PCI Geomatics now supports SPOT-6 imagery within its software suite. SPOT- 6, a new satellite built and operated by Astrium was launched on September 9th, 2012 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. SPOT-6 is an optical imaging satellite capable of imaging the Earth with a resolution of 1.5 m Panchromatic and 6 m Multispectral (Blue, Green, Red, Near-IR). The support for SPOT-6 will be available in the Geomatica 2013 SP2 product release. www.pcigeomatics.com

Tokyo-headquartered Kaga Electronics has integrated u-blox’ high-speed UMTS modem technology into their U130-KG wireless 3G air-interface card. The card is designed for machines, PoS terminals, meters, signage and security systems used throughout Japan. It integrates u-blox’ LISA-U130 UMTS/HSPA module to deliver lightning-fast wireless performance: 7.2 Mb/s download and 5.76 Mb/s upload speeds. www.u-blox.com

A ground system aimed at enhancing the navigation precision of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) was approved in central China’s Hubei Province. The BeiDou Ground Base Enhancement System (BGBES), a network consisting of 30 ground base stations, an operating system and a precision positioning system

PetroVietnam University (PVU) has joined the Intergraph® Education Grant Program, selecting SmartMarine® Enterprise solutions for its curriculum to support Vietnam’s offshore oil and gas industry. PVU is located in the offshore oil and gas hub of southern Vietnam, and was established to focus on the development of the country’s oil and gas industry. www.pvu.edu.vn

Septentrio has announced that they have obtained, based on live ICD compliant Galileo messages from the four Galileo IOV satellites, a fi rst autonomous realtime Galileo PVT calculation. The standalone position was calculated from in-orbit navigation messages using a standard PolaRx4 GNSS receiver equipped with commercially released fi rmware. www.septentrio.com.

NovAtel Inc., has added a new commercially exportable MEMS IMU (micro electromechanical inertial measurement unit) to its line of SPAN GNSS/INS products. It is supplied by Analog Devices (Norwood, Massachusetts) and is exclusive to NovAtel. It can be paired with an OEM6 receiver card to provide continuously available position, velocity, and attitude (roll, pitch, yaw) in a small, single-unit form factor.

Philipp Ronnenberg, a masters student in design interactions at the Royal College of Art in London, recently showed off the first prototype sensors for his alternate “Open Positioning System,” which are designed to pick up regular seismic waves given off by large machinery in nearby power plants and factories. Once a sensor detects at least three different nearby seismic wave sources, Ronnenberg theorizes it should be able to determine its location. So far, he’s built a prototype sensor using the Arduino open source hardware microcontroller, which he says “can detect and collect different frequencies.

A detailed assessment of the country’s mineral resources is required before mines are put up for bidding with the aim of revenue maximisation, said the Economic Survey. “In order to meet the objective of revenue maximisation in an open, transparent and competitive manner, this should be preceded by detailed geological mapping of the mineral wealth of the country,” said the Economic Survey 2012-13, tabled in Parliament. http:// articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Europe’s two satellite navigation systems could combine in future for heightened performance, an airborne test has confirmed. A helicopter flight took place above an Alpine valley, the one place on Earth where Galileo services are already routinely available. Results of last autumn’s flight test show that adding Galileo signals to the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service – EGNOS – that currently augments the accuracy and reliability of US GPS signals over Europe should boost its accuracy significantly.

Fujitsu exhibited a prototype of its GPS-enabled walking stick at Mobile World Congress recently in Barcelona. The futuristic stick is aimed at getting older people out of the house, but would be equally at home slung over the arm of an Apple hipster while their iPod Nikes are in the wash. The user can configure their route on a PC before downloading it to the stick via Bluetooth. As you tap along the street, a display on the top of the stick shows you when to turn – removing the need to muck about with smartphone maps while you’re trying to pay attention to your surroundings. www.theregister.co.uk