GPS Sports Flash, Dash in Vegas

The GPS industry navigates ever onward with ever more interesting applications, as demonstrated by vendors at January's 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology. CES '07 bestowed one of its top honors upon a GPS device.

Best of Show

Dash Navigation's Dash Express, an Internet-connected GPS device, won the CNET Best of CES Award in the car tech category. The Mountain View, California, company has partnered with Yahoo! to provide local search for users of its navigation and traffic service. When a user enters a search term, the Dash device searches the web wirelessly and delivers listings of nearby businesses. Press a button, and it routes the user to the desired destination. In many cases, Yahoo! Local offers ratings and reviews from other consumers.

Dash Express, which uses the SirfStar III receiver, is scheduled to be available in California this spring and nationwide in the fall. Other buzz-worthy GPS technologies introduced at CES include:

• Apts for Rent, a mobile phone application from Smarter Agent, instantly returns information about nearby available apartments, including rental price, address, features, and photos. It will make its commercial debut on a major wireless carrier in late January. Powered by NAVTEQ map data, users can select "Map It" and see all apartments for rent in an area on an interactive map. Users can also search by city and state to research areas of interest and save properties to their phone.
• Astro, a Garmin dog-tracking system designed for sporting dogs and their owners, features two components: the dog's transmitter — attachable via harness or collar — and the user's handheld receiver, the Astro 220, which can track up to 10 dogs at a time. Unlike radio telemetry collars, the Astro features a dog page that shows the precise direction and distance the dog is moving, indicating if it is running, sitting, on point, or treeing quarry. The handheld unit displays maps to track pooch.
• XM satellite radio showed off a concept vehicle featuring a personal weather tracking system for GPS navigation, as well as the handheld Bushnell ONIX 400 Weather Tracker (and XM receiver). Both systems, due out this summer, will track specific, real-time weather conditions between a user's current location and final destination, along with a near-term weather forecast. The ONIX 400, designed for outdoor use, can overlay weather data on top of satellite imagery or topographic maps.

Global Locate, SiRF Vie for ONE Position

A GPS chip produced by Global Locate of San Jose, California, will power the TomTom ONE, signaling a change for TomTom (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), which previously used only chips supplied by SiRF Technology.

The Hammerhead, a single-die GPS chip, began shipping worldwide in the TomTom ONE in January. In addition, Global Locate's patented extended ephemeris technology known as Long Term Orbit will be made available through TomTom's QuickGPSfix service to enhance navigation performance.

But don't count SiRF out. "Both vendors will continue to supply chipsets for the ONE," said Karen Drake, TomTom's public relations manager. "The consmer shouldn't see any difference." Drake said the company sees the chips from each manufacturer as being of equal quality.

Global Locate had worked with TomTom prior to this latest deal. According to Global Locate's Frank van Diggelen, executive vice president of technology, the companies shared a customer a year ago, when Global Locate supplied a chip to the HP iPAC and TomTom supplied software for the same device. "We're delighted to supply a chip for the TomTom ONE," van Diggelen said. "They make terrific products."

Global Locate's host-based GPS architecture approach means that both the TomTom software application and the GPS chip and navigation software application share the same processor resources, which Global Locate says improves turn-by-turn navigation performance for users. The host- based approach reduces system redundancy, avoiding the need for multiple CPUs, memory systems, and other costly components.

"Host-based GPS solutions are often perceived as being relevant only for the cellular handset market," said Richard Najarian, vice president of sales and business development for Global Locate. "This new business initiative with TomTom shows that our solution delivers added value in other GPS product applications such as portable navigation devices, not just mobile phones."

Patent Spat. Complicating the SiRF versus Global Locate question, SiRF Technology filed a patent infringement complaint against Global Locate and its U.S. distributor, Innovation Sales Southern California, in the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California on December 15, 2006. Global Locate responded with a counter suit January 8, also for patent infringement. Both companies are seeking monetary damages and an injunction to prevent further infringement.

Hammerhead II. While the lawyers spar in court, Global Locate has launched Hammerhead's successor. The company teamed with Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany, to develop a GPS receiver chip for mobile handsets based on the Hammerhead chip. The single-die Hammerhead II measures 3.74 3 3.59 3 0.6 millimeters, for a total footprint of less than 14 millimeters.

"The GPS feature can now be added to any mobile device with a total electronics bill-of-materials footprint of less than 50 millimeters," claimed Infineon Vice President Thomas Pollakowski. The chip includes low noise amplifier, RF down-converter, and signal processing baseband technology on a single RFCMOS die.

Like its predecessor, the Hammerhead II chip provides sensitivity to 2160 dBm and position fix times as fast as 1 second, exceeding 3GPP specifications. The software includes algorithms to mitigate multipath errors and is backwardly compatible with Hammerhead, for transition to the new, smaller part as changing form factors require.

Samples of the Hammerhead II chip are now available, with production quantities forecast available in February.

NovAtel Pushes RTK Envelope

When the conditions are right, realt-time kinematic (RTK) technology can furnish a highly productive tool for survey and construction. When the conditions are not so ideal, as in and around tree canopy and with longer baselines, RTK does not provide so much ease of use.

Recent GNSS satellite launches, GPS and GLONASS, will certainly assist RTK users working in tough conditions, improving geometry, code structure, and so on. However, it's not all about using satellite brute force to work in marginal RTK conditions. Some responsibility must fall on the GNSS receiver to perform effectively in marginal conditions, where the RTK issues are re-acquisition and re-initialization times, reliable ambiguity resolution, and, of course, accuracy.

RTK technology has matured enough that most RTK receivers do well in clear sky environments and within a 15-kilometer baseline, so field productivity is about equal across the board among manufacturers. One area of RTK product differentiation has become how the different manufacturers perform in marginal conditions. NovAtel has issued a white paper describing their efforts to improve RTK performance in marginal conditions and with longer baselines.

While the NovAtel report "Introducing New Advance RTK" describes results using long baselines operating in a clear sky environment, the most interesting results to note are those derived from a medium baseline (4.8 kilometers) under moderate tree canopy. The definition of moderate tree canopy varies widely depending on geography. Moderate tree canopy in Calgary, where NovAtel is based, differs greatly from moderate canopy in Maine, which differs greatly from moderate canopy in Iowa.

Nonetheless, some RTK receivers have difficulty even in and around the most modest tree canopy. The important point is that companies like NovAtel are beginning to spend time and resource optimizing their receivers for environments RTK users face everyday — and the results show it.

The report is available in the Industry-Sponsored White Papers section.

— Eric Gakstatter, Survey & Construction newsletter editor

>>INDUSTRY WATCH

SanDisk Executive Named Magellan Chief

Magellan of Santa Clara, California, has named Nelson Chan as its chief executive officer. Chan had been executive vice president and head of consumer products at SanDisk Corporation, a flash-memory-based data-storage product supplier.

Chan, 45, held a number of positions at SanDisk and helped drive the company from start-up to more than $3 billion in revenues and worked for the adoption of many card formats which have become industry standards. He brings more than 20 years of high-tech management experience, including senior management positions in engineering, sales, and marketing at SanDisk, Signetics, and Delco Electronics.

>>LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

Epson Module for Mobiles Gets DoCoMo Nod

Seiko Epson Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, has developed a compact GPS module for mobile phones and other handsets. The S4E19863 is already in use in all GPS-capable models of FOMA903i series1 phones released by NTT DoCoMo, Inc., and now volume shipment of the series has begun.

Epson claims the chip's improved sensitivity results from a "broad detection range capable of identifying both strong outdoor signals and weak indoor signals." The module also supports the three 3GPP-compliant positioning modes (MS-based, MS- assisted, and autonomous). The S4E19863 series measures 7 3 6 3 1.28 millimeters.

>>LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

Navigon Picks Up NAVTEQ's Software

Navigon has acquired NAVTEQ's navigation software business, including its navigation software assets and personnel (about 40). Andreas Hecht, Navigon's general manager for the Americas and a former NAVTEQ executive, says that Navigon will leverage NAVTEQ's software assets to pursue opportunities in automotive infotainment systems, including navigation.

Auto maker Porsche just released a Navigon-powered portable in-vehicle nav system, the P9611. Several first-tier automotive nav suppliers use pieces of NAVTEQ's technology in their devices, including Denso, Zenrin, Aisin, and Xanavi.

>>TRAINING

GPS-GAP Offers Online Courses

The GPS, Geodesy and Application Program (GPS-GAP) offers online courses that fulfill undergraduate and graduate course requirements in engineering and science. Because instruction is individualized, a course can start any time. No software purchase is required — a dedicated server runs live computations with relevant data and actual GPS observations. All computations are programmed with Mathcad, which can be learned "on the fly." Computer-graded exams are available. The material is tied to the textbook GPS Satellite Surveying by Alfred Leick, professor at the University of Maine in Orono, and a founding Editorial Advisory Board member of GPS World.

>>LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

CSR Acquires NordNav, Cambridge Positioning

CSR of Cambridge, UK, announced January 15 that it has acquired NordNav Technologies AB and Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd. in an effort to provide software-based low-cost GPS suitable for mass-market mobile phones and personal navigation devices. CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) will apply its own experience in embedding radio technologies into the mobile platform and expects its first autonomous and assisted GPS product offerings to be available during the first half of 2007, expecting its cost to fall under $1 per unit of overall bill of materials when used with CSR's Bluetooth.

CSR acquired the two companies to bring together solutions to the hurdles inherent in delivering smaller, lower cost, and less power-hungry GPS units for handsets. "At $5 to $10, current GPS solutions are too expensive and just not practical for mainstream cell-phone applications," said Matthew Phillips of CSR's Mobile Handset Connectivity strategic business unit. "There are also performance restrictions in terms of both handset and network that have meant that the technology is not appropriate for the mobile platform. The two acquisitions mean that CSR has removed the barriers for mobile handset makers and operators to provide location-based services for the mass market."

NordNav, based in Sweden, was acquired for an initial cash consideration of $40 million, with a further cash consideration of up to $35 million payable subject to future performance objectives being met by NordNav. The software GPS technology acquired from NordNav will take up 80 percent less area than competing hardware solutions. NordNav has already successfully implemented an embedded software receiver for mobile GPS positioning with an operational performance as good as industry-standard hardware-centric implementations.

CSR acquired Cambridge Positioning Systems, also based in Cambridge, for $35 million cash. CPS provides extended GPS software algorithms for mobile handsets and network-server software that allow users to achieve a fast location fix (less than 3 seconds), and also provide GPS coverage in dense urban areas and indoors. The faster fix means that, in comparison to conventional assisted GPS, power can be reduced by a factor of 10 or more.

CSR's GPS technology will support the Galileo standard and will demo at the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona.

Both NordNav and CPS were private companies, principally owned by venture capital, and both have substantial patented intellectual property. More than 40 employees have transferred to CSR from NordNav and CPS.

>>AVIATION & TRANSPORTATION

Trimble App Enhances Off-Road Trips

Trimble's new GuideWorx GPS application enables consumers to manage their outdoor experiences both on- and off-road. Users can access content-rich trip planning information with on-the-go driving and recreational maps, and share their experiences online, all with a cell phone.

The turn-by-turn on-road navigation system for GuideWorx GPS was developed with Networks In Motion's NAVBuilder developer platform and allows users to retrieve maps and other useful travel data in real-time. To plan their off-road recreation, users can access a national database of points of interests, and the free PC mapping software offers consumers the option to pre-plan trips that can be sent wirelessly to their GPS-enabled phone.

Consumers can GPS-mark the photos they take and audio clips they create while on the go. These multi-media journey records can be posted to an online community as a part of an automatically generated GPS-tracked travel log, and shared with friends and family using Trimble Outdoors' PC planning software.

GuideWorx was introduced at CES in Las Vegas (see first story in this section for more new GPS products).

>>LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

Spirent LBS Testing for Assisted GPS

Spirent Communications has expanded its location-based services (LBS) test platform to enhance assisted GPS (A-GPS) testing capabilities. The Spirent UMTS Location Test System now enables a full range of A-GPS testing needs, including technology and chipset development, design verification of GSM and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) devices, and UMTS terminal certification. The A-GPS development system is designed specifically for optimizing the performance of an A-GPS chipset or module via a combination of industry-standard test cases and flexible performance test capability.

The test system enables Global Certification Forum (GCF) certification of LBS-capable UMTS mobile devices. Five out of six test cases from the 3GPP's TS 34.171 A-GPS terminal conformance specification have been validated by the GCF on the Spirent test system. The test system is the first and only platform to exceed the 80 percent test-case validation threshold required to trigger A-GPS terminal certification.

The testing platform has also expanded to meet the needs of A-GPS chipset and module developers and evaluators, with a combination of industry-standard test cases and flexible performance test capability.

>>EVENTS

GPS-Wireless 2007
March 1-2, 2007
Embassy Suites Hotel-San Francisco Airport, California

Mobile information professionals from auto manufacturers, wireless carriers, mobile electronics vendors, homeland defense, and computer companies will meet to discuss issues in suppyling location-driven data information to a vehicle or a mobile device, at this 11th annual conference.

European Navigation Conference (TimeNav '07)
May 29 - June 1, 2007
Geneva International Conference Center, Switzerland

TimeNav '07 combines the European Frequency and Time Forum and the Frequency Control Symposium with the 11th annual European Navigation Conference. Delegates to TimeNav '07 will have full access to both conferences, yet each conference will be run independently, maintaining separate scientific programs. The European Navigation Conference (ENC-GNSS) focuses on developments in navigation systems, bringing together the scientific community, private sector, and international navigational organizations to share research ideas and promote development of the navigation field. Preliminary topics include infrastructure, safety of life, search and rescue, certification and standardization issues, receiver technology, GNSS-augmented technologies, scientific prospects, applications, and political implications and institutional issues.