Please go Over

As announced in the last post, we switch from today to the combined Debasis & Associates as the only blog for all the specialized areas we have been looking at.

CAD Space to be Combined into Debasis & Associates- Collective Musings

In my enthusiasm to take advantage of this new medium I had started with many specialized blogs. It will be easier to manage for me now when these are combined. After a time, when the currently scheduled posts are published.

A GPS Device For Everyone

Garmin as a company has always strived to provide a wide range of GPS devices. I did not know the company has actually shipped something like 72 million devices since they started  operating in 1989. The following article says that. The company seems to be persuing the mission of providing a GPS device for everyone! They widen their range of products in their offering in the current CES show. Now the application areas cover  automotive & trucking, tracking, outdoor, mobile, fitness/sports, marine, aviation and automotive OEM. Wow! They do take their GPSs seriously!!! Garmin has survived in the market for 20 odd years and that's a huge credential to their doing a good job! I had the opportunity to review quite a few Garmin devices, head over here to look them up!
Garmin Has A GPS Device For Everyone

Japan eyes building its own GPS system

First there was the grand parent of them all, the navigation satellite dynasty, the GPS. Then came Glonass (Russian), Galieleo (French), Baidou (Chinese). Each of these systems have multiple satellites up in the sky though not a complete constellation. India also had announce the GAGA system. That is more like a augmentation system rather than a full fledged navigation system.

Now come news that Japan to want to join the fun. The GPS Daily had a news item datelined 5 Jan, 2011 to this effect. They have a satellite in orbit from Sep last year that created an augmentation system for Japanese motorists.The Yomiuri Shimbun had a report  that Japan plans to have six to seven new satellites for its GPS system by 2014 and 2015. It would cover the entire Asia-Pacific region. Car navigation accuracies are expected to be improved some 10x by using this data along with the grand daddy GPS data.


Japan eyes building its own GPS system

GSLV space rocket explodes after lift-off

The latest communication cum multi role satellite of ISRO, the INSAT-5P failed to reach orbit. The launch vehicle failed in about 60 seconds after launch. GSLV and PSLV are the vehicles of ISRO for them to get a share of global launch market. This certainly is a set back. I guess, by implication, it is a set back to any true ICBM plans. As has been demonstrated by other countries, including China, one can morph from a space launcher to an inter continental missile quite easily.

GSLV space rocket explodes after lift-off

NavCom Announces New Capabilities

Here's another vendor (besides SkyTraq) who announced a product that can take advantage of more than GPS system, Navtek has announced a system that can take advantage of the  Russian Glonass system in addition to the American GPS system.

NavCom’s SF-3050 family uses the latest StarFire™ chipset. In the RTK mode the set is able to provide  decimeter-level position accuracy.  The multi-constellation support includes GPS, GLONASS and Galileo. It also incorporates high-speed I/O components, including Ethernet, Bluetooth and USB capability. It is fully upgradeable  from a single frequency receiver to multi-frequency or anything in between with just a software bundle upload. saves the users the expense of purchasing a new receiver. This flexible framework makes the SF-3050 suitable for any application. Read more details in the following.

NavCom Announces New Capabilities

New GeoGroups App Reinvents Geo-Social Experience

Location based information and social networking, when mashed together, can derive benefits to your shared network of friends. 

GeoGroups has launched a geo-social mobile app now doing just that. It provides families, friends, like-minded individuals and professionals interact on a single personalized map. They can on 

separate public or private groups.

Anyone can create public groups to share points of interest with like minded people. Private groups can share location data including such details as family members locations and map shared locations. Public groups can be used to map nearby weather alerts, Wi-Fi hotspots, speed traps and more.Public groups then can charge you a subscription fee or a transaction fee.

Things you can do will include create and manage private or a public group, manage privacy controls and control who can have your location information, check where the group members are in real time and also find new points of interest, share messages, tips, images securely, receive geo-alerts when someone leaves predefined boundary for example. You could integrate with facebook too. Details can be looked up in the following article.

New GeoGroups App Reinvents Geo-Social Experience