Posted on Mon, Dec 05, 2011
by Carol Politi
Two of the earliest TRX supporters were the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI). The NSF provided the first grant to TRX to pursue development of a system for firefighter tracking, and MFRI has been a constant partner providing feedback and supporting testing and validation of the TRX GPS-denied location technology.
Science Nation recently profiled this work in their Special Report "New Sensor System Tracks Firefighters Where GPS Fails". TRX's core technology - sensor and map data fusion - allows delivery of location indoors (in areas GPS can't reach). This video showcases the work and testing being performed to meet the indoor tracking requirements of the toughest application - that of tracking firefighters without any aiding infrastructure.
The Department of Homeland Security's S&T Directorate is pushing this location technology to even higher accuracy and maturity levels with it's Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders (GLANSER) program. TRX is a team member on the GLANSER program (collaborating with Honeywell and Boeing/Argon ST) to develop and deploy even higher precision tracking systems that meet the demanding stability and maturity requirements of the First Responder community.
Posted on Thu, Oct 27, 2011
By Carol Politi
The Gazette of Politics and Business awarded TRX Systems its Exceptional 53 Business Award! The program acknowledges the top 53 businesses and organizations in Maryland based on criteria that included the recipient company’s annual revenue and employee growth as well as noteworthy product or service innovations, community service efforts, how they have steered their way through the economic downturn, and how the companies portrayed themselves as “good places to work.”
TRX, who was recognized for delivering innovative technology in the field of indoor location, received the award alongside leading companies in a diverse array of technology, retail, entertainment, medical, and education fields. “To make the 53 list is a great accomplishment,” said Cliff Chiet, publisher of The Gazette P&B. “This year’s list features companies from the State of Maryland that have had success in a wide variety of fields, and each company deserved recognition of their accomplishments.” Look for TRX Systems in the special October 2011 edition of The Gazette of Politics and Business.
Posted on Mon, Aug 08, 2011
by Carol Politi
The Greater Baltimore Technology Council (GBTC) has announced that TRX Systems is one of the top ten finalists in their "Hottest Tech In Town" competition. The indoor location market - and the TRX solution for indoor location - is generating more and more interest! The competition was open to all technology companies in the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia area. The ultimate winners will be selected through online voting and recognized at GBTC Technite 2011.
Posted on Fri, Aug 05, 2011
By Carol Politi
I am often asked about the commercial applications for indoor location. “Why would anyone need to locate indoors?"
It can be tough to envision applications that might be generated through capabilities you don’t have. GPS was first funded and deployed for military applications. Without the defense push for GPS the business case for investment would have been very difficult to make. However, the overall market for GPS devices and systems is now expected to grow to over 240 Billion dollars by 2013 (ABI Research) – and a good part of that is driven from the civilian sector.
Indoor location has also been initially driven by Government and Public Safety applications where the demand is the greatest. However, during day two of the WPI Precision Indoor Location and Tracking Workshop, both Qualcomm and Verizon spoke about the immense potential for the consumer indoor location market. Applications discussed included navigation applications within transportation hubs, shopping malls, convention centers, university campuses, hospitals, and office buildings, along with entertainment and social applications. Should we really have to wander around looking for “you are here” signs to find a decent restaurant? I don’t think so. And at some point we will all stop walking around with phones to our ears while we are almost bumping into the person we are supposed to meet.
Today, we can detect proximity from Wi-Fi, but we can’t get to precise indoor location. This is the “last mile” for the location services market. While a number of tagging & infrastructure-based technologies can deliver to precise indoor location, it is tough to make these solutions ubiquitous. At WPI, the view from Qualcomm and Verizon appeared to be that simplicity may win out over precision, and that innovations that depend less on infrastructure may win out.
Regardless of the commercial potential to make our lives more convenient and entertaining - and in TRX’s case to increase the size of the market we are addressing - real lives will be saved by delivering GPS-denied location for the military and public safety markets. At TRX, we remember that every day.
Posted on Wed, Aug 03, 2011
By Carol Politi
The 6th annual Precision Indoor Location and Tracking workshop was held this week at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. One hundred and forty five attendees from 36 different organizations attended to discuss progress, research, and requirements in indoor location and tracking. This workshop uniquely brings together industry, academia, and users to review deployment experience, hash out requirements, and discuss indoor location challenges specific to the critical application of firefighter and overall first responder safety. It continues to be the best forum for establishing the technical and commercial partnerships that are driving better and better solutions to the market - and those that will support broad distribution of these solutions.
The most impactful session of the entire conference was the discussion by Chief John Sullivan, Operations Deputy Chief of the Worcester Fire Department. Chief Sullivan profiled the tragedy in Worcester that drove the first focus on the requirement for indoor location in support of firefighter safety. The Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire lead to the death of 6 firefighters, and the potentially preventable loss of life during this and other incidents continues to be a driving force for those of us developing and delivering solutions for infrastructure-free indoor location.
Unlike past years, the actual workshop was sponsored by the S&T Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. This sponsorship allowed participation by a broad spectrum of those working in this area. The workshop was kicked off by Jalal Mapar, Program Manager at DHS S&T (who manages, in addition to other programs, the Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders, or GLANSER program). There were many firsts in this year’s conference:
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First demonstration (“sneak peak”) of the GLANSER location system. During the first year of the GLANSER program, DHS sponsored two teams to develop competing technologies. One of the teams was led by Boeing/Argon ST and included TRX Systems and Thales. The other team was led by Honeywell and included Time Domain and Harris. During this second phase of the program, the team consolidated. The second phase team consists of Honeywell, Boeing/Argon ST, and TRX Systems. This consolidated GLANSER team reviewed the plan for the final system during the conference. Additionally, both year 1 teams demonstrated the technology developed and TRX Systems demonstrated the product it has spun out of GLANSER (with additional support from NSF, the Army, DARPA and TSWG) for early commercial applications.
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First consolidation in technical approaches. While there were broad discussions regarding potential new technologies that might be applied to the challenge of infrastructure-free, indoor location, for the first time it appeared that the overall approach to the problem had consolidated across the industry. The challenge is one requiring a multitude of sensors, sensor fusion, and RF technologies. Progress in each of these base sensor areas was discussed as was progress in developing and enhancing location algorithms and in fielding integrated system solutions.
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First commercial deployments were profiled. For the first time at this conference, commercial deployments were reviewed. Admittedly, this was a first that TRX Systems is most proud of since early adopters such as Singapore Civil Defence Force are among the first end users of the TRX Systems Sentrix Personnel Tracking System. This early adopter represents a new stage of maturity for the indoor location market.
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First time this forum profiled the vast commercial opportunities for indoor location technology. Both Qualcomm and Verizon attended and spoke at WPI this year - and pointed to the fact that the latest commecial platforms now contain an array of MEMS and other sensors critical to indoor location.
It was also announced that the National Institute of Science and Technology will start a center focused on the test and evaluation aspects (funded by the Department of Homeland Security) of the systems delivering this critical indoor tracking and locating function.
The overall conference agenda profiles a significant DHS & overall industry investment in location and tracking. The organizations and companies participating (in order of the Agenda) included:
WPI (host)
Department of Homeland Security
Worcester Fire Department
Berlin, MA Fire Department
Honeywell
Boeing/Argon ST
TRX Systems!!
Fire Protection Research Foundation
Santa Rosa Fire Department
Swedish Defense Research Agency
National Institute of Standards and Technology
NASA
ENSCO
MSA
Carnegie Mellon University
SEER Technology
University of Michigan
Trimble Navigation
Wilton, CT Fire Department
Time Domain
Michigan Tech University
University of Georgia
PARC
Globe Manufacturing
Scientific Systems Company
NFPA
Summit Safety
Lambda:4 Entwicklungen Gmbh
Tag Safety Systems
Q‐Track Corporation
Ventura Ad Astra
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Draper Laboratories
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
Intelligent Automation
US Army CERDEC/C2D
Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue
Qualcomm
Verizon
There was so much ground covered during this conference it was not possible to discuss them in a single post - stay tuned!
Posted on Wed, Jul 06, 2011
by Dr. Carole Teolis
The Joint Navigation Conference is the conference to attend for understanding the needs, direction and latest research efforts in DOD position navigation and timing. Previously open to select allied countries (4-eyes), this year is the first year that the conference was US only attendance. The first few days covered technical talks and tutorials on Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) topics including new GPS, inertial, and image processing algorithms, as well as new sensors, for robust navigation in difficult conditions. Representatives from all the services were in attendance; from the leadership and researchers, to the war fighters that use the PNT systems in the field.
This was the first year that the war fighters attended the entire conference rather than just coming for the panel discussion at the end. They talked about what they still needed operationally from PNT technology; covering both good and bad qualities of today's systems. These discussions gave developers better insight into conditions in the field, provided an opportunity for targeted feedback, and made it possible to engage directly for one-on-one discussions with the intended users of the technology. The discussions also provided war fighters insight into what research and development efforts were ongoing and the ability to directly communicate operational requirements.
Dr. John Karvounis from TRX presented the algorithms he developed targeting robust image processing for improved location and navigation capability. His presentation included a robust Kalman filter and a hierarchical SLAM algorithm. He also presented results comparing the computational and tracking performance of the new methods to the standard extended Kalman filter. War fighters who attended John's talk were able to provide constructive feedback to help guide TRX into making a blue force tracking system that can provide superiority on the battle field in a form that is usable for dismounted soldiers and marines.
Overall, this was an excellent conference providing an opportunity to learn about the latest technical developments in PNT and the technology and usability gaps for our war fighters. Thanks to the program committee that put this conference together.
Posted on Mon, Jun 27, 2011
by Carol Politi.
Dr. John Karvounis of TRX Systems is speaking in a session titled "Navigating in Challenged Environments (e.g., Urban, Indoor, and Subterranean)" at the 2011 Joint Navigation Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado this week. The session is chaired by Jalal Mapar of the Department of Homeland Security and Dr. R James Duckworth of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Additional details on the conference are available here.
Posted on Tue, Jun 14, 2011
by Carol Politi
ABI Research predicts, in their "Alternative Positioning Technologies" study that the alternative location technologies market will be $2.5 Billion by 2015 - delivering location to applications while people are indoors, underground, or in dense urban areas where GPS does not work effectively.
"The demand for low cost, ubiquitous location data has increased significantly over the last 12 months. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Facebook and others are battling to enable and control consumer location”, said ABI Research senior analyst Patrick Connolly. “This will bring new opportunities and threats to the market but ultimately will drive a 400% increase in alternative location technology penetration across a range of portable devices, location technologies and location providers."
The indoor location market is divided among a myriad of approaches, including Wi-Fi positioning which already has a large installed base in cell phones. However, Wi-Fi solutions don't deliver precise indoor location and cannot provide 3D - i.e., the location within a building including floor level - without enterprise surveying and involvement. Infrastructure-free location at that level of accuracy requires the use of sensors beyond GPS and Wi-Fi.
According to EETimes "It’s not a case of either/or, but of, a continually evolving hybrid approach. GPS alone will not be sufficient to support the next generation of services and revenue streams. Services such as local search, location-based advertising, geotagging, social networking and augmented reality are all significantly improved through increased accuracy and indoor/ubiquitous location."
Posted on Wed, Jun 08, 2011
by Carol Politi
Powell's Books has released an extremely useful indoor location application that demonstrates the potential of indoor navigation for consumers. With this app you can select an individual book title and navigate from where you are to the exact location of the book on the shelf. Who has not been in a bookstore wandering around aimlessly looking for a specific book title? This app also lets you navigate the book store in advance, review staff picks and new releases, and check out upcoming events.
How does it work? Given the unavailability of GPS indoors, with this application you select your current location as the starting point for the routing. However, with installation of infrastructure by the retailer, applications will be able to dynamically detect the user location to set the starting point for a route. Mapping has to be implemented and maintained. Since these applications appear to be successful in driving drive retail sales, we can expect more and more retailers to make this mapping and application development investment.
Why is this bookstore application interesting to TRX? As the value in indoor location becomes more and more obvious - even beyond the critical safety applications to which TRX is delivering solutions today - investment will continue to grow. The delta between commercial and government applications is shrinking. The Army is beginning to deploy mobile application stores and is equipping personnel with Android-based mobile platforms. The obvious hole - both for Government and commercial applications - is where the locations are not controlled and where infrastructure cannot be installed.
Posted on Fri, Apr 29, 2011
by Carol Politi
ATT has released a portable cell phone tower that can be set up in disaster scenarios where wireless coverage is not available. This is a great asset for emergency responders and such a network can be used to transmit indoor location information back to incident command.
The TRX Sentrix Personnel Tracking System can inteface to this type of ad hoc cellular network via bluetooth from the Sentrix Tracking Unit to a standard Android handset. Such a configuraiton will allow emergency responders to communicate critical 3D location information - along with other sensor data if needed - back to the command center set up to manage the emergency.
While a standard cellular network can be used in many areas, such connectivity is often not available when responding to disasters. This type of portable communications can be setup in less than 30 minutes, and delivers 1/2 mile of connectivity.