Location Based Systems

Telogis's Fleet 8 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) GPS fleet management system, announced for the European market, now incorporates dynamic traffic data to allow fleet managers to make the most informed real-time routing and allocation decisions based on current conditions in the field. It also monitors and alerts to driver behaviours, such as speeding, to improve employee and asset safety. Additional new components include multiple vehicle histories, street-side/birds-eye view imaging, and a reconciliation mod

Magellan GPS has launched a back-up camera companion product for its RoadMate safety series car navigation units that will help drivers reverse and park more safely. The camera attaches to the vehicle's rear licence plate and transmits images directly to the high-resolution screen of a RoadMate 1700 or 9055 GPS device. When the car is put into reverse, the GPS navigator will switch from map to rear-view mode, enabling drivers to view what is below the rear window.

The U-blox 6 GPS receiver platform has been upgraded to provide improved sensitivity, significantly lower power consumption, improved antijamming performance, jamming detection and shorter Time To First Fix (TTFF). Most importantly, the company says the new firmware delivers improved tracking sensitivity down to -162dBm with enhanced acquisition and re-acquisition sensitivity. U-blox claims that not only does this make the chip one of the most sensitive receivers on the market, but GPS can now deliver posit

One of the biggest problems facing US ITS professionals, says Georgia DOT's Hugh Colton, is the constrained thinking which is sometimes forced upon those making procurement decisions. It is time, he says, to look again at how we do things. In the November/December 2010 edition of this journal, Pete Goldin interviewed Joseph Sussman, chairman of the US's ITS Program Advisory Committee. Amongst other observations that Sussman made was that, technologically, ITS in the US is 10 years behind that in the world-l

Do cooperative infrastructures offer a ready solution for automated enforcement? If we accept that enforcement is all about safety and not revenue generation, then it is perhaps time to start looking at just what cooperative infrastructures will have to offer. Identification, verification, preserving the evidence chain... all the current headaches of effective automated enforcement could perceivably be solved by the technologies and protocols encompassed by two-way communications between infrastructure and

Phil Harris, Thales UK, on how fused sensor data can significantly enhance GNSS-based positioning systems' performance in urban areas. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based positioning is unique among available positioning technology due to its universal coverage and low equipment cost. By measuring the distances between an unknown position (such as a vehicle), and at least three known positions (GPS satellites), the unknown position can be calculated in three dimensions (latitude, longitude, and