GPS Technology Makes Tree Planting More Efficient

Deforestation and disappearing wildlife habitats are a big problem in the modern world. Manufacturing industries use state-of-the-art technologies to produce and sell more paper and wood products, but there is growing concern over the devastation wrought by their methods of obtaining materials. Particularly, the rate with which large, luscious forests are being cut down. The trees are being removed much more quickly than we can hope to replant, as trees take many years to grow to their full potential. One solution-orientated man is leading team, developing ways to replant forests as quickly and efficiently as possible, using GPS technology and drones.

“I’ve spent my whole life in silviculture and these ideas have been germinating for a decade,” explains Hans Thunander. “But now I feel the technology is far enough advanced that it can be used to make planting more efficient.” He has a two-stage plan laid he’s currently working out. The first stage is called Vision 2015 and is ready for implementation. He projects that Vision 2015 will make tree planting 25 percent more efficient. It involves equipping a drone with camera equipment and a GPS tracking device.

The drone flies over a newly cut area and records an image along with the GPS data. This information is then interpreted by a computer, which calculates the most efficient plan for replanting. The computer can determine exactly how many plants should be planted, where they should be planted and how densely. The GPS information is then used to design a route for a scarifier on autopilot to plant the trees.

The second stage of the project is expected to be rolled out in the next 10 years. The next stage is called Vision 2023 and is expected to make tree planting 50 percent more efficient. There are still quite a bit that needs to be worked out before more details can be revealed. Hopefully, by making tree planting more efficient, we’re making a dent in the deforestation problem.

GPS Technology Makes Tree Planting More Efficient

GPS Technology Helps Detect Dangerous Volcanic Plume

Volcanic eruptions are one of the scariest and most devastating natural disasters we face. Mountains essentially explode and rain fire, ash and magma for miles. Due to the life-threatening and sometimes all-too-surprising nature of these eruptions, scientists have dedicated their lives to improving our understanding of the danger posed by volcanoes, so we are better prepared to minimize destruction.

GPS devices are already used around many of the major known volcanoes. The tracking technology helps researchers determine the level of activity below the surface. As magma rises to the surface, the ground around the mountain, and the mountain itself shifts. However, an innovative researcher recently discovered a new way to use the GPS tracking devices to protect us from the dangers posed by volcanic eruptions.  

“When I learned GPS, you were supposed to use it to measure where you are,” Kristine Larson said, author of the study and professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. “These days, I look for weird things to do with GPS.” When volcanoes erupt, the plumes of smoke and ash sent into the sky can clog airplane engines, causing them to crash. Larson recently discovered that these plumes interrupt the signal of the GPS tracking devices placed around the mountains.

She realized that when the plumes aren’t visible, due to clouds or other factors, the GPS signals can serve as a test as to whether the skies are safe or not. When the smoke has cleared, the GPS signals return to normal. “I always hear people talking about how many bars they have,” Larson said. “That’s basically what I’m using.” Radar can already detect plumes when clouds or other factors obscure vision. However, radar technology is currently more expensive than using GPS devices, many of which are already in place.

GPS Technology Helps Detect Dangerous Volcanic Plume

GPS Tracking Used In Malaysian Elephant Conservation Efforts

GPS technology is once again being used in wildlife conservation efforts; this time in Malaysia. Malaysian Elephants are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The elephants face many threats, including poachers and dwindling habitat. A research group was recently granted the equivalent of $1,063,460 to study the elephants in hopes to preserve these great animals. The grant will be used to access advanced GPS tracking collars for the animals to study their movements and behaviors from a distance. The researchers will also be studying the elephant’s feces for information about their health.

“The generous donation from Sime Darby will help us develop a conservation strategy based on scientifically sound knowledge of elephant behavior, ecology and a clear understanding of the underlying causes of human-elephant conflict,” said Dr. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz of The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, leader of the research project. “Our aim is to fit 50 elephants with satellite tracking devices to monitor how they are responding to the changes in their habitat, how they react to translocation – one of the practices used to move elephants away rom areas of human-elephant conflict and what effect current conservation measures such as highway viaducts and wildlife corridors are having on the elephant population on the Malay Peninsular.”

“In other parts of the world where translocation of elephants is practiced as a mitigating measure against [human-elephant conflict], scientists observed high death rates and competition for resources and space at the release site. Translocated elephants have also been observed traveling back to their captured sites or their original home range, hampering the original objective of translocating the animals in the first place,” explained Yayasan Sime Darby Governing Council Member Caroline Christine Russell.

GPS Tracking Used In Malaysian Elephant Conservation Efforts

Helios Smart Handlebars Implement GPS Technology

Here at RMT, we’ve reported a few stories about GPS tracking devices for bicycle enthusiasts. The devices are loved by cyclists because they provide route information, track there distance and speed, along with all kinds of other useful information. Some devices come in the form of a wrist-watch or a smartphone app, but it seems a young entrepreneur has thought of the next big thing. Kenny Gibbs, based in San Fransisco, CA, recently successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to offer smart handlebars, with GPS navigation and tracking technology built-in. They are called Helios Bars and claim to transform any bike to a smart bike.  

678 backers helped raise $120,106, almost doubling the $70,000 goal by June 20, 2013. The handlebars attach to your bike and come with a built-in GPS device, which can be traced in case someone steals the bike. The Helios Bars also include GPS navigation help with turn-by-turn directions. Rear-facing LED lights on the handlebars also indicate when the cyclist is approaching a turn. The tracking technology can also record routes, distance and speed information.  

Other than the GPS features, the smart handlebars include a lot of safety features. Helios bars come equipped with a 500-lumen headlight for increased visibility. Another great safety feature are the left and right turn-signals. The speedometer is visual with color changing lights to indicate changing speed.

The handlebars can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth and an iOS app. When you approach the bike, the Helios bars light up. The smart handlebars have a battery life of around seven hours and is rechargeable. They come in bullhorn and drop-bar style and are made from aluminum. Now that the Kickstarter has reached its fundraising goal, the team will move into production.

Helios Smart Handlebars Implement GPS Technology

Skobbler GPS Navigation & Maps App Now On Android

The key feature of Skobbler’s GPS app is the offline mapping and navigation capabilities. There is no shortage of smartphone navigation apps on the market for iOS, Android, Windows or any other system. However, up until recently, if you wanted solid offline mapping and navigation, your best hope was with an iOS device. For Android and other non-Apple smartphone and tablet users, this was a bit of a drag. Now, Android users can purchase Skobbler for their smartphones for just $1.

Skobbler’s designers have no shortage of confidence in their product. They’ve been quoted calling their work the “most powerful and versatile digital map engine in the world.” For $1 users get the full online mapping and navigation service and one free downloaded map of the country of your choice. With the downloaded map, users can disconnect from the internet and the app uses the smartphone’s built-in GPS technology to provide directions.

“Being the first and only company on the Android platform to offer full online and offline capability for both mapping and navigation, we hope both new users and our existing customers will be won over by the high performance and flexibility GPS Navigation & Maps offers,” explains Philipp Kandal, Skobbler’s CTO. “We’re already working on future updates and have a few powerful additions lined up to improve the app’s functionality and flexibility even further in the coming months.” 

Skobbler is offering a free 14-day trail version of their app for consumers to get a feel for the product before committing $1. After the free country map that comes with the app, users can buy additional maps from around the world. Each city costs $0.99. A state costs $1.11 and a country is $2.22. Users can buy another continent for $4.44 or get the entire globe for $7.77.

Skobbler GPS Navigation & Maps App Now On Android

GPS Tracking Device Causes Bomb Scare In Australia

If you follow our blog, you’ll remember that we’ve reported a few stories of GPS devices and geocache containers being mistaken for bombs here in the America. The story is always pretty similar. A concerned citizen reports a suspicious package or device, resulting in various levels of inconvenience in the form of road closures and bomb squads being called out. Well, it appears we’re not alone in this mix up. Last month, Australia’s Adelaide’s court precinct was locked down after a man was seen placing something under a vehicle in the court’s parking lot.  

One certainly can’t blame the courier, or any other concerned citizen, who reported the suspicious activity. Had there been an explosive, such a report could save lives. Taking every precaution, the bomb squad was called to investigate when a courier reported seeing a man placing something under an unoccupied vehicle parked outside the supreme and district court buildings. Police closed roads, redirecting traffic for hours, and evacuated several nearby buildings.

It was confirmed by the bomb squad that there was, in fact, a device placed in the wheel well of the vehicle. The device turned out not to be an explosive. Instead, the man had placed a GPS tracking device on the Holden Commodore sedan. Police are still investigating why the device was placed on the vehicle. They are also looking into the identity of the man who planted the device.

“Investigations continue in relation to the circumstances of the device being placed under the car and the owner of the car is assisting police with their inquiries,” police reported. “It is a reminder to everyone to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to police immediately.” Police were appreciative of the concerned citizen’s report, even though there wound up being no threat.

GPS Tracking Device Causes Bomb Scare In Australia

Memoto Uses GPS Tracking To Capture Everyday Life

In the digital age of the Internet and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it’s apparent that we humans enjoy documenting and sharing our lives. Some think of it as a narcissistic sickness in society, while others, like myself, think of it more as a fascination with and curiosity about ourselves and each other. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Swedish developers are hoping to cash in on this phenomenon with a mini camera/GPS device called Memoto.

Memoto is a small, square device that is meant to be worn on a regular basis. Every thirty seconds, the device captures an image and GPS tracking data in order to log your activities. It is supposed to be like a digital image journal. These devices start at $279 and are available to preorder on their website.

This writer suspects that this type of device would appeal to those of us prone to nostalgia. Attaching the device to something like your hat or shirt would likely provide a pretty good record of who you spent your day with and where. The device could also be used for a number of other creative projects. One could attach it to their cat or toddler for an interesting perspective. I’m sure some private investigator or suspicious spouse could find some interesting uses for a GPS device with a camera that automatically shoots every thirty seconds.

This is yet another of the many interesting ways GPS technology is being implemented in our every day lives. The devices are great for studying your own behaviors as well as the behaviors of wildlife, an employer’s fleet of delivery trucks and even the earth’s tectonic plates! 

Would you wear something like Memoto? Does capturing an image of every thirty seconds of your life sound appealing? Let us know why or why not in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.

Memoto Uses GPS Tracking To Capture Everyday Life

Solar Storms Could Affect GPS Technology

When we look up at the sun (hopefully not for too long), it seems fairly calm. The bright yellow disc rises in the east and makes its way across the sky each day to set in the west. Other than this daily cycle, the sun looks quite placid, but the stillness is an illusion. The sun only looks so still because it is very far away. When scientists get a closer look at the sun, through telescopes and other technology, we see a very different picture. The sun is made up of fire and hot magma and is constantly fluctuating. Occasionally, bursts of energy and fire shoot out from the sun, which are called solar flares.

Solar flares may sound scary, but they don’t generally pose any harm to Earth. There is enough space in between us, that the fire shooting out cannot reach our atmosphere. However, some of the radiation from the solar flares can reach Earth’s outer atmosphere, affecting satellites and power grids. There was a time, not too long ago, when there weren’t any power grids or satellites for solar flares to affect. Now, we have constellations of satellites supporting our cell phones, internet service, GPS devices and other technology.  

NASA experts report that this year, 2013, the sun is at a peak in its 11-year solar cycle. That means that scientists are detecting a high volume of solar flares. Fortunately, many of the Class X (the most extreme class) solar flares recorded have not been facing Earth’s atmosphere. However, there has been some disruption of GPS technology and other satellite-based systems due to the increased solar activity.

The good news is that for the most part, you and I will not be affected by solar flares. GPS navigation could possibly suffer some glitches, but on the positive side, the solar flares also create some stunning Aurora Borealis displays for those lucky enough to spot them.

Solar Storms Could Affect GPS Technology

GPS Tracking Study To Protect Bighorn Sheep Population

The Teton bighorn sheep population in Wyoming faces many threats. One of these threats includes a nonnative mountain goat population, bringing disease and habitat competition to the region. Biologists are studying the bighorn sheep and goats in order to assess the danger and hopefully protect the native sheep. The research is part of the Montana State University Mountain Ungulate Project. GPS tracking devices track the herd movement and some are captured and studied more closely.

Recently, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department tranquilized four mountain goats, taking blood and fecal samples as well as tonsil swabs to find out if the goats are carriers of the bacterial strain of pneumonia, Mannheimia haemolytica. “We need to try to continue to monitor the herd so we can see how prevalent it might be in the Palisades goat herd,” explained South Jackson Game and Fish wildlife biologist Gary Fralick. “There’s just a lot of stuff we don’t know or understand yet.” One of the four goats tested positive for the pathogen.

Researchers are more concerned about the bighorn sheep than the mountain goats. The Teton bighorn sheep population, made up of two distinct herds in the area, totals only around 100 animals. If the pneumonia carried by the goats spreads to the sheep, the population might be in big trouble. “One sheep out of the 28 that we captured in the Tetons (in 2009) did test positive for haemolytica,” said Game and Fish habitat biologist Aly Courtemanch. “But we haven’t seen any of the die-off events. We haven’t seen any symptoms of pneumonia in that population.”

“We’ve known that the goat population overlaps with a domestic sheep population,” explained Steven Cain, chief biologist for Grand Teton National Park. “The potential for the goats to be a carrier between the bighorn and the domestic sheep is of concern.”

“There’s really been no research that I’m aware of looking at disease transmission between mountain goats and bighorn sheep,” Courtemanch said. In the meantime, researchers will continue to monitor the sheep with GPS technology. The Wyoming Game and Fish department has also planned to expand the hunting area for mountain goats to try and keep the population down, limiting the chances of cross-species infection.

GPS Tracking Study To Protect Bighorn Sheep Population

GPS Technology Provides Faster, More Accurate Tsunami Warnings

The many incredible uses of GPS technology seems to grow by the day. One of the latest ways GPS tracking systems are improving the world we live in is tsunami warning technology. Who can forget the devastating tsunami that took the lives of more than 16,000 Japanese in 2011? That massive surge of water was propelled by an earthquake at the bottom of the ocean floor off the coast of Japan. Researchers have found a way to detect potential tsunamis faster and more accurately with GPS technology.

“In case of a subduction earthquake, one plate slips under another plate,” explained lead researcher Dr. Andreas Hoechner. “It is measured in terms of relative displacement. This deformation is mostly above the source, but the coastal areas is also deformed and this can be picked up by GPS.” The GPS devices are placed around the coast of vulnerable countries. When the tectonic plates shift, the tracking devices provide seismologists with precise information showing the power of the earthquake. This information is used to determine how powerful the coming tsunami will be. “Then you can then predict the tsunami and see how high a wave could be expected, with some accuracy.” 

Prior to GPS, tsunami warning systems were based on seismological data, which measure the waves of energy produced by the earthquake. The 2011 tsunami in Japan was predicted by this system in around 3 minutes, but unfortunately the information was inaccurate. The seismological data suggested that the earthquake was a magnitude 7.9, but the actual earthquake was actually 30 times stronger than that. The resulting tsunami was also much more powerful than originally predicted.  

In the wake of the devastation, researchers studied data collected by GPS devices around the coast, which where already there for unrelated reasons. The determined that the GPS data provided much more accurate information about the earth’s movement. “One point is to have the technology to realize what the earthquake is and where the tsunami will be. But it is at least as important to disseminate the warning. You have to have the infrastructure to transmit this information to the population, and the population has to be ready to know what to do,” said Dr. Hoechner.

GPS Technology Provides Faster, More Accurate Tsunami Warnings

Google Glasses: GPS Without The App

The more people join the Google Glasses Explorer program, the more we learn about the futuristic device. More users were given the chance to take Google Glasses for a test drive, and now new information regarding the GPS technology and other functions of of the glasses has been released.

Besides giving users the power to text a friend without requiring an application to handle the task, Google Glasses will provide GPS navigation in order to receive turn-by-turn directions to their destination. Users of the current Google Glasses within the Explorer program must first install GPS and messaging apps for these functions to occur.

According to TechCrunch, “While Glass will happily work with any iPhone over Bluetooth or use any Wi-Fi connection to get online, iPhone users are currently unable to get turn-by-turn directions through Glass — one of its killer features.”

This will most definitely be a welcome feature for Glass users! The glasses come with Bluetooth connectivity and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity, and its 12GB of memory are synced with Google cloud storage. Their high-resolution display makes the experience similar to viewing a 25 inch high definition television screen from a distance of 8 feet.

The mobile app that accompanies the glasses, MyGlass, is currently available for free in the Google Play Store, and Google jokingly says to those who don’t get what the app does, “MyGlass allows you to configure and manage your Google Glasses device. If you don’t have Glass, then downloading this will be a waste of time. Sorry about that. But if you swipe the screenshots to the right you’ll see there’s a picture of a puppy in pajamas. So not a total waste of time after all.”

Besides GPS technology, the glasses feature a 5 megapixel camera to capture 720p footage, as well as audio thanks to Bone Conduction Transducer technology. What’s that, you say? This technology actually sends sound through the bones of your skull right to your inner ear!

It will be interesting to see how many out there feel the need to wear these glasses around town. Just think, pretty soon, you’ll be seeing people following the GPS device that’s contained within their glasses!

Google Glasses: GPS Without The App

Test Post from GPS News by Rocky Mountain Tracking

Test Post from GPS News by Rocky Mountain Tracking http://www.rmtracking.com/blog