A rendering of a 6U CubeSat. (Credit: Spire Global)

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Spire Global will launch the KAUST CubeSat research satellite by the end of 2022, according to the university. Spire is a space data, analytics and services provider.

The research satellite will in collecting high-quality, high-resolution data for terrestrial, coastal and ocean ecosystems for a three-year period after launch, according to Matthew McCabe, director of the KAUST Climate and Livability Initiative. McCabe described the launch as a qualitative process for the Kingdom’s efforts in the field of protecting and restoring ecosystems on land and at sea.

A CubeSat is a small satellite consisting of one or several 10x10x10 cm units, no more than 1.33 kilograms per unit. CubeSats can range from 1 unit (1U) to 12 units (12U). The KAUST satellite is 6U.

“In the past, launching a satellite was the sole domain of governments, with costs well beyond the reach of a university,” McCabe said. “CubeSats are helping to democratize space, providing the opportunity to launch a customized platform at a fraction of the traditional cost.”

The data collected will provide high-resolution details about current conditions of ecosystems in the region, and monitor improvements from environmental management strategies, supporting the Saudi Green Initiative among others.

The CubeSat is equipped with Spire’s GNSS reflectometry reflectors, as well as a hyperspectral imaging sensor. It is supported by advanced capabilities in processing and artificial intelligence.

The satellite will allow KAUST University researchers collect and analyze high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface for detailed mapping of terrestrial environments, monitoring of vegetation cover status, exploration of coastal ecosystems and coral reefs, development of precision agricultural research, and a host of other Earth and environmental science applications.

The imaging sensor can image areas of interest anywhere in the world across more than 30 user-adjustable spectral bands. The sensor data can be combined with Spire’s GNSS receiver to monitor micro-environmental variables such as soil moisture, helping in many areas such as agriculture, forestry and land management.

“The capacity to observe the Earth in high-resolution hyperspectral detail will allow for the production of enhanced metrics to map and monitor change anywhere in the world,” McCabe said. “Closer to home, Saudi Arabia is focusing considerable effort towards the protection and restoration of its precious terrestrial and ocean systems. The data from this KAUST CubeSat will be invaluable in providing new information on both the state of existing ecosystems, and for monitoring changes resulting from improved management strategies – something that can be used to support aspects of the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives.”

<p>The post Saudi CubeSat to launch in 2022 for ecosystem research first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Photo: SimActive

By Philippe Simard, Ph.D.
President, SimActive Inc.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainties to all businesses, and the mapping industry has been no exception.

Slowdowns were observed during the first few months of 2020 as lockdowns were gradually enforced in Asia, then Europe, and finally the Americas.

As expected, projects were delayed during that initial period as companies were reorganizing their operations to allow for remote work.

Once that transition was overcome, a great number of projects resumed, and the geospatial field has been gradually coming back to normal since then. That can be explained by different factors, including, for example, several governments accelerating infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy.

A lot of mapping firms have turned the pandemic into an opportunity to improve their processes. Slower times allow reviewing production workflows and assessing bottlenecks. Once identified, new hardware and software solutions can be evaluated to optimize production.

Interestingly, the resulting investments into new solutions has been significant. Companies are seeing a quick payoff as their workload is rapidly accelerating, leading to an increase in their bottom line.

Overall, the mapping industry was able to rapidly adjust to the new reality caused by the pandemic. The changes that are being made in performing projects not only allow us to minimize risks in the short term, but also to increase profitability in the longer term.

SimActive is the developer of Correlator3D software, a patented end-to-end photogrammetry solution for the generation of high-quality geospatial data from satellite and aerial imagery, including drones. Correlator3D performs aerial triangulation (AT) and produces dense digital surface models (DSM), digital terrain models (DTM), point clouds, orthomosaics, 3D models and vectorized 3D features.

Powered by GPU technology and multi-core CPUs, Correlator3D ensures high processing speed to support rapid production of large datasets.

SimActive has been selling Correlator3D to leading mapping firms and government organizations around the world, offering cutting-edge photogrammetry software backed by exceptional customer support.

<p>The post Global trends in the mapping industry during the pandemic first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Photo: MyImages_Micha/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

The National Governors Association has partnered with Esri to publish a comprehensive update to its interactive COVID-19 State and Territory Action Tracker.

According to the association, the interactive mapping-based app shows how jurisdictions have taken actions to reopen certain business sectors by issuing statewide orders. It also shows how jurisdictions are undertaking regional-based approaches or implementing statewide orders with authorization for localities to place additional restrictions.

The map also allows users to explore public health actions governors have taken during the pandemic, including statewide stay-at-home orders, limits on gatherings, state employee travel restrictions, quarantine orders for interstate travel and more.

The map, which is updated on a daily basis, features data collected from states and territories. The data is based on an evaluation of state executive orders, directives, guidance, legal and non-legal documents, and news sources, the National Governors Association said.

<p>The post National Governors Association, Esri release updated COVID-19 map first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Image: Polaris Wireless

The world is not flat – so why has the geolocation industry been operating in two dimensions?

By Matt Rothschild, Polaris Wireless

For an industry that makes its living identifying people and objects at a particular point in space, the geolocation industry — made up of applications providers, mapping companies and device manufacturers — has been very slow to make the move from two dimensions (2D) to three dimensions (3D). There is no excuse for this, as the ability to locate in 3D is fully tested and operable. What explains the holdup and what is being done to meet the growing need for 3D solutions?

Industry participants recognize the inevitable move towards 3D but give four main reasons for the delay:

• There is a lack of awareness about some of the robust, scalable solutions that are available for deployment today
• Businesses continue to make money from 2D applications
• The investment required for 3D applications is too high
• The eco-system for 3D applications is not fully developed

It seems that applications using location data simply rely on whatever information is made available through devices, mostly driven by GPS. There are more specific location technologies that offer fully tested, citywide vertical location solutions.

Despite years of deployments and generating effective use cases in two dimensions, the industry must do a better job of keeping up with technology advancements, especially those most likely to benefit from 3D location, and articles like this help!

But why is there a lag in the industry to move to a 3D world?

2D complacency

The explanation for the lag in moving to 3D is that the geolocation industry is still making money from 2D applications and, as the old saying goes, “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.”

While it’s true that many non-mission critical applications are getting along fine using 2D and will for the foreseeable future, the need for 3D is now. At a basic level, traffic directions don’t really require a 3D layout of the topography of your daily commute, although I could argue the traffic use case would benefit from knowing whether traffic on a map is on an overpass or ground level roadway. Certainly rideshare companies could benefit from communicating to their customers what level in a parking garage or airport they are on.

Other use cases are demanding more sophisticated 3D technology. One of the initial drivers for high-accuracy 3D (and indoor) location has been the needs of the public safety community. When lives are at stake, first responders require the most specific possible location accuracy in order to quickly find emergency callers and others needing help.

Beginning in April 2021, Emergency Communications Centers (911 call centers) will receive vertical location of emergency callers from wireless carriers. Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems are exploring how best to incorporate this information and direct first responders to the 911 caller’s 3D or floor-level location.

The benefit is obvious, as emergency callers cannot always provide their exact location to the 911 operator, so technology fills the gap. Other industries ranging from mining to healthcare to enterprise security similarly are also demonstrating demand for 3D applications, and we are seeing moves to meet this demand, but there is a long way to go.

High stakes

Another reason for the relatively slow development of 3D applications is the investment required. Even with a demonstrable demand across several industries, many players in the geospatial industry aren’t willing to invest funds to pioneer new solutions.

For every big player like Samsung or Apple, who have committed to developing state-of-the-art 3D sensors in their devices, there are many small players who must instead follow the market and adopt white-label solutions that don’t require as much upfront investment.

While it’s true that some 3D technologies can require significant investment and a committed strategy on the part of geospatial industry players, locating devices in 3D is possible today and there is a huge potential to serve new markets and improve business and consumer applications.

The 3D eco-system

As the market for commercial applications reaches a tipping point where 3D is not just a curiosity but is becoming a must-have for many consumers and businesses, the industry ecosystem must step up and deliver all parts of the solution. The mapping industry presents an interesting use case in this regard.

Digital maps have been in use for years, since the advent of the first fleet tracking devices in the 1980s, which led to the widespread use of consumer car tracking systems, and then onto Waze and other Smartphone-based mapping applications. Even these maps, which are huge advancements over their predecessors, do not fully reflect the 3D world we live in, and generally do not include accurate maps of the indoor environments in which we spend most of our time.

The next step in mapping is the digitization of entire buildings and other structures to create accurate 3D representations. However, even pioneers in this space aren’t fully utilizing 3D technology throughout their product roadmap, and, until there is a fully developed 3D ecosystem, it’s difficult for a company to go ahead alone.

As one leading company explained to us, without a consistent protocol for the use of 3D data and its conversion into 3D maps, they can’t justify converting their entire production from 2D, so they instead create 3D maps as one-offs where needed. They haven’t yet seen the critical mass in the industry required to go full 3D, and they are still working with, and making money from, 2D partners.

They are preparing for the time when the industry is fully 3D, which they believe will come soon.

A 3D world

Stepping back and taking a broader view of where we are, I think we are witnessing an industry in transition. With the deployment of city-wide, scalable location solutions that incorporate location data from a variety of sources, the initial building blocks are in place for the move to a fully 3D world.

Pioneering companies are going after growing demand (and in some cases creating that demand), even with limited resources, and seeding an ecosystem for others to build upon. I would in fact challenge the industry to produce a use case that would not benefit from improved location and 3D awareness — from the daily commute through complex freeway systems to shoppers navigating a multi-story mall to find a specific retailer, to protecting workers running large hotels, and more, the applications are endless and promise to multiply as users realize the benefits of 3D technology.

It is only a matter of time until the location industry will fully embrace the fact that the world indeed is not flat.

About Matt Rothschild

Matt Rothschild

Matt Rothschild is the Mountain View-based Head of 3D Location Customer Engagement for Polaris Wireless. He is a wireless and telecommunications industry leader with more than 20 years’ experience leading sales, marketing, product and operations organizations internationally. Rothschild successfully led sales and marketing teams for Nokia in Asia (Singapore), the Middle East & Africa (Dubai) and the Americas (Miami/Silicon Valley). Most recently, Rothschild led the Nokia/Microsoft acquisition and integration for North America, building partnerships with key mobile operators and channel partners, as well as building important ecosystem and developer relationships for the Windows platform.

<p>The post Time to shake the 2D complacency and move to 3D first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Our nation’s sewers are under critical examination now more than any other time in history. The act of collecting sewage and stormwater, transporting it to the treatment system, and processing waste is no doubt a feat of science and engineering that we take for granted in the developed world.

Sewer infrastructure is a critical public asset whose importance in modern life cannot be overestimated, and to keep things running properly takes round-the-clock maintenance and operations. It’s only when the system fails or floods that we fully appreciate our dependence on it.

At last count, there are at least 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment systems (also called Publicly Owned Treatment Works, or POTWs) in the United States, providing sewer service for more than 245 million people. Additionally, about 860 communities have combined sewer systems (CSS) that serve about 40 million people.

These CSS capture both sewage and stormwater before the combined mixture is treated and either reused, recycled or discharged to the environment. In wet weather events, untreated waste and stormwater can escape capture due to overfilled combined storm sewers, known as combined sewer overflow (CSO). These CSO events can spill sewage into rivers and streams, creating a major source of water pollution across the country.

To make matters even more complicated, the effects of climate change and increased rainfall in some areas have created new challenges to our nation’s sewer infrastructure.

Additionally, federal and state regulations like those for municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) that discharge untreated runoff into the environment have added new demands of our publicly owned entities that manage these systems.

A map of the continental U.S. depicting POTWs, from the EPA Facility Registry Service’s Wastewater Treatment Plants Dataset. (Image: CivicMapper)

The impact of sewer overflow is especially felt in the eastern United States where the combination of aging infrastructure and increasingly frequent and severe rainfall events have presented significant challenges in the capture, handling and treatment of sewage.

With some eastern cities receiving record rainfall in the past few years, it’s now more important than ever to understand our sewer infrastructure, including: where it is, who is responsible for it, when it was installed, how it is networked, and what are its defining characteristics. These data are essential for performing maintenance, for planning growth, and for undertaking new construction projects. The need for better understanding, visualizations, and communication of sewer data assets is a perfect use case for Geographic Information Systems.

The Case for Mapping Sewer Networks

There are many moving parts to a sewer network. Representing each manhole, sewer line, pump station, inlet, and outlet within a unified map requires expertise in the art and science of mapping. Spatial data from a breadth of sources like engineering drawings, as-builts, CAD datasets, spreadsheets, field surveys, sewer cameras, flow meters, and aerial imaging have traditionally been the go-to datasets for constraining the topology, attributes, and capacities of sewer networks. Additionally, new kinds of data procured from emerging geospatially-enabled technologies like subsurface robotic pipe inspections and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) provide a glimpse of where sewer map data will come from in the future. For POTWs and their stakeholders, information from both old and new sources can synergistically come together in a GIS as part of a greater asset management program.

Creating a unified map of sewer infrastructure from many data sources requires time and effort to construct proper geospatial data topology, correct directionality, and accurate attributes. These undertakings are greatly supported by the development of data models, workflows, tool sets, metadata, and documentation that will make it easier for workers to maintain sewer data now and in the future. The added bonus of developing these data for use in a GIS is a highly valuable and functional data asset that can be used to inform operational and business processes at every level of the organization.

An organization’s data represents the outcomes of some of the mostly costly investments and operational endeavors undertaken by that entity. When big or important projects are completed, it is the data collected during the work that lives on after staff turnover and retirements. With respect to mapping sewers, many POTWs already have much of the data they need to put into a mapping system, whether it be in a CAD file, on paper, or living in a spreadsheet. GIS liberates these data so that it becomes a living product and enables them to be leveraged in powerful ways and across multiple operational areas.

Implementing a sewer GIS increases the return on investment of data, creates a platform for data sharing across other systems, and sets the stage for innovation and efficiency improvements.

While creating and maintaining a sewer GIS might sound like a big-ticket item, modern mapping tools are making it more cost effective than ever before. Competitively priced software licensing, open-source GIS technologies, cloud computing, and in-browser processing can lower the costs of geospatial application development. Further, establishing geospatial data pipelines and application programming interfaces (APIs) can reduce the time needed to condition data before they are ingested into mapping systems and across multiple software platforms.

Taking sewer GIS to the next level with network tracing

One of the most exciting applications of a sewer GIS is the capability to perform network tracing. These traces can show the locations and direction of wastewater flow from any point within the system and are commonly performed by POTW engineering personnel. The ability to perform a sewer network trace within a GIS is valuable for several reasons.

An example of a network trace map. (Image: CivicMapper)

The trace helps operators and engineers better visualize the contributing sources to main sewers that collect wastewater from the many lateral and branch sewers that service buildings, businesses, and homes. Enabling this capability in a GIS environment makes it more accessible to other personnel, and especially those working on site. Allowing POTW easier access to network tracing through a GIS helps teams across the organization stay informed on what addresses are connected to which sewer mains, facilitating better communication and collaboration on maintenance and expansion projects.

The network trace can operate upstream to locate which buildings might be contributing to problems downstream. From any manhole or service location, the sources of industrial or commercial waste violations or exceedances can be better identified through upstream sewer tracing. The ability to query any point along the sewer network and constrain the sewershed from that point saves time and resources of field personnel when diagnosing problems and finding solutions.

Sewer systems are vital, publicly funded resources yet most people know very little about the way their homes and businesses connect to this system. Inviting the public to view a unified and continuous map that represents their sewer network is a great learning resource and facilitates increased awareness and familiarity with the work of the POTW.

Once such example is the Flush-It web application. This app allows the public to interact with an engaging map that shows the path their flush takes on its way to the treatment facility. The tool was built on open source geospatial technology and uses a unified, topologically correct sewer data set as the backbone of the network trace. Applications like these are also great for educating students on the importance of science and engineering on daily life.

The Flush-It web application, built on a sewer network GIS dataset. (Image: CivicMapper)

The process of building a GIS of networked sewer map from a set of historic and disparate set of data sources might seem daunting for many POTWs, but the benefits of doing so profoundly outweigh the headaches.

This type of mapping system saves time and money in the long run by ensuring that the best and most current data are shared across multiple operational units and opens up new pathways for innovation and outreach.

As cities continue facing the complications of aging infrastructure and a changing climate, there is no better time than the present to modernize sewer data and use this amazing data resource to both protect communities and equip them with the information needed to tackle future challenges.

Emily Constantine Mercurio is the CEO and co-founder of CivicMapper. Emily grew up in Pennsylvania’s coal country, and at a young age became interested in geoscience, maps, and the interplay of nature and human activity. Her career has centered on creating innovative, data-driven, and tangible solutions to support decisions at the intersection of our natural and built environments. She leverages more than 25 years of experience with Earth science data and geospatial technologies for leading the development of CivicMapper’s products and services. Emily has a Ph.D. in Geology and is a licensed professional geologist.

<p>The post Are your sewers GIS-ready? first appeared on GPS World.</p>

By Jaro Uljanovs, Lead AI Developer and Data Scientist, Sharper Shape

Artificial intelligence (AI) boasts a wide range of potential applications, across nearly every industry imaginable — healthcare, automotive, retail, even fast food. But it’s the utility industry where AI and machine learning (ML) are beginning to demonstrate some of their most impactful effects on many aspects of the business. Power companies are increasingly leaning on AI to improve their electricity delivery and prevent potential wildfires, and AI is actually enhancing, rather than eliminating, human jobs.

From data collection and analysis to their presentation of actionable insights, AI and ML algorithms are quickly redefining how utility companies manage their electric infrastructure.

Consolidating and classifying data

Utility companies oversee massive infrastructure networks, comprising poles, conductors, substations and transmission and distribution lines that span thousands of miles. The vegetation surrounding this key infrastructure must also be monitored, as it presents a danger of fire or outage.

Taking a comprehensive snapshot of these assets means utilizing a variety of different sensors for network inspections. These sensors include lidar, color (RGB), hyperspectral and thermal imagery.

This allows the system to capture everything — from vegetation proximity, to infrastructure assets, to individual components (such as insulators on poles) and their operational integrity, to hot spots indicating potential fire risks.

That’s a lot of data to capture, catalog and process. And there are a lot of individual elements within that data — even in just one image — to pinpoint and classify, let alone do so accurately. Classifying billions of data points across all of those images is an impossibly time-consuming task to do manually.

Photo: shaunl/E+/Getty Images

AI and ML tools can accomplish that same work — scanning thousands of images collected across thousands of miles of utility infrastructure — in seconds. Lidar point cloud segmentation can detect conductors (quite a difficult component-type to segment) with an accuracy of over 90%, while hyperspectral image segmentation can identify vegetation species with an accuracy of up to 99%.

More than that, when paired with drone sensors, these algorithms can also improve the upfront collection of images and data. AI and ML tools help to adjust sensor positioning in real time, in the event a signal is lost or the drone veers slightly away from its inspection flight path.

By helping to readjust the sensors’ bearings while in flight, AI not only ensures more accurate data collection, but also that the flight doesn’t need to be done again or prematurely ended because of faulty data collection, saving time and money. AI pinpoints any faults in the sensors or the drone’s flight path while in the air, recalibrating as needed and identifying individual elements within the data as it comes through the sensor’s video feed.

Breaking down silos to create a holistic data approach

Key to all of this is eliminating the silos that tend to naturally build up between different data segments. In the utility inspection space, asset management, vegetation management, different sensors and so on all produce their own disparate, walled-off sets of data.

When data is kept siloed like this, it becomes unnecessarily difficult if not impossible for teams to derive companywide insights or conclusions from the information being collected. And what good is all that data if it can’t be used to check against itself and enhance other sets of data?

The northwest fire line of the wildfire that devastated Santa Rosa, California, taken by satellite Oct. 10. (Satellite image ©2017 DigitalGlobe)

Good data management can’t exist in a piecemeal approach. It needs to be holistic, and AI provides the impetus to make that happen. AI provides a central resource for pooling all these data sources together, making it easier to cross-analyze for potential problems — like wildfire-prone vegetation or damaged components. When these issues are collected in one system, it becomes much easier to identify faults and resolve them — and do so far faster than it would be to manually sift through countless images of poles or vegetation maps.

And for all the stereotypical concerns about AI eliminating work for human beings, at utility companies AI actually enhances the role that people have to play in the network inspection process. Because the AI is what analyzes the data, it’s not something that is dependent on the potentially biased expertise of a professional human inspector, nor is it prone to fatigue and the anomalous results that can come from that. But at the same time, AI can’t do everything itself. It’s a tool for presenting clearer, more accurate and more actionable information for the people to then act on with their own judgment.

There’s a lot of easy-to-make assumptions, both good and bad, about AI. But at the end of the day, what AI really means for the utility industry is a more efficient and effective tool for providing the right information about a power company’s infrastructure — its transmission and distributions lines, its poles, and its nearby vegetation — into the hands of its key decision makers.

<p>The post Drones and imagery: Utilities turn to artificial intelligence first appeared on GPS World.</p>

According to the study, this strong growth outlook of the global geospatial solution market has been attributed to the advancements in computing capacity for geospatial solution-based research and applications.

The study highlighted geomedicine as a solution to potentially boost the growth of the geospatial solution market during the following years. Blockchain technology is estimated to witness massive adoption in the foreseeable future, FMI added. This technology can be geospatially enriched when combined with geospatial solution-based technologies such as Geographic Information Systems.

In addition, FMI reported that drones are estimated to witness a considerable adoption rate from 2019 to 2029, especially as new standards and legislations introduced by national governments are likely to motivate drone manufacturers and end users to operate more freely.

The study also determined that GPS is estimated to retain a substantial revenue share in geospatial solution market, and that remote sensing technology will register a significant compound annual growth rate over the projection period, as well.

The demand for geospatial solutions is rising from almost every end-use industry, FMI added, with one of the most noteworthy growth areas in the broad data processing arena being data visualization.

Check out the full report here.

<p>The post FMI: Global geospatial solution market to see steady growth first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Oregon Department of Transportation workers use DT Research’s GNSS rugged tablets. (Photo: DT Research).

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has expanded its use of DT Research GNSS rugged tablets to all 15 of its construction management offices across the state, and also use the tablets for biology, geology, roadway and wetland projects.

DT Research worked closely with ODOT to design purpose-built rugged tablets that empower state workers to easily collect and transmit geospatial measurements in the field using GNSS real-time kinematic (RTK) technologies.

“DT Research’s GNSS rugged tablets have enabled us to bring high-accuracy geospatial measurements to workers across the Department of Transportation, which has literally changed the way we work,” said Chris Pucci, construction automation surveyor at ODOT. “The tablets have enabled us to save time, reduce costs and improve the accuracy of projects through ‘digital-as constructed’ measurements and real time data capture.”

The tablets have a dual-frequency GNSS module built in, which provides stand-alone sub-meter accuracy to centimeter-level accuracy with RTK from GPS, GLONASS and Galileo satellites.

The tablets are compatible with existing survey and GIS software for mapping applications and provide an advanced workflow for data capture, accurate positioning and data transmitting.

“We now have essentially created one-person survey crews because the DT Research tablets are so much easier to use than a tape measure and paper to accurately calculate and record measurements during complex construction projects,” Pucci said. “Using the tablets saves us an average of $2,000 for every survey-grade measurement job that does not require a full survey crew.”

“In addition, the tablets have provided us with a contract verification system by having highly accurate digital-as-constructed measurements that are delivered immediately and stored forever, which saves the state time and money by avoiding independent re-measurement checks due to billing discrepancies at the end of a project,” added Pucci.

The DT Research GNSS tablets can store up to 1 Terabyte of data for field data collecting. Users can avoid down time with a high-capacity hot-swappable battery pack, which delivers 60 or 90 watts for up to 15 hours of continuous mobile communications. The units include Long Range Class 1 Bluetooth, which powers wireless connectivity up to 1,000 feet and 4G mobile broadband.

“The simplicity of how the DT Research tablets work is amazing,” Pucci said. “Unlike complex professional survey equipment, the DT Research tablets are a Windows-based mobile device with a user interface that is familiar to workers. In just two hours, I can easily train state workers with diverse skill sets to measure quantity, linear features and volumes for a variety of projects — and they are ready to go.”

The tablets run on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional or Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and are high performance devices with an Intel 6th or 8th Generation Core i5 or i7 processor. The rugged tablet is designed for outdoor use with a brilliant LED-backlight, 800 nits sunlight-readable screen and capacitive touch.

“We have found the DT Research tablets to be incredibility easy to manage and highly durable — we just turn them on and they work,” said Pucci. “In the three years that we have used the tablets, we have had very few technical support questions and they hold up well in different weather conditions. There isn’t a comparable product on the market at the price point.”

The DT Research tablets are military-grade durable devices, yet lightweight, offering the versatility to be used in field-to-office settings. For use in harsh environments, the tablet is fully ruggedized to meet the highest durability standards with an IP65 rating, MIL-STD-810G for vibration and shock resistance and MIL-STD-461F for EMI and EMC tolerance.

For use in a variety of environments, the tablets are complemented by many accessories including: external antennas, pole mount cradles, detachable keyboards, battery charging kits and digital pens.

<p>The post Oregon transportation expands use of GNSS tablets first appeared on GPS World.</p>