Thursday, February 5. 2009

NASA Satellite to Map Earth's CO2 Levels

NASA will soon launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), a satellite that will effectively detect the levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Prior to the launch of the OCO, CO₂ measurements were taken with land-based instrumentation such as FLUXNET and AmeriFlux both of which are management by Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL). The OCO will measure the reflected radiance in both the near IR (.77 µ) and slightly longer wavelengths (2.06 µm) for oxygen and CO₂ bands, respectively, to model the actual CO₂ levels. Chemical and Engineering News reports that the launch is scheduled for Feb. 23. Airborne instruments will support the calibration of the model.

Kundra Expected to be Named to Top OMB IT Position

Vivek Kundra, Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, will not be the federal CTO, a position the new president is expected to create, as many had thought. Instead, he will be joining the Obama administration as head of the Office of E-Government and Information Technology, a post created in 2001 within the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

Kundra has high marks for geospatial folks as the brains behind the Apps for Democracy that lead to 47 open source apps developed by individuals and companies as part of a contest. Many of them were geospatial.

This may be good news for Kundra as word is the CTO will be focused on limited advising and evangelizing. Kundra's new position will office will include operational responsibility.

The announcement is said to imminent and a memo has already been circulated at OMB, per Federal News Radio.

- Ars Technica

It's a Setup - Pittsburgh Neighborhood Co-ops Google Street View

It's a parade with a marching band...over there is a garage band...and a dead chicken sculpture...somebody's throwing confetti. If you have not seen this "setup" by a neighborhood in Pittsburgh's Northside to "stage" Street with a View, a show for Google's Street View as they passed by in capturing a unique street scene, it's a must see.

SiRF Technology’s GPS Solutions in SYNC with Ford Cars…Literally

SiRF Technology is providing the GPS chip set for Ford Motor Corporation’s SYNC technology to support location-based applications. SYNC was developed jointly with Microsoft and was launched 18 months ago on selected Ford vehicles. It is an in-dash system for advanced connectivity, communication and entertainment but, as importantly, functions as platform for many other applications that can be expanded when the demand is needed.  On January 8th at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ford announced that SYNC’s new features will now include Traffic by INRIX and driving directions supported by TeleNav that leverage SiRF’s technology.

SiRF is working with M/A-COM Technology Solutions, a tier 1 electronics supplier to Ford that is supplying an integrated module to Ford that includes the SiRF chip set with antenna, receiver, and memory as well as a Bluetooth-enabled phone. M/A-Com is responsible for linking location to the car’s architecture bus and making sure it works indoors as well as outdoors.

The technology of M/A-Com and SiRF that is being supplied to Ford will use the car’s architecture bus to take information from the car’s many other sensors to compliment the GPS. Using a SiRF Star II GPS chip set, SiRF developed new software architecture to work with the car’s sensors.  This allows the SiRF GPS chips to calibrate the vehicle’s sensors, such as an internal gyroscope, and the vehicle’s sensors will in turn support location determination if a GPS signal is not available.

When GPS is not reliable, the combined measurements of speed and heading as well as the odometer are used to determine the vehicles location. The vehicle’s internal gyroscope is involved to help also determine whether the car is going forward or reverse so that location accuracy will be maintained. Other vehicle sensors are so accurate so as to detect whether the wheels are drifting and if the car tires are expanding, both of which might affect the vehicle’s position over long distances. In that case, the M/A-COM modules is sophisticated enough to perform the recalibration needed to correct location. 

Lessons from a Failed LBS StartUp

The one in question was in Singapore, as the article titled "5 Lessons From My Failed Startup In Mobile Location-Based Service" appeared in a blog called SGEntrepreneurs.com. It's unclear when the company was founded or shut down. Still, Aaron Chua tells the story with some good pointer for those in or thinking about jumping in to a startup in general and an LBS one in particular. My favorite of the five:

There is no business in location based services
On paper, location based services seem like the best new thing. How seriously wrong we were in overestimating its demand. Make sure that when you decide to do a startup, base it on strong economics. Don’t do something just because of the hype or some superficial understanding of the industry. Invest some time to learn the underlying economics that is creating the opportunties. This is why I have been posting on stuff like this, this and this.

Roomba for the Golf Course

That's right - a fully automated mower, aimed at golf courses was introduced at this week's golf show. The geo tidbits:

By using a proprietary positioning technology that trumps GPS, the RG3 moves precisely and safely across the green – traveling in straight lines and along the perimeter without the need for a human operator.

Operation of the RG3 robotic greens mower is easy. Prior to mowing, an operator places four beacons, each about the size of a bowling pin, in predetermined, fixed locations around the green. Then the operator simply presses “start” and the RG3 automatically performs the mowing operation according to exact specifications set by the superintendent. During mowing, the mower remains in constant communication with the beacons to help guide its precise movement across the green.

I'm surprised there is no mention in the PR about safety or how the robot reacts to animals or people that are curious about it.

- press release