The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has launched its fi rst copy of the UAE’s electronic statistical atlas. It comes within the framework of the strategic initiatives of the NBS to meet requirements of data users. The atlas is the latest sophisticated data device linked to the GIS technologies and their applications. http://gulfnews.com

Pilotless aerial vehicle systems (PAVs) have captured many people’s imaginations through the media as combat vehicles in various war zones around the world. These vehicles of combat have acquired the pejorative term ‘drone’ as these aircraft have ‘no intelligence’ and only respond by attacking positions identified by forward personnel on the ground…

The major application of Geoinformatics in rural development sector primarily are natural resources development, watershed development, Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme asset monitoring, rural roads, drinking water & sanitation, rural health, agriculture, animal husbandry, minor irrigation, soil conservation, afforestation, disaster management, land records & revenue and a host of other related applications…

The Philippines is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia. It has a total land area of approximately 300,000 sqkm and 36,289 km of coastline. Its neighbors include Taiwan in the North, Indonesia in the South and Vietnam in the West.

Later in 1888, it was reorganized as Japanese Imperial Land Survey, and then it became the Geographical Survey Institute in former Home Ministry in 1945. Its official English appellation was changed to ‘Geospatial Information Authority of Japan’ in April 2010.

The new Outback MAX integrated display terminal from Hemisphere GPS offers section and variable rate control, GPS and GLONASS guidance, video support for up to four cameras, plus wireless data transfer capabilities to automatically import and export prescription application maps, as-applied fi les and other critical precision agriculture data.

China will promote the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to strengthen the nation’s marine surveillance, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said. The SOA verified and accepted a pilot program of using drones to undertake remote-sensing marine surveillance in Lianyungang, a costal city in eastern Jiangsu Province.

Dismayed over “negligible” returns from sale of satellite imagery, a Parliamentary panel has asked the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), India to be more competitive in data marketing. The Public Accounts Committee, in a draft report on activities of the NRSC, appeared to brush aside Department of Space (DoS) contention that remote sensing was treated as a “public good service” rather than commercial activity

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Robust Robotics Group has developed a plane that can navigate itself without GPS. For decades, researchers have been working on creating helicopters that can pilot themselves without human guidance.

On a dare, Texas college researchers hacked into and hijacked a drone of the US Homeland Security before the eyes of the offi cials operating it. Using a technique called ‘spoofi ng’ where a signal from hackers imitates the one sent to the drone’s on-board GPS, the researchers managed to take control of a small but powerful drone in mid-air. And the hijacking was just for a $1,000 wager.