After the three-day INTERGEO event in Nuremberg, one thing was clear: “INTERGEO is a platform for dialogue between technology users from a variety of sectors – dialogue that gives rise to new approaches and applications. The resultant scope of possible new uses is considerable,” stated Olaf Freier, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH and INTERGEO organiser. “There is quite simply no better specialist platform for suppliers and users to network than this leading international trade fair,” said Professor Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of INTERGEO patron DVW e.V. – the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management.

USTDA helps countries expand economic growth by utilizing U.S. expertise, technology, and investment. The Agency’s objectives are to help build the infrastructure for trade, match U.S. technological expertise with overseas development needs, and help create lasting business partnerships between the United States and emerging market economies.

Hemisphere GPS is focused on building rugged GNSS products for a variety of industries including surveying, marine and original equipment manufacturing (OEM). In the surveying industry, we manufacture a wide range of products from high-accuracy GNSS receivers to geodetic grade antennas. In addition, we offer an exclusive line of Vector GNSS Compass products for professionals heading and positioning. Our customers use these unique all-in-one compasses for everything from hydrographic surveying to yachting and dredging to autonomous machine control. On the OEM side of our business, we supply system integrators with our proprietary Hemisphere GPS technology for them to integrate into their own finished products. In fact, nearly every Hemisphere GPS finished product is broken down to its core board level and offered to original equipment manufactures for integration into their custom applications.

It is about Galileo. It is about successful launch of its two satellites. It is about rising optimism.
It is about conviction. It is about milestones achieved. It is about aiming and achieving.

November 2011:
ENC 2011, 29 Nov – 1 Dec, London, UK, www.enc2011.org;
ELMF 2011, 29 Nov – 30 November, Salzburg, Austria, www.lidarmap.org/ELMF/

Juniper Systems has partnered with Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) and will manufacture the Topcon Tesla™, the newest data collector in Topcon’s full lineup of rugged handheld computers and solutions for the survey industry. The Tesla features the advantages of both a rugged handheld and a tablet PC, without the disadvantages of either.

Europe has taken a major step in its history by launching the first two operational Galileo satellites with a Soyuz launcher to reach their orbit at 23.000 kilometres. From 2014, the new constellation will enable improved services ranging from more precise in-car navigation, effective road transport management, search and rescue services, more secure banking transactions as well as reliable electricity provision, which all rely heavily on satellite navigation technologies to work efficiently. The overall economic impact is estimated to be around 90 billion euro over the next 20 years.

Russia’s GLONASS has been upgraded to a precision of up to 5 metres after the successful launch of the 24th GLONASS satellite on 3rd October 2011. The launch marked a turning point bringing the number of GLONASS satellites to a complete set, as planned by the designers. Previous versions of GLONASS had an accuracy within 50 metres.

Land & Property Services (LPS) has announced its plan to deliver a programme of improved mapping for Northern Ireland. The Positional Improvement Project, which examines the accuracy of features of LPS Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) maps, will deliver significant improvements to the quality of current mapping, enabling its customers to provide more efficient and accurate service delivery.

Robotic car technology being developed at Oxford University that interprets its surroundings and makes decisions about where to go could eliminate the agony and cost of traffic jams. Whilst human drivers might use GPS to find their way such systems cannot provide anything like the coverage, precision, and reliability autonomous cars need to safely navigate. GPS also fails to tell a robotic car anything about what surrounds it; its proximity to obstacles, other cars, pedestrians, or their intentions.