GTS Announces New GPS Module For The Ricoh G700SE-M Digital Camera To Deliver Advanced Geotagging

Carlsbad, CA - March 01, 2012 - Geo Tactical Solutions (GTS), in collaboration with Ricoh Americas Corp. and Eka Technologies, is in the final stages of development for its new SE-7 GPS module for the Ricoh G700SE-M Rugged GPS Camera. The SE-7 module will add several important capabilities to the Ricoh G700SE-M to support advanced geospatial photo collection, mapping and analysis. Noteworthy features of the SE-7 module include greater speed and accuracy of GPS readings, automatic photo ‘memos’, recording ‘object’ location, GPS Track-logs, the ability to record and display multiple GPS coordinate formats, electronic compass, selective availability anti-spoofing module (SAASM) compatibility and GIS integration.

Recording ‘Object’ Location

Laser range finders may be connected wirelessly to the SE-7 module via Bluetooth or by cable connection to record distance and GPS coordinates of objects within photographs. The Ricoh G700SE-M with SE-7 module combines the range finder’s data with GPS positional data to calculate the location of an ‘object’ within a photograph. All GPS coordinates collected with the SE-7 module may be stored and displayed in a variety of formats including LAT/LONG, MGRS, Decimal Degrees, DMS, UTM and State Plane depending on user requirements. 

SAASM Compatibility

The SE-7’s SAASM provides accurate GPS readings even in the presence of malicious jamming or spoofing. Secure and decrypted GPS signals are recorded by connecting an external GPS SAASM device such as a DAGR (Defense Advanced GPS Receiver) to the SE-7 module. This powerful feature ensures the accuracy and precision of GPS coordinates in a GPS-compromised environment.
 Automatic ‘Memos’

The Ricoh G700SE-M with SE-7 supports up to 20 attribute fields called ‘memos’ which are used to tag photographs with relevant information such as photographer’s name, operation ID, operation type, unit ID, and so on. This information, along with GPS coordinates, GPS date and Zulu time, are automatically stored as metadata in each image file on the G700SE-M. “Memos are set by the operator before collecting photographs to automate the process of recording complete who, what, when, where and why information for each photo,” explained Andy Shannon, Sales and Support Manager at Geo Tactical Solutions. “Collecting this information not only transforms a photograph into a powerful information source, it keeps photographs organized by common attributes and facilitates more complete, accurate and simplified mapping and reporting during data processing.”
Electronic Compass and GPS Track-Logs

The SE-7’s electronic compass allows users to accurately record the direction a photograph is taken regardless of the angle the camera is held. In addition, the SE-7’s GPS Track-Log feature can record and map the geographic path by which photographs are collected. After images are collected in the field, data is uploaded from the SE-7 module in preparation for analysis, mapping and reporting.

GIS/Mapping Integration

GTS offers photo mapping software (PhotoGIS) along with the Ricoh G700SE-M (with SE-7 GPS module) for mapping, editing and reporting photos collected in the field. Digital photographs collected with the G700SE-M can be converted into a number of file formats suitable for mapping in popular GIS applications such as ArcGIS, FalconView, TIGR and Google Earth for further geographic analysis. After importing data, the images are plotted as a separate spatial data layer along with their associated attribute information (‘memos’). 

“As a direct result of customer feedback, we designed and developed the SE-7 module to be extremely lightweight, rugged, and versatile while providing all the capabilities required by the most demanding operations and workflows,” noted Mr. Shannon. “This new enhancement will allow the Ricoh G700SE-M to lead the way in GPS camera technology for years to come.”

Telit Wireless Solutions Announces High-Performance GPS/GLONASS Module for Navigation Devices

Telit Wireless Solutions (AIM: TCM), a global leader in machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless technology, today announced a new dual GPS/GLONASS module that dramatically improves navigation performance by providing access to both the Russian GLONASS global navigation satellite system and U.S. GPS.
Telit Location Solutions’ new Jupiter^® SL869 provides three times the usual satellite visibility by accessing to up to 22 satellites compared to the six or eight satellites normally available through standard GPS, providing optimum performance for any navigation application, from personal and asset tracking to automotive solutions.
The Jupiter SL869 reduces the delay from several minutes to seconds for a navigation device to acquire its position after being powered on. The module also reduces the incidence of lost satellite coverage, especially problematic in urban areas with tall buildings, by enabling additional satellite fixes that reduces blind spots. Finally, the module enables more accurate positioning, better “pinning” a person, car or an asset’s true location on a digital map.
“Accessing the combined GPS/GLONASS constellations is a major step forward in navigation, providing the best satellite geometry to obtain the most accurate position possible more often,” said George Arnott, vice president, Telit Location Solutions, a business unit of Telit. “The difference in performance between standard GPS and GPS/GLONASS is like night and day. Telit is proud to be one of the first OEM module providers to offer this innovation to the global market.”
With the identical form factor of previous product generations, the Jupiter SL869 can easily replace standard GPS modules in devices and applications. The product also features “automatic jamming immunity,” automatically blocking up to eight radio frequency interferers, increasing the performance of the GPS.
“With its first official product launch under the Telit umbrella, Telit Location Solutions has released a leading-edge navigation module that’s destined to have a major impact on the GPS industry,” said Oozi Cats, CEO of Telit. “As with all Telit products, customers will also receive premier global support from design to deployment.”
Formerly known as Navman Wireless OEM before being acquired by Telit in January 2012, Telit Location Solutions has more than 20 years of experience serving the GPS market and has sold millions of its high-performance Jupiter GPS modules worldwide.

Esri Selects Winners of ArcGIS Online Grant Program for Educators

Esri has awarded five grants to select university and college faculty members to create exemplary higher education course materials and implementations of ArcGIS Online. Grantees receive $10,000 (US) each, as well as assistance from curriculum development specialists on Esri's education solutions team.
ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based geospatial platform that enables individuals to create and share maps, apps, and map services. Later this year, Esri will introduce new features to ArcGIS Online, providing enhanced mapping and data sharing capabilities to support collaboration within an organization. Esri will include ArcGIS Online subscriptions in its educational site licenses at no extra cost.
"Our goal is to help early adopters demonstrate the potential of the ArcGIS Online platform to support spatial thinking and learning across the curriculum," says David DiBiase, director of Esri's education solutions team. "We believe this new platform will enable hundreds of thousands more students worldwide to experience the power of GIS."
The grant winners and their projects are as follows:

• Mark Lindberg, Len Kne, and their colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) will evaluate how the software can be used to support teaching, research, and enterprise services across a large land grant university.
• Dr. Fred L. Miller and colleagues at Murray State University (Murray, KY) will develop and deploy business GIS exercises for marketing majors.
• Dr. Christopher Bone at the University of Oregon (Eugene, OR) will use the software as a platform for a new introductory course, entitled Our Digital Earth, to expose students to the geospatial data and technologies found in their daily lives.
• Ken Yanow at Southwestern College (Chula Vista, CA) will create a series of assignments for a suite of general education courses that will enroll a diverse population of 2,000 students per year.
• Dr. Eui-kyung Shin at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL) will develop geographic curriculum materials that enhance spatial thinking and active learning for elementary preservice teachers.

Grantees will present their preliminary results during the 2012 Esri Education GIS Conference in San Diego, California, and implement them on campus during the 2012–13 academic year.
About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide, including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

El Paso Water Utilities Implements Trimble Fieldport Mobile Software

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that the El Paso Water Utilities in Texas has successfully implemented Trimble® Fieldport® software to enhance its utility field operations. The Trimble Fieldport software is an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) map-based mobile work management solution for utility field workers.
“El Paso Water Utilities is committed to improving our efficiencies, reducing costs and better serving the needs of our community. We believe that Trimble Fieldport software is helping pave the way for improved customer service and field service activities,” said Armando Renteria, Chief Information Officer of the El Paso Water Utilities.
With the deployment of Trimble Fieldport software on field crew mobile computers and integration to its Customer Information System (CIS), El Paso Water is optimizing its processes for customer service and field operations work planning in real-time. In addition, enhanced management reporting functionality is now helping the utility improve operational efficiency, reliability of service and increase worker productivity by ensuring that the right resources are available at the right time. With Trimble Fieldport software, El Paso Water is improving critical work processes such as customer field service by efficiently dispatching field crews as well as optimizing field inspection activities and field data collection for better asset management.
El Paso Water Utilities customer service field crews are equipped with mobile computers and Trimble Fieldport software, which they use to record updates about service calls and synchronize with the customer service system from the field. Back in the office, customer service representatives have access to the updated information, which they can share with customers calling to inquire about their accounts throughout the day. Trimble Fieldport also makes it easy for El Paso Water Utilities’ workers to see updates posted by customer service quickly and easily from the field.
In addition to streamlining communication between the field and the office, Trimble Fieldport has also enabled more effective distribution of work orders, both at the beginning of the shift and throughout the day. Previously, work order completion information was manually entered into the CIS by office staff the following day. Now, with Trimble Fieldport’s wireless synchronization, work orders are closed within minutes of the work being completed. Since dispatchers can now see the progress of each field worker, this also means they can distribute new work orders as soon as they are generated throughout the day, rather than handling work communicated over the radio and jotted down on a piece of paper by the service worker.
Trimble Fieldport is also helping the utility increase worker productivity by ensuring that the right resources are available at the right time as well as optimizing field inspection activities and field data collection.
“Being able to synchronize data and have real-time updates between the field and the office throughout the day makes us more efficient on a number of levels,” said Renteria. “For example, it’s easier to get through our backlog of lower priority work – things like fixing a cracked meter box – because we can easily track the progress and reassign those jobs based on workload and location of our employees in the field, rather than leaving those work orders in the service trucks to be completed at the discretion of the worker.”
In addition, the implementation of Fieldport has enabled El Paso Water Utilities to eliminate a variety of administrative processes. In the past, office administrative personnel would take radio calls continually throughout the day from field service workers and update their progress on a paper log. Trimble Fieldport’s wireless synchronization means that these calls are no longer necessary.
Also, prior to implementing the technology, hundreds of paper work orders would be reviewed by hand each evening to see if any had incorrect account balance information. Since Trimble Fieldport imports work order data, the calculation of amounts due is done automatically and the hand vetting processes is no longer needed.
“Now that so many of our processes are automated, we can allocate the time we used to spend calling back and forth, looking at work orders and keying in data for more useful projects,” said Renteria.
Trimble’s Fieldport software is currently used by public and private utilities throughout the U.S. that serve millions of residential and commercial customers nationwide.
Trimble’s Utilities Field Solutions group specializes in field and office solutions for GIS mapping and work management, field data collection, design and inspection, outage management, and vehicle tracking for electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities around the world. Trimble’s solutions integrate advanced positioning and mapping technologies with software and hardware to automate utility mapping, design and operations, enabling increased field worker productivity, enhanced regulatory compliance and improved customer service and response.
For more information about Trimble’s utility enterprise solutions, visit:  www.trimble.com/ufs.
About El Paso Water Utilitie
El Paso Water Utilities serves over 200,000 commercial, industrial and residential customer accounts by providing reliable water services, engineering, construction and maintenance. El Paso Texas has more than 700,000 residents that live in the greater Metropolitan area. For more information, visit:  http://www.epwu.org.
About Trimble
Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Innovative Approach to Using Public Assets Saves Millions

London - 29 February 2012 - Public sector organisations in South West England are collaborating to make more effective use of their property assets and rationalise their accommodation requirements. In the initial years this is expected to save local taxpayers around GBP 1.5 million per annum.
Working under the ‘Community Budgets’ initiative, the partnership is using local authorities’ Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) addressing information from to provide a system of common reference to enable all partner assets to be mapped and facilitate joint working. The partnership’s efforts were recognised at the recent National Gazetteers Exemplar Awards, where it was awarded the winner in the Integration Award category.
The public sector was challenged to find radical new solutions using a whole area approach to not only deliver better value for money, but also better local services. In the project, partners from a wide range of public sector organisations across the South West including: local authorities; fire; police and NHS organisations came together to better manage public sector property assets across the region.
Bristol City Council, who headed up the technical work stream, used the LLPG data from the local authority partners to create a common data format, enabling every organisation to submit its own property details in a consistent way, complete with precise location. All the data was held in a central database.
The result is an online web mapping resource, with properties searchable by address or postcode. Clicking on a building reveals a pop-up box which provides: an address; property classification; a property reference number and contact details for the person responsible for managing the property.
Asset managers can ‘post’ opportunities so they can let each other know when a building might have some free space available, is available for let or is up for sale.
Some innovative shared space arrangements have arisen as a result of the project, with savings of over GBP 1.5m in the first year. Service users benefit from more convenient, joined-up service provision. Tenants benefit from rents that may be below normal market levels and building owners benefit from increased contributions to their own management costs.
Richard Mason, Managing Director for GeoPlace said: “This innovative project in the South West, led by South Gloucestershire, is very much at the forefront of the agenda and it is great to see the substantial savings which using addressing information can bring. As the most efficient part of the public sector, councils are always seeking innovative ways to improve services and save the taxpayer millions of pounds in the process.”
National Address Gazetteer Database
The National Address Gazetteer database is managed by GeoPlace. It brings together data from local authorities’ Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs) Ordnance Survey, Valuation Office Agency and Royal Mail. AddressBase products are produced from the National Address Gazetteer Database and made available by Ordnance Survey. To find out how the National Address Gazetteer Database can make substantial savings for your organisation, please visit www.geoplace.co.uk
List of project partners
Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, Bath & North East Somerset Council, North Somerset Council, Avon and Somerset Police Authority, Avon Fire and Rescue Services, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Great Western Ambulance Service, NHS Bath and North East Somerset Trust, NHS Bristol, NHS South Gloucestershire and North Somerset PCT
GeoPlace
GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. GeoPlace’s role is to create and maintain the National Address Gazetteer Database and the National Street Gazetteer for England and Wales, the definitive sources of publicly owned spatial address and street data. Through agreement with Scotland’s Improvement Service Company, the plan is to extend coverage to Scotland.
Local Government Association
The Local Government Association is a political organisation that is run by its members. The LGA always strives to agree a common cross-party position on issues and to speak with one voice on behalf of local government. It aims to set the political agenda and speak in the national media on the issues that matter to council members.
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals. Ordnance Survey utilises the National Address Gazetteer Database to create the AddressBase range of products which are available for use in both the public and commercial sectors.

Bluesky Aerial Photography Flooring Stands Out for London Developer

Leicestershire, UK - 29 February 2012 - Aerial photographs from Bluesky are being used to market a stunning range of new apartments in London. The high resolution, full colour images of London have been used with dramatic effect to create an Eastenders’ style floor in the marketing suite of Bellway Homes’ Equinox development in Poplar. Produced by Printed Space on behalf of property marketing agency Think BDW, the images clearly show the proximity of the development to landmarks such as the River Thames and the City as well local facilities.

The original image file supplied by Bluesky was manipulated by Printed Space to exactly fit the available space and the design requirements of the project. The real world view of the development and surrounding area also includes 3D style depictions of famous landmarks including the old Millennium Dome, now the O2 Arena, and Canary Wharf.

The Bluesky images were printed onto Floorink, a hard wearing, 4m wide vinyl cushion floor. Developed by Forbo, in partnership with Printed Space, Floorink provides a unique design solution for any space. "Floorink allows people to get creative with their floor space, rather than having to choose from a standard range or set pattern. The high quality of the print allows clients to have very intricate designs and detailed photographs reproduced to fill their floor area,” commented Michelle Holt, Director of Printed Space.

“Bluesky aerial mapping is a perfect choice to have printed for commercial, educational and exhibition floor spaces. For this particular installation, the aerial photography gives the prospective buyer a large scale visual guide to the area they would be moving to - you can clearly see bus stops, parks, where traffic builds up etc. I think it is such an invaluable tool for this marketing suite, and it really makes them stand out from their competitors."

The Bluesky image was reproduced from an original aerial survey of London flown in 2010, captured at a height of 3,400 metres with a large format DCX digital survey camera. The resulting images were processe into a map accurate digital data set covering 1,539 square kilometres of Greater London at 25cm resolution.
 
About Bluesky

Bluesky is a UK-based specialist in aerial imaging and remote sensing data collection and processing.  An internationally recognised leader with projects extending around the globe, Bluesky is proud to work with prestigious organisations such as Google, the BBC and Government Agencies.

Bluesky has unrivalled expertise in the creation of seamless, digital aerial photography, 3D landscape/cityscape visualisations and prints and also runs a national mapping centre, providing digital mapping, satellite imagery and aerial photography including ultra-high resolution imagery of cities and towns.

Bluesky is now leading the way developing innovative solutions for environmental applications including the UK’s first nationwide map of solar potential, citywide property ‘heat loss’ maps, 3D maps of trees, and historical aerial photography.

www.bluesky-world.com


About Printed Space

Printed Space provides a bespoke printing service for any interior design project. They tailor make their printed product range to fit the exact ‘space’; however big or small; whether that space is a wall, a floor or a window. They print onto several finishes of wallpaper depending on the application and a range of roller blind fabrics with varying opacities. Unique to Printed Space is the option to have any image or design printed onto a 4m (13ft) wide vinyl cushion floor.

SuperGeo Supports to Establish GIS Education Center in Kaohsiung

With the increasing demands and application use of Geographic Information Systemin the south of Taiwan, SuperGeo Technologies has co-founded the GIS Education Center with the Geography Department at National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU), one of the most reputed and finest Universities in Taiwan.
The foundation of GIS Education Center at NKNU aims to collaborate the research work with industry and to serve as an academic organization to spread Geographical Information Systems (GIS) knowledge, providing customizable support to the local governmental units, the educational institutes and private enterprises.
At the initial stage, the GIS education center is available for students, educators, and the public officials to study expert Geospatial knowledge and receive professional GIS training. In the future, it will focus on planning various GIS related projects and offering GIS certificate program to reach the growing demand for GIS skills in domestic job market.
Targeting at the region of South Taiwan, the long-term goal of the GIS Education Center is to become a top-level research center to create regional source of Geospatial technology and encourage professional research and development. Being a professional GIS software and solution provider, SuperGeo will continually promote the GIS development with the high educational institutions around the world.   
About SuperGeo
SuperGeo Technologies Inc. is a leading global provider of GIS software and solutions. Since the establishment, SuperGeo has been dedicated to providing state-of-the-art geospatial technologies and comprehensive services for customers around the world. It is our vision to help users utilize geospatial technologies to create a better world.
SuperGeo software and applications have been spread over the world to be the backbone of the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. SuperGeo is the professional GIS vendor, providing GIS-related users with complete GIS solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.