GIS Development News Update 15th February 2004

Applications

The use of GPS made some interesting cases recently worth reading on.

In US, at the Lee County, every day, 664 buses transport 39,000 public school children to and from school. Transportation officials wanted to use technology to help monitor this huge number and shall soon land up outfitting every bus with a GPS unit that uses computerized maps to track buses on their morning and afternoon routes. The Lee County School District also is considering a student tracking system that uses fingerprint scanning to check whether children are on the right bus, what time they hop on and off the bus and if their ride will be delayed.

In another case, U.S. federal marshals found tracking fugitive conman 64-year-old Bobbie McCoy Burress easy: they just had the rental company switch on the global positioning device in his rented car. And at the Bay of Green Bay, U.S. Coast Guard helicopters managed to rescue with GPS aid, four fishermen who became stranded.

Other cases of location-based services are that in India CMC Limited has developed and deployed vehicle tracking and real time passenger information system (RTPIS) for Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC). India will undertake the task of providing satellite imaging and aerial services for creating >digital mapping of Maldives and for setting up of a Remote Sensing Unit in the Maldives.

Another interesting read was where environmentalists and advocates of open space have a new way to look down on urban development in Connecticut now - using images collected by NASA.

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Business News

Space Imaging came into headlines a couple of times. It recently won a contract to continue providing GIS support for the operations of the U.S. Forest Service's Regional Office in Vallejo, California. Space Imaging also has recently signed an agreement with Antrix Corp., a division of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), to extend its sales and marketing agreement through 2010. The agreement gives it exclusive rights to market and sell data from ISRO's RESOURCESAT-1 (IRS-P6) satellite, the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) 1-C and IRS 1-D, and CARTOSAT (P-5) satellites.

In another worthwhile deal, EADS Space has been awarded a EUR600K Study by ESA to carry out the first definition of a European Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. The study will benefit from the combined resources of EADS Astrium and EADS Space Transportation.

In appointments, DigitalGlobe announced it has named Robert Mark Scott Vice President of U.S. Government Business Development. Sanborn announced also that Melinda Brown has joined the company as Vice President of marketing.

And lastly, it would be interesting to watch the outcome of Steve and Motorola’s agreement. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., and Motorola Inc. recently said that they would work together in developing wireless products for tracking people, pets and things.

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Products

The debate and discussions of Galileo carried on with more insights and viewpoints. Matrox Graphics Inc., the manufacturer of professional graphics solutions, announced the new Parhelia Precision SGT graphics card, uniquely designed to drive high-frequency grayscale stereo displays with high quality, compatibility, and grayscale stereo performance. Building on the latest XML technologies, AND developed Streetguide in close corporation with Vodafone. Streetguide automatically plots the current location of the mobile phone owners on a map. The service is available on the Vodafone live! platform.

Other product related news are,

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Miscellaneous

One of the main targets of the Mars Express mission is to discover the presence of water in one of its chemical states. Through the initial mapping of the South polar cap on 18 January, OMEGA, the combined camera and infrared spectrometer, has already revealed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide ice. This was spectacular news to which follow up news hasn’t yet emerged.

In another interesting move, Brazil elicited their chances to buy into the European satellite navigation system, Galileo, despite misgivings from their neighbour to the North, the United States.

The European and British space agencies on Feb. 11 announced the creation of a board of inquiry to determine how future Mars missions might avoid the fate of the lost Beagle 2 lander

NASA announced a fiery impending death of the world's best-known scientific instrument, the Hubble Space Telescope - a prospect that has many astronomers and space agency officials at loggerheads. The Hubble, one of the most productive telescopes ever built was put into orbit during a 1990 space shuttle mission.

And in an exciting news, its was stated that slightly above three-fifths of Americans supposedly oppose President George W. Bush's ambitious plans into the space that included a proposal to return to the moon and eventually put a human on Mars. This is according to a poll the Time/CNN released recently.

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