A new long-range, dual-slope laser ideally suited for large job sites and agricultural land-leveling has been announced by Topcon Positioning Systems. The RT-5SW retains all of the primary benefits of the RT-5S series including five-arc-second accuracy - less than 1/32nd of an inch per 100 feet. It also features an integrated radio remote controller capable of two-way communication up to 1,000 feet. Radio communications between the remote and the base laser allows the operator to verify adjustments right from the cab of a machine. www.topconpositioning.com

BAE Systems announced the release of SOCET SET v5.3. This new release provides additional sensor models and new features based on automatic tie-point measurement for multisensor triangulation. Productivity improvements have been made throughout the SOCET SET workflow, including enhancements to SOCET for ArcGIS, Sketch, Feature Extraction, Mosaic and more. Automatic Terrain Extraction (ATE) has been improved with enhancements for bare-earth and reflected surface processing using back-matching and multipair matching. www.socetset.com

Leica fieldPro, a mobile CAD software, is the on-site and on-demand field solution for Surveying, Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). fieldPro works seamlessly together with Leica Geosystems sensors, such as TPS, GPS and Leica DISTO plus, allowing users to create and visualize 2D drawings or 3D CAD models of any site in real time. With Leica fieldPro all tasks can be completed on site with no site revisits or rework. Office work is significantly reduced and productivity improved.

Leica Geosystems has also announced the introduction of Leica ScanStation, the first 3D laser scanner with four “core” total station features, offering easier operation, increased field & office productivity, and greater flexibility for as-built and topographical surveys.
www.leica-geosystems.com

Blue Marble Geographics announces the release of GeoObjects® 4.1, a leading map display tool kit for GIS developers. Blue Marble, known for their coordinate conversion technology, is also the creator of industry leading map display, image reprojection, referencing, and map file translation technology.
www.bluemarblegeo.com

Speed and precision are required when the top international athletic stars are competing for millimetres in heights and lengths. Leica Geosystems’ length measuring technology is based on fine precision distance and angle measuring technology. Within just 1 to 2 seconds, the highly-precise laser beam transmitted by the Total Station, can calculate, to within a millimetre, the length of a throw or jump or the height of a pole vault. According to IAAF regulations, this reading is then rounded down to the centimetre and broadcast to the Stadium’s spectators via the large results board.

KCS BV, hardware developer and manufacturer of TraceME, and ATsence BV, software developer and supplier of Track and Trace solutions, are announcing the launch of a tracking and tracing service for South Africa.

The past three years, TraceME has proved to be a reliable unit for tracking & tracing cars, boats, portable equipment, etc. all around the world by GPS and GPRS. Its small size makes it easy to install and many devices, like a camera, can be monitored or controlled. With Locate., the web based solution developed by ATsence BV, units are clearly displayed on the map of South Africa. For consumers a Lite version is available. The professional applications are available in the Basic, Plus and Pro versions, each revealing more options and possibilities.

Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of MapPoint® 2006, a business mapping software. MapPoint 2006 can help customers improve decision-making capabilities and increase new business opportunities through the use of maps and geographical information, enabling better analysis, visualization and communication of business information. It also enhances its usefulness for mobile information workers by adding rich new GPS integration and driver guidance capabilities so that users can make the most out of time spent away from the office. www.microsoft.com

u-blox AG, a leading GPS technology and solution provider has AssistNowT, a complete Assisted GPS (“A-GPS”) service package that brings instant positioning to any u-blox GPSenabled device with mobile phone connectivity. The new technology cuts a GPS receiver’s Time To First Fix (“TTFF”) to seconds by providing the receiver with assistance data that practically eliminates download times of data originating from
the satellites.
www.u-blox.com

Trimble opens office in India

Trimble is strengthening its local commitment by opening an office in India to better meet the needs of the region. Trimble Navigation India Pvt Ltd., located in Gurgaon, will be the primary base for sales and support of all survey and construction as well as mapping and GIS solutions for the country. “The opening of the Gurgaon office is an important extension of our presence in India and the Asia Pacific region,” said Christian Knoll, Trimble’s Engineering & Construction regional sales manager for India. “We see this as an opportunity to better service our customers to assist in the modernization drive taking place.”
www.trimble.com

A new research report from the analysis firm Berg Insight forecasts that
shipments of handset based personal navigation solutions in Europe and
the US will reach 12 million units by 2009. The year 2005 marked the first successful marriage of cellular and navigation technologies, resulting in shipments of around 1 million onboard and off-board systems, mainly in the fourth quarter. Supported by the phenomenal growth recorded in the PND segment, handset based personal navigation solutions are expected to grow by 86 percent year-on-year.
johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com

Growth in the use of spatial technologies based on maps and satellite imageries has secured acceptance for geospatial technology in India as an effective decisionmaking tool. Many government agencies have now realised that this technology can provide them the much-needed tool to address the ever increasing demand for data availability. The figures for
2005 is Rs 10 crore (USD 2.1 million) while it will touch Rs 53 crore (USD 11.5 million) by 2010.
www.business-standard.com

Trimble announced that it has supplied 271 GeoXT™ rugged GPS handheld receivers, part of the GeoExplorer® series, to Poland’s Plant Health and Seed Inspection Services (PHSIS), a national government agency. This purchase follows an earlier sale of 156 GeoExplorer units to Poland’s agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture in early 2005.
www.trimble.com

MapInfo Corporation announced that IBM has selected MapInfo technology to power the new Prospecting portlet in IBM’s Core Life Solution for the insurance industry. The MapInfo Prospecting portlet enables insurance agents to identify and locate target customers based on neighbourhood demographic, lifestyle and consumption patterns, helping increase sales and market share.
www.mapinfo.com

CSI Wireless Inc., a designer and manufacturer of advanced GPS products, reported a 59% increase in revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, 2006, as Hemisphere GPS revenue reached $15.5 million. As a result of selling its Fixed Wireless Telephone business, CSI recorded an impairment in its goodwill totaling $8 million, resulting in a net loss of $9.2 million, or ($0.20) per share for the first quarter. www.csi-wireless.com

Geomatics has announced the signing of a strategic distributor partnership with TGIS Technologies Inc. The agreement will allow PCI Geomatics to market, distribute, and sell the TGIS real-time GeoConference™ Software. TGIS Technologies built GeoConference to allow users to hold Internet teleconferences based on multi-source geospatial information. This unique solution allows groups to capture, preserve, and reuse geographic information, track and coordinate resources and interventions, and transmit geospatial data in real-time.

Lockheed Martin and EADS Astrium announced that they have signed a teaming agreement to ensure interoperability of the GPS III and the European Galileo Satellite Navigation programmes – the world’s two most important upcoming satellite navigation systems. The companies intend to perform systems engineering and technical assistance tasks for each other in the areas of interoperability, integrity and optimisation of joint constellation performance.
www.lockheedmartin.com