Advanced Navigation recently announced release of Spatial Dual, its new dual antenna GNSS/Inertial Navigation System.

Spatial Dual is a ruggedised, miniature GPS-aided inertial navigation system and AHRS that provides accurate position, velocity, acceleration and orientation under demanding conditions. It combines temperature-calibrated accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and a pressure sensor with a dual-antenna RTK GNSS receiver.

Spatial Dual contains the Trimble BD982 GNSS receiver, which is a triple frequency dual-antenna RTK GNSS receiver. Using dual-frequency moving baseline RTK, Spatial Dual is able to provide heading accuracy of less than 0.1 degrees. The dual antenna heading works while both stationary and moving, and allows for accurate heading in both slow-moving and 3D vehicles, where equivalent single antenna systems must rely on magnetic heading. An additional benefit of the dual antennas is the ability to measure slip angle to within 0.2 degrees.

Spatial Dual supports all of the current and future satellite systems, including GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and BeiDou. In addition, Spatial Dual supports RTK for centimetre positional accuracy and the recent Omnistar G2 network for hassle-free 10 centimetre accuracy.

Spatial Dual provides position, velocity and orientation at rates up to 1000Hz for dynamic applications. When Spatial Dual loses a GNSS fix it continues to navigate using dead reckoning inertial navigation to provide seamless navigation data through tunnels and other outage situations.

Spatial Dual is housed in a precision marine-grade aluminium enclosure that is water- and dirt-proof to the IP67 standard, and shockproof to 2000g.

Spatial Dual supports a wide range of peripherals, including odometers and wheel-speed sensors for ground vehicle navigation, DVLs and USBLs for underwater navigation, and many other external sensors. It supports both industry standard NMEA output and an efficient binary protocol.

For more information visit http://www.advancednavigation.com.au/product/spatial-dual.

ByteLight just came out of stealthmode and announced the investment. How does the tech work?

ByteLight’s patented solution turns LED light sources into positioning beacons. “ByteLight-enabled” lights transmit proprietary signals which can be picked up by camera-equipped mobile devices. Once signals are detected, the device then calculates its position without the need for an active network connection. ByteLight’s market-leading indoor positioning solution is accurate to less than one meter and takes less than a second to compute. To enhance the functionality of its solution, the Company also offers tools that make it simple to provide location-based digital content, analyze traffic patterns and measure engagement.

- press release

TeleNav(R), Inc. (TNAV), the leader in personalized navigation, announced today that it has acquired Local Merchant Services, Inc., d.b.a. ThinkNear, a privately held hyper-local mobile advertising company located in Los Angeles, California, for consideration of $22.5 million, consisting of approximately $18.5 million in cash, plus restricted stock and assumed options. The acquisition, which closed on October 10, 2012, added ThinkNear's team of twelve employees, including its two co-founders, to Telenav's mobile local advertising group.

- press release

Foursquare’s homepage is now  a whole lot more useful– even if you don’t use Foursquare.

The location-based social network is opening up its Explore recommendation engine so that visitors don’t need a Foursquare account to take advantage of it.

- VentureBeat

If you want to buy some LBS patents, some are for sale:

ICAP Patent Brokerage announces for auction a search engine software technology providing improved results and rankings with relevance annotations by geographic area from other users. This lot from Geodex LLC will be included in the 17th ICAP Ocean Tomo IP Auction on November 29, 2012, at The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, California.   

- press release

A new satellite for China's indigenous Beidou navigation system will be launched at the end of October to join 15 satellites already in orbit, the Beijing News reported. The new satellite will complete a network that can offer services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

China has sent five civilian satellites into space since the 2012 beginning to speed up the completion of the network for the Beidou navigation and positioning system.

In 2000, China launched its first navigation satellite for the Beidou system, which it sees as an alternative to the US government-run GPS.

The country will have a regional Beidou navigation system covering China and neighbouring regions this year and will provide services to global customers upon its completion in 2020, according to the China National Space Administration.

The system will be used in transportation, weather forecasting, marine fisheries, forestry, telecommunications, hydrological monitoring and mapping.