Five Ways GPS Helps Cut Costs and Improve Service

Farmers rely on GPS systems to program tractors to automatically
plow, fertilize, and harvest their fields.

As reported by Government Technology: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is made up of 24 operational satellites orbiting the earth at speeds around 7,000 mph. At this speed, you could travel across the entire United States in about 30 minutes. Did you know that GPS is used on golf courses to measure the distance between golfers and the pin? Farmers also rely on GPS systems to program tractors to automatically plow, fertilize, and harvest their fields.

Here are five ways GPS technology can help you cut costs within your government agency and provide better public service.

1.       Reduce downtime

With GPS, you can automatically collect location data and transmit the information to any computer or device with a browser. Managers can see where field employees are and produce reports showing where a worker has stopped, for how long, at what time, and on which date. Reducing idle time equates to improved efficiency and often less overtime – a cost savings no agency can ignore.

2.       Integrate and dispatch jobs to the field
Customer service representatives handle thousands of non-emergency 311 calls related to city streets; sidewalk curbs; signs and pavement markings; bicycle and pedestrian programs; and more. Being able to generate jobs information from the field allows for faster response to 311 requests. A prompt reply may even reduce the number of repeat calls – a win-win for everyone.

3.       Send help where it's needed – quickly
When storms or disasters hit, using mobile forms means departments can note what types of crews and equipment are needed and where, depending on the nature and location of the disaster area. This data can be transmitted back to headquarters where a detailed analysis can be done to set tasks for the next shift and adequately schedule work crews. In the event of a disaster, a prompt reply is expected of any city or state government. GPS and forms can ease the stress of an emergency by helping place the required help in the hardest hit areas.

4.       Automate timekeeping and payroll processing
Many city workers and contractors have to clock in and clock out for work. This often requires extra time to simply submit essential paperwork. GPS technology can automate timesheets and payroll processing, shaving minutes from hundreds of workers. The best part is that the timesheets can sync with your accounting program to make this truly a seamless process for both workers and administration.

5.       Use geofencing to ensure safety of employees and reduce fuel costs
A geofence is a virtual barrier for a specified geographic area. Programs that use geofencing allow managers to set up triggers when a vehicle enters or exits the defined boundaries. There are two common uses of this technology.

a.       Employee safety: Managers are alerted if an employee enters or leaves a specified area. With many city workers working in the field, it is critical to ensure their safety, but not knowing where everyone is located makes this nearly impossible. GPS technology can alert dispatchers if a code enforcer has not made contact and send backup if necessary.

b.      Reducing fuel costs: Studies have found that with GPS tracking installed on fleets, employees are less likely to make personal stops, therefore reducing fuel costs.

Satellite Hotspot Promises To Bring Wi-Fi Everywhere

As reported by PCWorld: There will soon be nowhere to hide from Facebook selfies, Justin Bieber news and emails from your boss.

Satellite communications company Iridium has developed a Wi-Fi hotspot that can bring Internet connectivity to almost every corner of the planet.

The pocket-size device, set to be released in the second quarter, connects to the company’s satellite voice network to provide service similar to the analog modems that were commonly used for landline Internet access until about a decade ago.

Speeds will be low—about 20 kilobits per second, according to the company—but a slow connection might be better than none at all, depending on the location.

To tackle the slow data rate, Iridium will offer its own email application that utilizes compression to increase data transmission efficiency. That should enable about 20 text-based emails per minute, the company said.

"We’re working with app developers to create apps that are maximized to run on our network," said Ashley Eames, a spokeswoman for Iridium.

The hotspot will cost about US$800 and data rates will vary depending on the Iridium airtime plan. They will be sold as regional or seasonal packages with prices of around $1 per minute on prepaid plans.

Data speeds are expected to get faster in the coming years after Iridium launches a new fleet of satellites.

The low data transmission speed on the current network is a result of the satellites having been designed when data and Internet access weren’t large priorities. The Iridium Next satellites that will launch from 2015 should provide 1.5M bps data service, according to the company.

Iridium offers a separate satellite broadband service, although it requires a large antenna and is targeted at maritime and aviation use.

At Sochi Olympics, Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap Trounces Google Maps

The Olympic ski area is virtually a blank on Google's map (right)
compared to Open Street Map.

As reported by Wired: If you’re looking for detailed maps of the Olympic sites around Sochi, Google maps may not be your best bet. OpenStreetMap, the crowdsourced Wikipedia of cartography, looks to have much better coverage of the Olympic sites, as the images in this gallery show.

The region outside Sochi where the Olympic ski and snowboard events will be held is virtually a pale green blank on Google maps, for example. The maps here come from the fun and fabulously time-sucking Map Compare tool on the website of Geofabrik, a German company developing commercial uses for OSM data. The Olympic park along the coast, and even downtown Sochi are also covered in more detail in OSM (although with some features that appear on one map but not the other, it’s not clear which is more accurate — at least not without being there).

Google still has a huge advantage in navigation — typing an address into your phone and getting step-by-step directions to your destination. That’s the next step in OSM’s evolution, OSM founder Steve Coast wrote in a recent blog post announcing that Telenav, the personal navigation company he joined last year, had acquired skobbler, a German company that developed a popular OSM-based GPS navigation app.

But the real power of OSM is its users — more than 1.5 million people have registered to edit its maps, mapping some parts of the world down to the level of shrubbery. OSM maps can be as detailed as people care to make them. You can see this in the final map in this gallery, which shows OSM edits to the area around the Sochi Olympic park in the past 90 days. People have been busy mapping.

And with all the visitors to the area, the maps are only likely to get more detailed over the next few weeks — assuming some of the spectators can find time between events to plot a few footpaths and buildings.

3D Automotive Dead Reckoning Offers Improved Urban Navigation

As reported by Motor Authority: GPS has replaced the map as most people's navigation tool of choice, but it has its limitations. In order to accurately determine a car's current position--and thus calculate a route--a system needs to constantly receive signals from an overhead network of satellites.

That can be a problem in urban areas, where tall buildings and bridges can temporarily block the signal, or where underground driving through a tunnel or parking garage can completely isolate a car and its driver from the satellite beacon.

Swiss semiconductor manufacturer thinks it has a solution. Its latest navigation chip uses a new system called "3D Automotive Dead Reckoning," or "3D ADR." 

Rather than relying exclusively on satellite signals to orient itself, 3D ADR uses sensors that track a vehicle's speed, horizontal movement, and elevation. The latter is especially important considering that enclosed multistory parking garages are among the most notorious GPS dead zones.

By measuring movement in three dimensions 3D ADR allows a car's navigation system to keep track of its location, so that it doesn't need to re-orient itself every time it loses and regains a link with a satellite.

Since 3D ADR is essentially just a chip that can work with a car's built-in sensors and navigation system, the company says it should be fairly easy to install. The company says its chip will work most vehicles regardless of their drivetrain configuration.

Want To Remotely Control A Car? $20 In Parts, Some Oily Fingers, And You're In Command

As reported by The Register: Spanish hackers have been showing off their latest car-hacking creation; a circuit board using untraceable, off-the-shelf parts worth $20 that can give wireless access to the car's controls while it's on the road.

The device, which will be shown off at next month's Black Hat Asia hacking conference, uses the Controller Area Network (CAN) ports car manufacturers build into their engines for computer-system checks. Once assembled, the smartphone-sized device can be plugged in under some vehicles, or inside the hood of other models, and give the hackers remote access to control systems.

"A car is a mini network," security researcher Alberto Garcia Illera told Forbes. "And right now there's no security implemented."

Illera and fellow security researcher Javier Vazquez-Vidal said that they had tested the CAN Hacking Tool (CHT) successfully on four popular makes of cars and had been able to apply the emergency brakes while the car was in motion, affect the steering, turn off the headlights, or set off the car alarm.

The device currently only works via Bluetooth, but the team says that they will have a GSM version ready by the time the conference starts. This would allow remote control of a target car from much greater distances, and more technical details of the CHT will be given out at the conference.

"The goal isn't to release our hacking tool to the public and say 'take this and start hacking cars'," said Vidal. "We want to reach the manufacturers and show them what can be done."

The duo aren't the first to demonstrate the total lack of security in the CAN bus system. At last year's DefCon convention, veteran hacker Charlie Miller showed how the CAN system was easily controlled using a laptop, and allowed modification of the car's firmware.

Both cracks need physical access – at least briefly – in order to work, but that's not impossible to achieve, and once the hardware's in place all you need to start causing trouble is a wireless signal. With the US government pushing for standards for car communications it might be an idea to insist there should be some security controls built-in, as well.

GPS 3 Main Payload Facing More Delays

As reported by Space News: Continuing problems with an Exelis-built payload will delay the delivery of the first of the GPS 3 next-generation navigation satellites, a senior U.S. Air Force official said Feb. 7.

Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, said the issue highlights the problem inherent in relying on one contractor for a critical technology. Exelis Geospatial Systems of Rochester, N.Y., has supplied the payloads for all previous generations of GPS satellites. 

The latest payload delay is not expected to push back the first launch of the Lockheed Martin-built GPS 3 satellites at this point. Nonetheless, Shelton made clear his patience is wearing thin. 

“Both the prime and the sub know exactly where we stand on this,” Shelton said in remarks at a Capitol Hill Club breakfast.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver is under contract to build eight GPS 3 satellites, the first of which is slated to launch in 2015. The satellites are expected to be more accurate and reliable than previous generations of GPS craft. 

In December 2012, Exelis announced it had integrated and performed initial testing of a payload aboard a prototype GPS 3 satellite.  But the company has struggled with the navigation payload since at least this past September, when Shelton mentioned the problem publicly.

In November, Exelis officials said they believed “the known technical issues have been resolved” and that the payload was expected to be delivered in spring 2014. At the time, they said the delays stemmed from “first-time development and integration issues, including design changes to eliminate signal crosstalk.” Crosstalk occurs when a signal broadcast on one circuit creates an undesired effect on another circuit. 

Chip Eschenfelder, a Lockheed Martin spokesman, said via email Feb. 7 that while “known performance issues have been resolved, we test thoroughly across the full range of launch and space flight mission environments to ensure that there are no residual problems.”  

That testing is ongoing, Eschenfelder said. “Lockheed Martin and Exelis are doing whatever it takes to get this first navigation payload right,” he said.

Shelton said he expected the current problems would push the delivery of the satellite from late 2014 into 2015, but most likely would not postpone the initial launch. 

Shelton was visibly frustrated with the issue and suggested that the U.S. government might benefit from having a diversity of GPS payload providers. 

“There is exactly one provider for navigation payloads,” Shelton said. Although not ready to abandon Exelis, Shelton said he has encouraged industry to work on an alternative payload. 

The Air Force has tried in the past — with mixed results — to create competition where none previously existed. 

Exelis spokeswoman Jane Khodos said in a Feb. 7 email that GPS 3 will meet all mission and quality requirements.

“We want to make sure to get everything right before the payload goes into space, especially with this first one,” Khodos said. “Significant testing with flight-like engineering units and the first GPS III satellite’s flight hardware indicates that the known technical issues have been resolved.”

Meanwhile, Shelton also raised questions about the long-term viability of the existing GPS constellation, calling some of the on-orbit satellites “fragile.” 

“We’re a little bit concerned about the long-term viability of the satellites,” he said, joking that some of the satellites were old enough to vote.

Currently, 31 GPS satellites are on orbit, including eight from the legacy Block 2A program. The first of those satellites, which were designed for a 7.5 year lifespan, were launched in 1990.

Beer-delivery Drone Grounded By FAA

As reported by CNN: Ice fishers in Minnesota are reeling from a recent FAA decision prohibiting beer delivery by drone.

Local brewery Lakemaid was testing a new drone delivery system to airlift frosty cases of beer to fishermen holed up in ice shacks on Mille Lacs Lake. After spotting a Lakemaid YouTube video that went up last week of one of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on a test run, the Federal Aviation Administration contacted Lakemaid and told the company to stop.

Unfortunately for Lakemaid fans and anyone else dreading a walk to the corner store, it's currently against the law to fly drones for commercial purposes or above 400 feet in the United States. The FAA is working on a comprehensive set of rules and regulations that will pave the way for commercial drone flight, but the legislation won't be ready until at least 2015 and drones might not be in the skies until 2017.

Until then, thirsty fishermen must obtain their beverages through old-fashioned terrestrial delivery methods.

The great beer grounding of 2014 might just be the issue that will turn Americans into pro-drone advocates. A WhiteHouse.gov petition has already gone up, asking the Obama administration to issue Lakemaid an airworthiness certificate. So far, 183 thirsty UAV advocates have signed the petition (only 99,817 signatures to go!).

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has previously expressed his support of aerial beer delivery on Twitter. In August he said "Perhaps I am not against ALL drones!" and linked to a news story about a drone delivering beers during a music festival in South Africa.

Only amateurs are allowed to fly drones at this time, and they're limited to small vehicles under 55 pounds. They can only operate the aircraft for fun, not for profit, and they must adhere to local and federal laws. For example, drones are not allowed to cruise over populated areas.

Some groups have received exceptions to test drones for research purposes.

"While we are evaluating many potential uses of [UAVs] as we move toward their safe integration into the nation's airspace, commercial operation of such aircraft is not yet allowed," said FAA spokesperson Elizabeth Cory in an e-mail.

Announcing plans to deliver goods by drone has been a popular publicity stunt for U.S. companies over the past year. On a recent "60 Minutes" segment, Amazon demonstrated a drone delivery system it's working on for packages. The company conducted the tests outside the country to avoid breaking U.S. law. In June, the Domino's pizza chain said it was developing a drone capable of delivering up to two pizzas.

The FAA has asked other companies and institutions to ground their drones in the past year. The agency has contacted a company in Wisconsin that used drones to capture aerial footage for real estate. And the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska received a cease-and-desist letter for its attempts to use drones for reporting purposes.

Even once FAA regulations are in place, we likely won't see the skies filling up with beer deliveries.   Interested companies will have to get proper training and licenses.

"We are concerned about possible careless and reckless operation, especially if someone on the ground is hurt by an object or objects falling from the [UAVs]," said Cory, citing the FAA regulation that prohibits careless flying.

Delivery of goods is expected to be a small segment of future drone market. The bigger commercial uses will focus on agriculture, law enforcement and aerial photography.

Delicious test cases like beer and fast-food delivery might be gimmicky, but they can help ease the public's concerns about drones in the sky. The technology is mostly known for its military applications, and civil liberties groups are concerned about drones being used for surveillance by law enforcement. Local residents in Deer Trail, Colorado, have even attempted to pass a law that makes it legal to shoot down drones with the proper drone hunting license.

But the next generation of friendly drones aren't all packing weapons or collecting data for the NSA. Some just want to bring you a nice cold one and maybe a slice without getting stuck in traffic.