Chinese GNSS Beidou Offering Data

With its tenth satellite in orbit, Beidou, the Chinese equivalent to GPS, is "operational." China plans six more satellite launches before the end of 2012 and a total of 35 by 2020. 

If the translation is accurate, Chinese officials are unclear on how the systems works. 

Beidou now offered location, timing and navigation data to China and surrounding areas announced the project's spokesman Ran Cheng.

The interface control document is available in English (pdf).

- BBC

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation: Can you Locate me Now?

Did you ever wonder how hardware makers insure their devices can locate you effectively via GPS, cell towers and Wi-Fi? How do they answer the question “Can you locate me now?” One way is to use in-lab simulations for testing. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg spoke with Nigel Wright, Spirent’s Vice President of Marketing for Wireless about how their testing services work and are used.

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GPS Tidbits

China launched the fifth of its navigations satellites for its in development COMPASS constellation on Aug 1. It will be one of 35 satellites when the constellation is complete. Asian use of it is expected in 2012 with worldwide coverage in 2020.

- http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/39967/20100801/china-satellite-launch-gps-asia-pacific-coverage-communications.htm”>International Business Times

Oman’s police force is encouraging rental car companies in install navigation devices after a rise in the number of thefts of rented vehicles.

- Khalee Times

New South Wales, Australia police are reminding motorists to abide by road closures and take extra care on the roads during periods of bad weather and exercise caution when using in-car navigation devices. This after a family ignored “road closed” signs during a storm, got stuck and had to wait three days for rescue. They were following their GPS’ instructions.

- News.com.au

There’s altogether too much coverage in a promotion in Brazil that puts a GPS into a Unilever laundry detergent box. When the purchasers gets the box home (there are 50), they will a prize, a video camera. It will come to them. A website shows the approximate location of the winners and tracks the team giving out the prizes.

- C|net

“Gartner predicts that by the end of 2013, location or profile information from mobile devices will be used to validate and detect fraud on 90 percent of mobile transactions.” GPS among other technologies can and should be used to detect fraud per one blogger.

- Bank Infosecurity

GPS Tidbits

The US FAA will hold a 3-day public meeting on 10-12 August in Stanford, California to gather industry ideas on alternative positioning, navigation and timing (APNT) methods that could be used if global navigation satellite services (GNSS) are interrupted.

- FlightGlobal

NAVTEQ has installed kiosks in nine stores in two Mexican cities to show of GPS devices from Garmin, Mio, and Motorola, which all use the new company’s new maps of the country. NAVTEQ, is owned by Nokia, which is pushing the Ovi mapping platform on its phones.

- GPS World

Market research company iSuppli predicts the number of smartphone-based navigation systems in use will increase from 8m in 2009 to 81m this year, rising to 297m by 2014. Pre-loaded systems are expected to overshadow downloaded applications…

That suggests PND use is dropping.

- StrategyEye

GPS Tidbits

AgWeb offers a list of things to know before you buy a GPS device for agriculture. The last one, about “intangible” benefits is one many people probably do not think of:

12. Intangible benefits.
“Now that I’ve used [GPS-guided] auto-steer, the stress reduction is bigger than I ever anticipated,” says Bryan, the Iowa farmer. “It’s hard to put a dollar amount on how much less tired I am at the end of a day. One example is my shoulders and neck don’t ache after a day running the planter like they used to. Intangibles like less stress are bonuses that sealed the deal for me.”

- AgWeb

Did you know driving with a GPS can help you understand drought? It did for Peter Foster who lives in China, which is undergoing a serious drought and is planning a serious engineering project in response.

The GPS (or ‘Tom-tom’ for UK readers) shows the reservoirs as large blue splodges on the moving map which, it often indicates, I should be able to see out the window.
Trouble is, half the time they just aren’t there. I look out expecting to see water and instead see grazing livestock and the stumps where last year’s maize fields have obviously been. Miles and miles of ‘blue’ is in fact ‘brown’ and doesn’t appear to have seen any water for years.
I don’t know what date the maps on my GPS are based on, but the gap between the computer and the reality gives you a powerful sense of the scale of Beijing’s water shortages.

- Telegraph Blogs

GPS, among other technologies helped NYC officials get one unlawful cabbie of the road.The Taxi and Limousine Commission revoked Wasim Khalid Cheema’s license after a January ruling just made public. Cheema had been using the suburban rate for in city trips, jacking them up 100% in some cases.

The city determined the driver was overcharging by reviewing his records, including automatic trip sheets that are generated using global positioning technology. Taxis are required to have the devices.

- AP via NJ.com

On March 3 Russia launched three navigation satellites to bring its GLONASS constellation up to 22 satellites, with 16 operational. That’s getting closer to the 24 required.

- PTI News