Thursday, May 7. 2009

MSN Direct Service Under Review

On Tuesday Microsoft let go 3,000 employees, the second wave of a promised 5000 person cut announced earlier this year. While no products were removed from the product line, one with implications for location-based services is under review: MSN Direct. That's an FM data service used to send traffic, weather and other real time data to GPS receivers (from many vendors) and the less-than-successful SmartWatch.

The official statement on MSN Direct:

While the group was impacted by yesterday's job eliminations, they will continue to maintain the current MSN Direct service and invest in developing a low cost receiver for multiple devices.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Microsoft, Real-Time/Dynamic Data, Satellite Navigation at 08:34 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, April 7. 2009

Podcast: Any Game Changers in LBS Yet?

Many announcements related to location-based services came out of the CTIA show last week, including winners of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge. Were any truly game changing? Our editors look at the current state of LBS and what may be ahead.


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Posted by Adena Schutzberg in GPS, Weather, Directions on the News Podcast, Geospatial Business, Navigation, Social Networking, CTIA, Apple, NAVTEQ at 01:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, March 10. 2009

Forbes Profiles Real-time Weather Technology Pioneer

The March 16 issue of Forbes profiles an entrepreneur whose company I have watched for some time and with whom I've become friends. Bob Baron, founder of Baron Services, has developed technology that was once only used by TV stations but is now looking to find its way into the hands of millions of consumers: real-time weather tracking. To me, weather may be the ultimate in dynamic data feeds.

Baron was one of our two guest speakers at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference this past November, and it's no coincidence that Forbes elected to profile Bob. His success as a businessman and dynamism is only preceded by his booming voice, a gift that led him to a career as a TV weatherman on a local Huntsville, Alabama, NBC affiliate station.

Baron Services develops weather tracking software so that TV stations, particularly in regions of severe weather, can alert residents to impending danger. The company has developed similar solutions for aircraft pilots in conjuction with Sirius XM and Garmin, and is now negotiating with companies like Honda and Toyota to have real-time weather information available in high-end, luxury vehicles.

Posted by Joe Francica in Weather at 21:52 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, February 10. 2009

Indian Ministry or Earth Science Focuses on Developing Tsunami Early Warning System

In an interview conducted with Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Science (Government of India), we discussed the use of GIS in developing a tsunami warning system that was begun shortly after the Indonesian tsunami in December 2004. India recognized a need for a rapid response system for tsunami warning. His department instituted a program to develop a three-part system using sensor systems to monitor tides, ocean bottom pressure recorders, and other coastal monitoring stations. He emphasized the need to acquire data in real-time. However, in order to enact a warning system that was accurate, there was a need to establish a huge database of tsunami models.

Posted by Joe Francica in Education, Sensors, Real-Time/Dynamic Data, Map World Forum 2009 at 11:52 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, February 5. 2009

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. 

Posted by Joe Francica in LBS, GPS, Sensors, Traffic, Navigation at 08:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, January 19. 2009

Live Traffic Feeds for DC During Inauguration

One of the things on the minds of traveler's entering the capital on inauguration day is "traffic." Visitors will find the TrafficLand.com website that displays a map of the closed circuit video cameras helpful. (source: Google Earth Blog). The camera feeds are courtesy of the District DOT. (Traffic.com has the same information but TrafficLand has much better user interface.)

Posted by Joe Francica in Real-Time/Dynamic Data at 17:39 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |