GPS is overly intrusive
THOUSANDS of cabbies in New York went on strike for two days last month to protest a city rule requiring that all 13,000 cabs get the equipment by year’s end, and among their gripes was that the technology was faulty.
But the new features worked properly 99.21% of the …

THE land-sea interface is one of the most complex areas of management in the world consisting of both the marine and terrestrial environments. The coastal zone is also home to an increasing number of activities, rights and interests. Population along the coastline is continuously increasing, bringing about new pressures on the fragile eco-system of the coastal zone. This has brought with it an increased need to more effectively and efficiently manage this area to meet the economic, environmental and social outcomes of sustainable development.

In particular the comfortable and mobile access to the internet were here the driving factors. Access points can nowadays be found in our daily environment, e.g. in many office buildings, public spaces and in urban areas. Parallel to this development there is meanwhile substantial interest in offering the user information which refers to the current location of the user (so-called Location Based Services LBS). Such Location Based Services, however, will be accepted by the user only if the cost performance ratio is satisfactory. If existing infrastructure such as WiFi without additional hardware installation can be used for location determination, then the realization costs are small and the service can be offered under attractive conditions. Several systems are nowadays available for location determination using WiFi signals. Their major application is the location determination of persons and objects inside buildings.

EC issues Galileo restructuring plan
The European Commission has proposed changes in running and funding the Galileo and Egnos satellite navigation systems, but deferred proposals on procurement competition and private sector involvement. The proposed revamp was recently submitted to the European Parliament and the European Council, which in June agreed to abandon the public-private partnership arrangement that had been set up to manage and fund deployment of the 30-satellite system.
Lack of clear governance was pegged as a major shortcoming of the original managing structure. Under the new setup, the Parliament and Council are to be fully responsible for political and program oversight, the latter through a new European Global Navigation Satellite System Program Committee. The European Commission will act as owner or sponsor of the project, under the supervision of the GNSS Committee.
The European Space Agency will act as prime contractor, under contract to the EC, with responsibility for the In Orbit Validation (IOV) spacecraft, the 26 Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites and the related ground segment. The agency will report regularly to the Parliament and Council on program progress. The GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), which had been created to manage negotiations with the private sector under the original public-private partnership scheme, was given a new job. The GSA will be beefed up and made responsible for preparing market services, handle accrediation/certification, and serve as advisor to the Commission.
The EC determined that the cost of building and deploying the system would not exceed 3.4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) – in line with earlier estimates – provided that there are no further delays or major changes in procurement policy. www.aviationweek.com

Multiple benefits from LIDAR and ortho imagery
Forestal Arauco S.A., a leading forest products companies in South America is using LIDAR and imagery and realizing significant benefits to their operations. It has contracted Digimapas Chile to acquire, process and map 7,500,000 hectares of aerial LIDAR and ortho photo data of forested areas in Chile. On a weekly basis, Digimapas is delivering DTM, DSM; LIDAR intensity images; true ortho images in RGB and CIR; and LIDAR wave form data. It is being used for updating general forest inventory.

VNU-HCM plans to establish the Institute of Space Science and Technology
Vietnam National University – Hochiminh City (VNU-HCM) plans to establish the Institute of Space Science and Technology (ISST) to educate and carry on research in the disciplines of space science and technology, to develop applications of space technology for socio-economy. It will also aim at collaboration with other scientific institutions. With this mission, President Board of VNU-HCM expects collaborations, supports from international institutions on space science and technology. Dr. Tran Vinh Phuoc, Associate Professor in GIS & RS of the VNU-HCM is assigned to hold the Head of the Project Establishing the ISST.

GPS-enabled mobile gaming gets out of the lab in Germany
Students from the University of Bonn, with the game publisher Ravensburger Spiele and T-Mobile have invented Scotland Yard – to go!, a wireless version. The players are equipped with a Ultra Mobile PC including a GPRS connectivity and a GPS receiver. The GPS-enabled device provides the current location of the different players which is fed to a webserver. www.gpsbusinessnews.com

GAORFID Inc. announces LocateWare software
GAORFID Inc., Canada announces LocateWare, an RFID middleware that reports real-time location of people, animals and things. It enables tracking, locating and identification for a wide range of businesses. www.gaorfid.com

Testing of location systems using WiFi in indoor environments
GUENTHER RETSCHER, ESMOND MOK
Facilitating land-sea interface through seamless SDI
SHEELAN VAEZ, ABBAS RAJABIFARD, IAN P WILLIAMSON
The Potential of VSOP2
WEI ERHU, LIU JINGNAN, YAN WEI
e-Governance
A K JAIN

Leica TPS1200+ Total Station
Leica Geosystems introduces TPS1200+, its most competitive total station ever. It provides the market’s most accurate reflectorless EDM with the smallest laser dot and measures distances over 1000 meters. It has also launched Leica GNSS Spider V3.0, which provides the full range of GNSS Network RTK services including GPS & GLONASS.