Drones Prone To Gps Spoofing

Researchers in Austin Radionavigation Lab successfully showed that an unmanned drone with an unencrypted GPS system can be hijacked with GPS spoofing device.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wanted to see if anyone had the capability to pull this off and invited scientists to show their skills. What the scientists did was to matched-GPS-signal-structure of the transmission and interfere in an attempt to control the receiver. This spoofer can transmit its counterfeit signals from a stand-off distance of several hundred meters or it can be co-located with its victim.

The UT researchers took equipment costing about $1000 to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico last week and showed observers from both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and DHS how control of a test drone could be taken away from its original overseers.

Considering that hundreds of drones will be flying in the USA within the next decade, the ability to easily spoof them is a bit disconcerting. Of course since similar technology can be used on other vehicles that deploy unencrypted GPS navigation such as planes, ships, etc..

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Trimble Buys Belgian Company For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Trimble of California just recently took over the Belgian company Gatewing which specializes in super light unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Trimble will be using these UAVs to create aerial imagery such as orthophotos and Digital Surface Models (DSMs). One of the vehicles Gatewing makes is X100 which a sub 5 lbs plane with GPS, gyro system, radio communications module, a 10MP camera, and of course a power source. What X100 will do after entering flight information is to map the terrain with parallel flight paths and overlapping photos.

Anders Rhodin, director of Trimble’s Survey Business said this on this recent acquisition:

“The combination of UAVs and low-altitude photogrammetry as an image collection platform opens up new opportunities for surveyors to use aerial imagery for the rapid acquisition of high-density geospatial data.”

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Sailing Gps

This is a GPS device made just for sailing and you can pick one up online for $400.
How this is different than GPS chartplotters is that it is very difficult to correctly estimate time of arrival on those. What this GPS does is that it accounts for the tacking that sailboats and also give you the optimal tacking angles and your Tacking Time to Destination (TTD). It does this by displaying how long it will take to reach each tack, and the optimal tacks to arrive earliest.

Another handy feature of this Sailing GPS is the ability to talk to Google Maps via bluetooth which beats entering lat long manually. When you’re done you can hook up to a computer and see your vessel’s speed stats, and wind speeds.

The Sailing GPS is based on a new patent called “Navigational Planning and Display Method for the Sailor’s Dilemma When Heading Upwind” which was filed 6 years ago but just recently granted.

Asus Transformer Prime Users To Get A Free Gps Dongle

Asus Transformer Prime users haven’t had the best GPS experience yet. The company admitted it was their fault that the device could not get a solid GPS satellite fix. So their current fix for the time being is to offer each and every Transformer Prime user a free GPS dongle.

The reason they provided was that the external metal body of the tablet interfered with the GPS signals. So now the best they can do is to send an external GPS receiver:

It will look similar to the hinge from the dock. Where it will be a flush fit on the bottom of the unit if held in landscape matching the color of your Prime chassis.

The external GPS dongle will be ready by about mid-April but we’re not clear on the claim process yet.

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Archos 5 Best Android Tablets With Gps

The Archos 5 has a 5″ display best for watching the hours of video it can store and it also make the Archos a best in-car navigation devices. Now the Archos five is the best Android Tablets with GPS, especially when paired with the in car GPS-cradle. This cellphone (143 x 79 x 10.5 mm). [...]

Nokia Maps Add 360 Cities

Nokia Maps add 360 Cities 360 Cities is the large collection of panoramic photos, each one shot by a network of expert panoramic photographers from around the world. Read

Ford Sync Gets Navigation Features In 2010 Ford Models

Ford has announced at CES 2009 that it will be upgrading its Ford Sync system, the popular voice-command system developed in tandem with Microsoft.  New features will include voice-activated links to mobile phones and digital music players, traffic alerts, directions and news.  The features will be free for the first three years of use and available later in 2009 with some of the newer 2010 models.

Ford says that Sync-equipped vehicles sell twice as fast as other Ford models and expects to have it available for its entire North American line-up by this summer.  Microsoft has also teamed up with Hyundai to release a similar system and Toyota is working on its own proprietary communications and navigation system that will debut this year in North American with Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

Nokia Knows What To Do In A Recession: Focus On Profits

What does a smart company do during a recession?  Focus on profits, according to Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.  Sounds simple enough, but it’s not really.  Nokia, in preparation for what analysts foresee as an average 6.6 percent decrease in 2009 cellphone sales volumes, purchased a dozen companies in 2008 including its $8.1 billion NAVTEQ acquisition.  All of Nokia’s buys have been part of a focused attempt by the company to grab a piece of the internet market in order to pad its profit margins.

I would have to agree that Nokia has done a great job in positioning itself well heading into 2009.  It’s online Ovi service is fully functional and doing well and with a major presence in many of the worlds emerging mobile markets, Nokia actually aims to expand its cellphone market share globally in the new year.  Now if only it’d hop on the Android bandwagon I’d be perfectly happy.