Location Technology for Paddlers and Mountaineers

As reported by Stoke: Around 2004ish, I was on a multi day sea kayaking trip in the Broughton Archipelago north of Vancouver BC with friend Steve Worchester.  On our last day, we woke up to pea soup fog.

Our paddle back to Telegraph Cove would be through a section of many tiny islets and small islands with a few knots of current flowing past. Luckily Steve, a former Air Force F-15 pilot and Alaska Air captain knew what to do. He spread out our marine chart, and using a compass and GPS plotted our route.  Once underway, we hit every islet, rock and island right on the money per Steve's route.

While mariners and paddlers still use those and even simpler techniques for navigation, since then there are technologies developed to make life easier, providing your batteries are fresh.

Marine Traffic
This online site uses boat's AIS data to mark their positions. You can use the site to track shipping if you're planning a crossing. Track ship departure and arrival times and by clicking on the boat symbol, you can get info on the boat itself - what kind, speed, destination, a photo, etc. We use it to track freighters and tugs for surfing near Seattle.  Like anything, it's not always 100% accurate.  So have a backup even it's your own eyes.

Boat Beacon 
An app that works with Marine Traffic, Ship Finder and other sites which  allows you to track yourself or have others track you. A great tool for paddling in fog, at night or for loved ones to see how you're doing.

It also provides your location to other vessels in the area so that they can avoid you as well.  This can be a lifesaver if the area is heavily congested, and visually impaired.  There are collision avoidance features with alerts and alarms, as well as Man Overboard alerts, and boat-to-boat messaging.  It's also a good way to keep track of paddling companions, or competitors in nautical races.

A wireless communication signal must be available for the application to work, but this is generally true in many coastal areas, up to about 15 miles away.

The application is not an AIS transponder, and will not be visible to other ships on their VHF AIS systems.


Spot
These nifty devices allow for satellites to track you whether on-water or in the mountains in most places in the world.

You can send regular and emergency messages to friends, mark waypoints etc so folks can track your every move.  The devices are water resistant and float.

Unlike smartphone applications like Boat Beacon, these devices do not require a terrestrial wireless network to be available; they instead use a set of commercial satellites for communicating your location - though not all areas of the world have coverage.  A current coverage map for the Spot transponder  is shown below:

For skiers Spot does not take the place of an avalanche beacon, but used properly it can help guide or direct avalanche rescue teams to the correct back-country or in-bounds location in an emergency.

Driving Costs Down for Small Business using Vehicle Tracking

A taxi service in Gibraltar had a problem some time ago. The territory is small and the drivers realized that there was a lot more money to be made taking tourists around and showing them the sights than in driving to the airport to take people to their hotels.

So that's what many of them did. Realizing this, the Gibraltar taxi association revised their licenses, precluding them from competing with licensed tour operators.

They did what most enterprising small business would do – they ignored the edict and continued with the more lucrative work. That is, until their taxis were fitted with GPS vehicle location equipment that could tell the association where they'd been and how frequently they'd turned up at the airport.

Vehicle tracking is a type of telematics and is often associated, like a lot of advanced technology, with larger businesses. It doesn't have to be, though – and it's useful for more than just keeping a few drivers in line.

Matt Farrall of family business Farrall's Transport installed a vehicle tracking system, almost two years ago and confirms that benefits started to materialize immediately, by installing 48 tracker devices onto 60 trailers. The business problem that prompted it was increasing fuel prices. "Fuel is one of the major costs for a transport company so we wanted to tighten down on that and which drivers, routes, and which weights were costing us the most," he explained.

The information a good vehicle tracking system can offer can be a help in this. It will look at driving styles, how heavily someone leans on the accelerator, braking, how often they use cruise control and a number of other indicators. As the user, Farrall was able to set parameters of acceptability and encourage the right drivers to retrain where necessary; the company was able to reduce one driver's fuel consumption by about $6,500 per year.

The hardest part, said Farrall, was getting the drivers on-board and keeping on top of them, but once they were financially incentivised to drive better, most of them caught on that this wasn't just Big Brother in the cabin. He said: "We have a series of indicators and when drivers hit five green lights they take home more money." When the whole team is pulling in the right signals, the company looks again and works out new incentives for further improvements. Only a small minority want to continue as they are – it's a positive means of cutting expenditure without human cost. With only about 40 vehicles reaping benefits in Farrall's case vehicle tracking is clearly not just for the massive enterprise.

As with any technologies, there can be pitfalls. Jane White, head of fleet operations at an independent fleet management group, points to planning:

"A lot of work needs to go into the implementation phase with clear direction on the outputs required before any contracts are signed," she said. "In any event, and in our experience, much of the data manipulation is manual in order to achieve beneficial levels of analysis to truly measure how effective the system is in driving down costs and improving driver behavior and, in turn, safety."

"Fleets are most successful when they take the time to develop an internal deployment plan for telematics." "In this plan, they identify what to focus on first and what they expect to master in the first few weeks, months and years in order to realize the greatest ROI.

"Fleets are also successful when they communicate clearly with drivers on the business reasons and planned use of a vehicle tracking system. The best results happen when fleets use the data to coach drivers and provide an incentive to improve their behavior rather than to punish them. Fleet managers need to describe how the data will benefit the business, and as a result, benefit the driver. In addition, fleets can also use the system to exonerate drivers in the case of false blame. All companies receive complaints, but in most cases, it is not the driver's fault. Exoneration in these instances will also increase driver buy-in."

William Park, managing director of a property maintenance company City Response, has used a vehicle tracking system for about three years on their 200-strong fleet and sees many benefits. "In the first six months alone, we saw a 25% reduction in fuel consumption through improved job scheduling and fleet efficiency," he explained.

"When we receive a customer call-out we are able to identify the nearest driver to the job, and instantly deploy this driver. We've been able to significantly cut down on unnecessary driving time while improving customer service. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high of 97%. As well as near real-time fleet visibility, vehicle tracking technology delivers comprehensive reporting which allows us to control unauthorized vehicle usage, while delivering strategic insights to allow ground level improvements in performance."

He firmly believes this won't apply only to companies with hundreds of vehicles in their fleet: "Whatever the size of the organisation, the same fleet regulations and business pressures still apply and we've seen first hand how vehicle tracking can not only improve operational efficiency and compliance, but have a direct, tangible impact on our bottom line."

Done right, benefits can multiply in unforeseen ways. Farrall's, for example, is using the data gathered to reassign different vehicles to different routes and to plan its next vehicle purchases so that it spends less on doing the same work with the same amount of people.

So, costs driven down, nobody losing their job and many actually getting paid more. That sounds like some sort of business nirvana, doesn't it?

Internet of Things (IoT) Devices Will Dwarf Number of PCs, Tablets and Smartphones

As reported by ZDNET: The Internet of Things (IoT) — or machine-to-machine (M2M) technology, as it is also known — is set to boom over this decade and will form a $300 billion industry by 2020, if the analysts at Gartner are to be believed.

According to the company’s latest research, the IoT will grow to 26 billion units by 2020, which represents an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion units today. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global value Gartner believes, from sales into what they say will be an ever-more diverse market.

The IoT is the internet beyond PCs, tablets and smartphones: the internet of devices that have embedded technology to sense either their internal states or the external environment.

Over the past few years, the number of devices that have some computing capability from security systems through sensors that monitor traffic, railways, car parks and so forth have grown enormously. Now, Gartner believes the growth in these devices will be much faster than the growth in PCs and phones.

“By 2020, the number of smartphones, tablets and PCs in use will reach about 7.3 billion units," said Peter Middleton, research director at Gartner. "In contrast, the IoT will have expanded at a much faster rate, resulting in a population of about 26 billion units at that time."

Part of this will be because of the low cost of adding IoT capability to consumer products, Gartner said, and it expects that "ghost" devices with unused connectivity will be common. This will be a combination of products that have the capability built in but require software to "activate" it and products with IoT functionality that customers do not actively leverage, according to Gartner.

Big areas of growth will be advanced intelligent home systems, medical devices, factory automation sensors and applications in industrial robotics, sensor motes for increased agricultural yield and automotive sensors and infrastructure integrity monitoring systems for areas like road and rail transport, water distribution and electrical transmission.

Also, Middleton reckoned that by 2020 component costs will have come down to the point that connectivity will become a standard feature, "even for processors costing less than $1".  Devices this cheap would allow the connecting of just about anything, from the very simple to the very complex, he said.

"As product designers dream up ways to exploit the inherent connectivity that will be offered in intelligent products, we expect the variety of devices offered to explode," Middleton said. 

Gartner analyst Jim Tully believes that there are a lot of misconception about the IoT, but also a lot of curiosity. "We are getting asked about it all the time," he said, "and that is from the customer's side and from the vendors side."

While there is a lot of confusion over the IoT, Tully said it was not too difficult to differentiate between that and straightforward, technological advance.

"A smart vending machine is not the IoT," he said. "But when that vending machine is smart enough to check if it is empty, place and order to be replenished, deliver the order, complete the order and get the finished order to the customer and all without needing an operator, then that is the IoT in action."

The IoT covers hardware, embedded software, communications services and information services associated with devices. Gartner believes that the incremental IoT supplier revenue contribution from IoT in 2020 is estimated at $309bn.

Department of Defense Awards $201 Million for GPS Satellite Contract

As reported by the Motley Fool: The Department of Defense announced nine new defense contracts on Thursday worth $1.31 billion. Lockheed Martin didn't win the biggest of these contracts. That honor went to Boeing. But Lockheed did win the second-largest award -- a $200.7 million contract modification to a contract to build GPS III space vehicles 05 and 06.

The contract being modified was originally awarded to Lockheed Martin on May 15, 2008, being then described as "a new contract for the first increment, of the next generation of Global Positioning System (GPS Base IIIA) ... a satellite-based radio navigation system that serves military and civil users worldwide... [using] existing capabilities [to] introduce a new L1C civil signal, increase earth coverage M-Code power for authorized military users, provide a graceful growth path to achieve full capabilities development document threshold requirements, and continue support for the Nuclear Detonation Detection System mission."

This original contract was valued in excess of $1.46 billion, and has subsequently been modified  -- and had dollars added to its value. The modification announced today covers work that should be completed by Dec. 14, 2017.

Proliferation of GPS-enabled Smartphones Spurs Growth of Global Location-based Applications Market

As reported by Directions Magazine:  The global market for location-based applications is poised for rapid growth, as the mass adoption of global positioning system (GPS)-enabled smartphones is encouraging developers to introduce numerous advanced applications.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Moving in Smart Spaces, finds that indoor connectivity, augmented reality, big data and wearable devices are the key technology trends likely to fuel the uptake of location-based applications. Location-based technology and data can then be combined to facilitate the development of smart spaces in every city and community.

"Location-based application developers have so far focused on the development of outdoor applications due to the adoption of GPS positioning in smartphones," noted Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Research Analyst Shuba Ramkumar. "However, as individuals spend more time indoors, there is a need to roll out indoor location-based applications that capitalize on various functionalities such as mapping, navigation and geo-fencing."

Augmented reality technology could also be used to make location-based applications more interactive. Further, the widening ecosystem of wearable devices such as Google Glass and Samsung Galaxy Gear infuses technology into the daily lives of individuals, widening the scope of context-aware applications.

However there are several challenges restricting the growth of the location-based applications market. The lack of standardization in indoor positioning technologies such as Wi-Fi, sensors and Bluetooth is complicating the development of indoor applications. Location-based application providers will need to wait until wearable device manufacturers address the issues of limited battery life and dependence on smartphones for outdoor connectivity.

Market participants also find it difficult to monetize applications due to the absence of a clear business model. In this scenario, application developers should seek to identify new sources of revenue. They can expedite market expansion by establishing contracts with indoor venues to provide customized applications, and by working with wearable device manufacturers to create related applications.

"Stakeholders should work together to identify the most reliable and accurate indoor positioning technologies that can steer the indoor connectivity market forward," said Ramkumar. "The In-Location Alliance is one such initiative formed by market participants to discuss and resolve issues concerning indoor positioning technologies."

NASA Builds GPS-Based System For Detecting Natural Disasters

As reported by Red Orbit: Existing GPS technologies have been enhanced by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to develop new systems for California and elsewhere to provide warning of hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis and extreme weather events.

Forecasters at NOAA National Weather Service offices in Oxnard and San Diego, California demonstrated the new technology in July, using it to track a summer monsoon rain affecting Southern California and issue more accurate and timely flash flood warnings. The new technology uses real-time information from GPS stations that have been upgraded with small, inexpensive seismic and meteorological sensors.

Other real-world systems are integrating the new technology as well. For example, it is being used to make damage assessments for hospitals, bridges and other critical infrastructure that can be used in real time by emergency personnel, decision makers and first responders to help mitigate threats to public safety.

The primary goal for hospitals is to shut down elevators automatically and send alerts to operating room personnel in the event of, for example, an earthquake early warning. The earthquake early warning system is particularly effective during large events. The system could be used to detect changes in the structure of bridges due to earthquakes, wind shear and traffic loads, as well.

The implications and possible applications of the new technology were discussed by scientists from JPL and Scripps at the American Geophysical Union meeting this past week.

“These advancements in monitoring are being applied to public safety threats, from tall buildings and bridges to hospitals in regions of risk for natural hazards,” said Yehuda Bock of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Meaningful warnings can save lives when issued within one to two minutes of a destructive earthquake, several tens of minutes for tsunamis, possibly an hour or more for flash floods, and several days or more for extreme winter storms.”

An optimal combination of GPS, accelerometer, pressure and temperature data is the basis for the new technology. This data is collected in real time at many locations throughout Southern California and on large engineered structures—like tall buildings, hospitals and bridges—for focused studies of health and damage. The technology returns data products such as accurate measurements of permanent motions (displacements) of ground stations and instruments deployed on structures, which form the basis for early detection of sustained damage; and measurements of precipitable water in the lower atmosphere, a determining factor in short-term weather forecasting. The combination of sensors significantly improves current seismic and meteorological practices.

NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory used a regional collaborative network of GPS stations—newly expanded to provide dense coverage in Southern California—to provide atmospheric moisture measurements to forecasters in the case of the first successful Southern California monsoon forecast and more accurate flash flood warnings in July.

Hundreds of scientific-grade GPS stations throughout Southern California are constantly receiving signals from GPS satellites to determine their precise positions. GPS ground stations are simultaneously measuring water vapor as well as position because water vapor in the atmosphere distorts GPS satellite signals.

“These water vapor measurements are currently being used to help forecasters better monitor developing weather during periods between satellite overpasses and weather balloon launches,” said research scientist Angelyn Moore of JPL. “Our project is upgrading GPS ground stations to get these data to forecasters in minutes to seconds to help them better understand whether summer monsoonal moisture is likely to cause harmful flash flooding.”

“This GPS network provides forecasters with timely and critical information on the availability of atmospheric moisture, allowing us to more accurately forecast and warn for potentially deadly flash flooding and wintertime heavy precipitation events in Southern California,” said Mark Jackson, meteorologist in charge at NOAA’s National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

“Having such detailed and timely information on how much moisture is available helps us better understand and forecast our extreme winter storms fueled by what are known as atmospheric rivers. It can also help us better pinpoint and anticipate thunderstorms capable of producing flash flooding.” Weather forecasters in Southern California are moving from periodic updates of moisture content once every 30 minutes to continuous updates. Balloon launches, from four locations, occur only twice a day.

According to Bock, the technology improves earthquake early warning by analyzing the very first moments of an earthquake in real time to characterize the more violent shaking that will follow. It is possible to predict the arrival of slower-traveling seismic “S” (secondary) waves that cause the most intense shaking by detecting the initial arrival of seismic ‘P’ (primary) waves, which travel through Earth the fastest, at the upgraded GPS stations.

Depending on distance from the earthquake’s epicenter, the warning time can range between several seconds to as long as two minutes. Critical fault parameters, such as earthquake magnitude, can be rapidly and accurately determined to generate ground intensity maps throughout the affected region, and form the basis of tsunami warnings.

The scientists are planning to integrate the technology into earthquake and tsunami early warnings and structural monitoring for the San Diego County Office of Emergency Service. Other institutions are examining the applications of the technology as well, such as hospital monitoring and early warnings for UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest; monitoring of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Long Beach for Caltrans; and forecasts of storms and flooding for NOAA’s weather forecasting offices in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Geofencing to Unlock Vehicle Functions Detailed in New Apple Patent Application

As reported by MAC Rumors: In June, Apple filed a new patent application [PDF] with the European Patent Office describing a system using an in-car accessory with an iOS device to set up geofences to activate various vehicle functions as a user approaches a vehicle.

According to the 15-claim application, which specifically describes "Accessory control with geo-fencing", the accessory (which may or may not be built-in to the car itself) would transmit a signal to a linked mobile device, allowing the device to monitor the location of a vehicle. When the mobile device (and the user) are close enough to the car, the mobile device would transmit a second signal to the accessory within the car, allowing it to trigger functions like door unlocking, defrosting, heating, trunk opening, seat warming, and more. 

The first signal can identify a current or future location of the vehicle. The mobile phone can generate one or more virtual geofences based at least in part on the location of the vehicle as determined from the first signal. For example, a geofence can be defined as a circular boundary centered on the vehicle's location, the radius being equal to a pre-defined distance. The mobile phone can repeatedly estimate its own location.

Upon detecting that the mobile phone has crossed a geofence (e.g., generally or in a particular direction), the mobile phone can generate and transmit a second signal to the vehicle. The accessory can control or coordinate control of one or more vehicle functions in response to receipt of the second signal.

Apple notes that geofences can be made in shapes that parallel vehicle components for very specific in-app functions. For example, a geofence could be tied specifically to a trunk or a door, with the mobile device able to identify the absolute-location boundaries of each individual geofence. With such accurate geofencing, a car's trunk could be opened as a user approaches, for groceries or bags to be put away, while the car doors stay locked until later approached. 

Geofences can also function on time, with features like a car's heating system able to be activated when a mobile device estimates that an owner is "five minutes away and approaching the vehicle."

Like Apple's iBeacons, which are designed to transmit specific location information to mobile devices, Apple's vehicle accessory system would potentially send signals over Bluetooth LE to activate various functions within the car. Apple suggests Wi-Fi and cellular hardware could also be included in order for the accessory to communicate with mobile devices when owners are located far from their cars.

Along with serving as a possible expansion of the use of Apple's iBeacon technology, the geofencing system described in the patent could also be a future expansion of Apple's iOS in the Car initiative, which is designed to provide enhanced iOS integration in automobiles.

The first hints of iOS in the Car have been bundled into the new 2014 Honda Civic, allowing users to access HondaLink apps for iOS to connect to an iPhone 5 or later. Apple's ultimate goal for iOS in the Car is far more advanced, however, with iOS built-in to in-dash systems.

The patent, which was filed in June and published in November, lists former Apple employee Sylvain Louboutin as an inventor.