimble rolled out its Construction Manager version 1.9, introducing charts and a dashboard view into its application for managing construction equipment and operations. Trimble's Construction Manager uses GPS-based positioning hardware...

SiRF inside Intel.(OEM MASS MARKET)
May 1, 2007... SiRFstarlll technology will provide GPS-based location awareness for products based on the new Intel Ultra Mobile Platform 2007, a series of Intel low-power silicon devices, including a processor, accompanying chipset and controller, poised to...

The price is right! GPS prices drop for consumers.(Global Positioning System)
May 1, 2007... In the April cover story, I explored the consumer demand for personal navigation devices (PNDs). One key conclusion was that consumer demand was a factor of price, increased media, and general consumer satisfaction with the technology. In...

GPS purchases to generate $4.1 billion in sales in 2007.(Global Positioning System)
May 1, 2007... Satisfaction among owners of GPS devices is high, and consumer interest in the technology is exploding, according to research by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). GPS--Exploring Ownership and Interest revealed an 80 percent...

Meet GIOVE-A: Galileo's first test satellite.(SYSTEM DESIGN & TEST)
May 1, 2007... Similarly to GPS spacecraft, Galileo satellites must operate in a very harsh environment, more than 20,000 kilometers above the Earth, and through the intense Van Allen electron belt. The first Galileo demonstrator satellite draws from...

Galileo signal experimentation.(SYSTEM DESIGN & TEST)
May 1, 2007... The GIOVE-A satellite, transmitting the full set of modulations envisaged for Galileo (except MBOC), presents the first opportunity to assess performance of the future signals in real-life conditions, under interference and multipath. Signal,...

50+ leaders to watch: people who will move the GNSS industry and technology forward into 2007 and 2008--their goals and strategies.(Global Positioning System)(Discussion)
May 1, 2007... Policy makers, researchers, program managers, executives, and innovative product developers must chart a path to success through a challenging landscape of change in global navigation capabilities and market expansion. Who will move the...

Time for GIOVE-A: the onboard rubidium clock experiment.(INNOVATION)
May 1, 2007... Experimentation with real data is essential for the Galileo Project and is an integral part of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) system verification and risk mitigation approach. In 2002, ESA launched the development of the Galileo System...

Highway defects mapped.(TRANSPORTATION)
May 1, 2007... Street maps displayed on GPS-enabled PDAs allow highways inspectors and surveyors to accurately record the locations of highway defects and assets with the Mayrise Highways system. For critical defects such as potholes and loose paving slabs,...

Galileo-ready chip.(LOCATION-BASED SERVICES)
May 1, 2007... The u-blox 5 is a GPS- and Galileo-ready chip with less than 1 second acquisition. It has a 50-channel engine, power consumption of less than 50 millwatts, and an acquisition and tracking sensitivity of -160 dBm that enables indoor coverage...

Positioning for machine control.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)
May 1, 2007... The Crescent VS100 and VS110 are new "Vector Sensor" products that incorporate Hemisphere GPS's Crescent Technology, offering an affordable and robust heading and positioning solution for machine control and marine navigation applications...

GPS proof disputed in British-Iran conflict.(Global Positioning System)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... GPS became a focus of the war of words between the British Navy and Iranian officials during the recent hostage taking, reported CNN, the BBC, and other news services. Iran detained 15 British sailors March 23, claiming that they had taken...

Magic 8 Ball predicts correct route.(electronic toys)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... What works better: hard, cold technology or arcane, mystical powers? CNET asked that question--and actually did an experiment, pitting Mattel's Magic 8 Ball against a GPS navigation system in a Honda Accord. "We made our start point in the...

Smithsonian to display GPS pioneer's FoneFinder.(GNSS technologies in the popular media)
May 1, 2007... Boston inventor Robert Tendler is being recognized by the Smithsonian Institution for his groundbreaking work with GPS, reports the Boston Globe. Meanwhile, Tendler is engaged in a lawsuit against the General Motors business unit OnStar for...