Category Archives: GNSS/Location Tech

A World War II Loran receiver

The Return of Loran

An obsolete WWII navigation system is making a comeback In the 1980s, I used Loran-C to navigate on sailing trips off the U.S. East Coast. It had an accuracy of a few hundred feet and required interpreting blue, magenta, black, and green lines that were overprinted on nautical charts.  The system was a modernized version, launched...

Working in the TBM access trench, a team uses a total station and handheld controller for automated measurement and data analysis.

Grand Surveying in Grand Paris

Advanced solutions for tunneling and monitoring keep Europe’s largest transportation expansion project on track All photos taken prior to introduction of COVID-19 distancing guidelines Paris is grand—and getting much grander. One of the most visited—and loved—cities in the world, The City of Light began the Grand Paris initiative in 2007 with the goal of keeping...

iPhone Pro 12 – Survey device??

There is a buzz on the underground, geospatial people are tweeting about lidar in the new iPhone 12 Pro. What really escalated it all was Matterport releasing a new scan app on the Apple store, it was then followed by a few geospatial people alluding to be able to scan cities and even map rooms...

A Google app for Android phones collects raw GNSS data. Photo courtesy of Maren Euwer.

Apps: GnssLogger & Google’s Play in GNSS

GnssLogger? Many surveyors are familiar with the U.S. National Geodetic Survey’s Online Positioning User Service (OPUS), a cloud-based processing service that allows them to upload a Receiver-Independent Exchange (RINEX) file and receive results in minutes. Soon, they may be able to achieve centimeter accuracy by accessing raw GNSS measurements on their Android phone. Google announced...

Yes, We Scan! KickTheMap is a Swiss Kick in the App for 3D

With a clever mobile app and a can-do attitude, Swiss surveyors have created a 3D model of a river valley in the Alps to improve risk prediction of landslides. The 7 p.m. storm forecast was not only accurate, it was ominous. Torrential rains pounded the ski town of Val Ferret on the final day of...