The principle behind GPS technology is relatively simple, you have a network of satellites where their location is known to a high degree of accuracy, and you have a way to determine the distance between that transmitting satelite and the receiver. You need a minimum of 3 satellites to triangulate a location, and obviously the more you fix on, the better your accuracy. A company called Locata has a similar ground-based system that works on the same frequency as Wi-Fi and can be used to get location accuracy on the order of 1-cm! The military has been using it to track munitions on a missile range, but the technology is now being rolled out for civilian applications. I could see this being really useful on construction sites, in underground mines and perhaps for structural monitoring applications and probably more things. The units have a range of several kilometers. [Source: Slashgeo.org. Image: Technology Review]
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Trimble Yuma Field Tablet PC has Pricing Info
June 17, 2009
rockman
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I introduced this ruggedized field tablet PC by Trimble here back in March, but there wasn’t any pricing information available at that time. To refresh, it has a military grade ruggedized design to keep out dirt and water, 32GB solid state drive (no moving parts), built in GPS, Wi-Fi, bluetooth 2.0, 2 integrated digital cameras with geotagging functionality (why 2?), Windows Vista Business, and a 7″ sunlight readable screen all in a 2.6-lb package. Read on for the $$.