NEWSBRIEFS – GPS

Bangkok to introduce GPS to its fleet of taxis

Bangkok has opened the first of 150 new electronic taxi stands that will allow pedestrians to summon a taxi by pressing a green button, signaling a dispatcher to send a taxi. The devices will display the estimated arrival time and license plate number of the approaching taxi. Taxis will be equipped with GPS as part of the service. The first arch-roofed electronic taxi stand was unveiled last week outside a superstore on the city’s Phahonyotin Road, while the remaining stands are expected to be installed across the city by November. Besides helping Bangkok pedestrians easily hail taxis, the stands are meant to keep cab drivers from wasting fuel by driving around the city in search of fares. www.chinapost.com.tw

GPS-Guided 155mm Artillery Projectile

One of the most frustrating things about any mountain biker is getting lost, confused or turned around. Outdated maps or guidebooks, poorly marked trails or junctions not marked at all can put the damper on just about any recreational ride. It’s something that Mike Sladdin, an avid mountain biker, noticed about three years ago when he decided he wanted to start mapping the trails around his hometown of Aspen in U.S. Pursuing what he thought would be a useful tool for the mountain-bike community and a good business idea, Sladdin recently launched MountainTownTrails.com, a web site of downloadable GPS tracks and GPS-based maps concentrating on Colorado, Utah and the Rocky Mountains. Though the technology is not yet widespread, many say GPS mapping and tracking is the future for serious recreationists who don’t want to worry about getting lost or taking a wrong turn. The main advantage of GPS biking is safety.
www.rockymountainnews.com

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau moving northeast

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, dubbed “the roof of the world”, is moving northward and eastward at seven to 30 millimeters a year, according to a Chinese researcher.”The plateau is moving because it’s being pushed by the Indian plate,” said Dr. Tan Kai, a researcher with China Seismological Bureau who is collecting data for a GPS survey in the towering Kunlun Mountains in Golmud city of northwest China’s Qinghai Province. Dr. Tan and his colleagues have found through the survey that Lhasa, on the southern end of the plateau, is moving 30 millimeters a year northeast at an angle of 38 degrees

The seismological bureau has conducted more than 50 GPS surveys on the roof of the world since 1991. Of the country’s 1,056 survey stations, 340 are in the plateau region, which is known as the “third polar of the earth”. Dr. Tan said the GSP surveys can capture real-time, highly precise data to calculate velocity of the crustal movement. Results of the surveys will help scientists study the formation and evolution of the plateau and evaluate the region’s risk of earthquake and other geological disasters.
http://news.xinhuanet.com

GPS to study changes in hurricane intensity

Researchers are using a $3 million National Science Foundation grant in an effort to learn why sudden, dramatic changes occur in the intensity of hurricanes. The study will focus on how the interaction between a storm’s outer rain bands and its inner eye can influence abrupt fl uctuations in its strength.

Beginning on Aug. 15 through the rest of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, P-3 Orion aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy fly into hurricanes at sea armed with sophisticated Doppler radar and GPS technology.

The planes will record wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and other data to help scientists build a new computer model on hurricane intensity. The research team for the Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment, or RAINEX, includes the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; the University of Washington; the National Center for Atmospheric Research; NOAA; and the U.S. Navy.
www.wftv.com

Tracking fast-moving glaciers in Greenland

Two University of Maine scientists studying the effects of climate change in the Arctic have discovered that two glaciers in Greenland are moving at a not-so-glacial pace.

The scientists returned from a fi veweek expedition to the east coast of Greenland, where they studied the movement of fi ve glaciers. They found that two of the glaciers are moving at a far faster rate than just a few years ago, raising questions about the effects of regional warming. To take measurements, the scientists drilled holes in the ice and placed GPS devices in them to precisely measure the forward motion of the glaciers by satellite.

One of the glaciers, called Kangerdlugssuaq, was moving at the rate of nearly nine miles a year, making it one of the world’s fastestmoving glaciers, the researchers said. In the late 1990s, it was moving at about 3.5 miles a year. The glaciers’ accelerated speeds in Greenland suggest that the climate is warming up, at least in that region reported the scientists.
www.seacoastonline.com

GPS Industries at golf course in South Africa

GPS Industries, Inc. (GPSI) an innovator of Wi-Fi wireless and GPSenabled multimedia communications and management solutions for golf facilities and residential communities, announces that two courses, one in South Africa, Pezula Championship Golf Course and White Hawk Country Club in Crown Point, In. have been installed with the Inforemer (TM) Wi- Fi GPS Golf Business Solution. Pezula Championship Golf Course has been selected as the first course in Africa to implement this GPS-based golf course management system. Both courses have installed the full Inforemer) management system, Wi-Fi network and equip their golf cart fl eets with 10.4” color GPS units. www.primezone.com

Indian military equipped with Sarantel GPS antenna

Encore Software of Bangalore in India is incorporating U.K. based company Sarantel’s GeoHelix GPS antenna in its new Saathi PDA for the Indian Army. The Sarantel GPS antenna ensures that every Indian soldier with a Saathi has optimum GPS reception across all environments and locations. The Saathi is a robust tactical GPS enabled PDA with integrated radio and a customised GIS application for displaying military maps and location of other devices. Weighing 875 grams, the Saathi can easily fi t into a soldier’s palm and also has a remotely operated self-destruction and activation feature for preventing misuse by unauthorised people. Encore Software integrated Sarantel’s high performance miniature GPS antenna in the Saathi to ensure soldiers have stable GPS reception in unstable conditions i.e near people or other electronics in the radio.
www.businessweekly.co.uk

GPS tracking data broadcast at German Grand Prix

A new TV feature for MotoGP broadcasts was introduced at the German Grand Prix, showing the location of a rider on the track – in real time. The system is based on GPS has been jointly developed by the teams, motorcycle manufacturers, leather suit manufacturers and Dorna Sports engineers. A transmitter-receiver, mounted either on the bike (GPS Data Bike) or inside the back protector of the rider’s leather (GPS Data Rider), sends real time information to the TV International Program Feed unit, where it is converted into graphics and is inserted in the fi nal television signal. This data is transmitted thanks to the On Board system
installed on the bike.
www.crash.net