NEWSBRIEFS – INDUSTRY

Jan 2007 | Comments Off

INDUSTRY | LBS | GPS | GIS | REMOTE SENSING | GALILEO UPDATE

Sales contract from Cessna Aircraft Company to Leica

The Metrology Division of Leica Geosystems, Switzerland announced USA based Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron company, has signed a sales contract for eight portable Leica Geosystems CMM systems used for industrial measurement and inspection. The acquisition consists of four Leica LTD840 Laser Trackers, and four Leica LTD640 Laser Trackers. Cessna is a manufacturer of general aviation airplanes. Leica Geosystems’ 3D coordinate measurement systems are used by manufacturers worldwide in the aerospace, automotive and shipbuilding industries. www.leica-geosystems.com

Philips backtracked plan for GPS devices

Philips Electronics, Netherlands has backtracked on its previously stated plan to enter the satellite navigation market. In June the company spread the word about a new line of portable products that it planned for September. After the announcement, shares in TomTom International, the market leader in navigation devices, sunk 3 percent within the hour. But now Philips said it was no longer interested in selling the devices. Spokeswoman Nanda Huizinga said the company kept a close eye on the market in the past few months and decided it was too crowded. “It’s a very competitive market and it puts a lot of pressure on profit margins,” she said. “We decided we need some focus, and navigation devices like these don’t fit within this focus.”

The company remains interested in GPS in general, but not for standalone products. “We don’t want to go further with GPS as a single device, but it’s an interesting technology to implement in other products,” Huizinga said. Mobile phones or digital music players are possible candidates for GPS capabilities, she said. www.pcadvisor.co.uk

ER Mapper licenses GeoCalc

Blue Marble Geographics has announced that ER Mapper recently licensed the GeoCalc 6.3 C++ software developer toolkit to enhance and greatly expand their coordinate system definition and conversion support. Blue Marble’s coordinate conversion technology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations. www.bluemarblegeo.com

u-blox announces miniature GPS module

Hale Capital Partners and Autodesk announced completion of the transaction to transfer Autodesk’s Location Services business unit to LocationLogic, a new entity owned and operated by Hale Capital Partners, with Autodesk and other minority investors. www.autodesk.com/gis

PCI Geomatics signs MoU with LIESMARS

PCI Geomatics has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Key Laboratory of Information in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) in China. The MoU outlines plans for cooperation in a variety of areas including the introduction of emerging imagecentric geospatial technology in China and outlying regions. It also highlights plans for further promotion of geoinformatics along with a better understanding of the Earth and space. www.pcigeomatics.com

Trimble to acquire @Road

Trimble, USA announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire @Road, Inc. of Fremont, California. @Road, Inc. is a provider of solutions designed to automate the management of mobile resources and to optimise the service delivery process for customers across a variety of industries. The acquisition would enable Trimble to gain leadership in Mobile Resource Management (MRM).www.trimble.com

Optech introduces 100 Hz scanning capability

Optech Incorporated announced another technical advance in airborne Lidar mapping: an accelerated scanner rate of 100 Hz. Optech’s ALTM Gemini now scans at rates up to 100 Hz. This accelerated scan frequency will directly benefit all surveyors using Optech’s ALTM Gemini. www.optech.ca

Electric utility to implement Enterprise GIS software

ESRI has announced that it has been selected to provide an Enterprise GIS to ÈEZData, s.r.o. of the Czech Republic, part of the ÈEZ Group, the largest electric utility provider in central Europe. The enterprise site license will enable ÈEZData to deploy the full suite of ESRI’s ArcGIS products in an open, scalable, and standardsbased GIS architecture throughout the entire ÈEZ Group operation. The GIS will integrate with and leverage existing ÈEZ information technology (IT) resources to meet a broad range of business and engineering needs now and in the future. www.esri.com

Lockheed Martin gets $50 million US Air Force deal

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin, USA a contract valued at approximately $50 million to execute a System Design Review for the next generation Global Positioning System Space Segment program, known as GPS Block III. GPS III will address the challenging military transformational and civil needs across the globe, including advanced anti-jam capabilities and improved system security, accuracy and reliability. The program will enhance space-based navigation and performance and set a new world standard for positioning and timing services. www.lockheedmartin.com

i-Blue 757 solar bluetooth GPS receiver

Manufactured by Transystem of Taiwan, i-Blue 757 is a solar powered bluetooth GPS receiver. Featuring space saving clamshell design., these devices contain the 16 channel Nemerix GPS receiver and also have an embedded rechargeable 1000mAh Li-Ion battery. Without seeing any daylight it should run for about 30 hours, and upto 100 if you can harness the power of the sun.

At the expense of a little consumption of battery power the Bluetooth stack on the i-Blue 757 is kept alive even when no connection is active. As soon as your PocketPC or Smartphone or Notebook establish a Bluetooth connection the 757 will wake up the GPS receiver part, and regain a fix within a few seconds.
www.navigadget.com

Antrix revenues at Rs 400 crore

ANTRIX Corporation, the commercial wing of Indian Space research Organisation (ISRO) would earn Rs 400 crore this year through Launching satellites for other countries and selling space products. The space agency’s commericial arm has roughly abort 25% growth over the last year. “For this year, Antrix’s total turnover is roughly about Rs 400 crore.Out of which Rs 200 crore comes from launch vehicle area and remaining from space products, including the transponders we are leasing
and the images we are sending,” ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said here. economictimes.com