Science and technology news blog

You may have heard a lot about GPS devices and how they can make travelling a whole lot easier. So what is a GPS device? First of all, GPS stands for Global Positioning System and it consists of a constellation of atleast 24 satellites around the world. The GPS was developed by the United States Army and is maintained by the United States Air Force 50th Wing at an annual cost of approximately $750 million. The service is provided free of charge for civilian use.

Each GPS satellite continuously broadcasts a Navigation Message at 50 bit/s giving the time-of-day, GPS week number and satellite health information (all transmitted in the first part of the message), an ephemeris (transmitted in the second part of the message) and an almanac (later part of the message).

A GPS receiver is composed of an antenna, tuned to the frequencies transmitted by the satellites, receiver-processors, and a highly-stable clock (often a crystal oscillator). The GPS navigation systems like the Magellan Maestro™ 4040 GPS Receiver uses the navigation signal data to provide a whole variety of information to the user. With advancement in software and technology, these systems now provide not just the current location of the device, but also information like the shortest route to a destination, which route will have less traffic, the closest restaurants.

Got this from IBNlive.com:

In what could be called a breakthrough in the field of science and technology India’s first ever tri-fuel hybrid car was launched in the capital recently. And what’s more, the car has been developed by students of an engineering college.

Here comes the first tri-fuel car in India – a car that runs on petrol, LPG and electricity and that’s not all, this hybrid has not been developed by any leading car manufacturer but by the students at the Amity School of Engineering and Technology. But why make a tri-fuel hybrid car, in the first place?

Toyota unveiled its first hybrid sports car concept, the Volta, in 2004 and just recently showcased its FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept at the Detroit Auto Show. However, Toyota isn’t the only company looking to bring hybrid technology to small sports cars.

Archrival Honda wants back into the game and will unveil its Small Hybrid Sports Concept at the Geneva Auto Show. Not much is known about the hybrid other than the fact that it was designed by Honda R&D Europe in Offenbach, Germany. And from the image on the right, the new car is miles ahead of the tadpole-esque Honda Insight.

AUTOCAR.co.uk believes that the Concept will foreshadow the production version of the second generation Insight, which is to be introduced in 2008. The car is expected to be similar in size to the current generation Civic and will be priced under the Toyota Prius.

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General Motors Corp. said Friday it plans to offer a new Chevrolet Camaro convertible in 2009 and will display a concept version of the Canadian-made convertible at a gala event surrounding the North American International Auto Show.

GM said last summer it would make the new Camaro at its plant in Oshawa, Ont., just east of Toronto. The new Camaros are expected to land in dealer showrooms by 2009.

The convertible concept, which will be unveiled Saturday at a media event, is based on the original Camaro concept that received rave reviews at last year’s auto show in Detroit.

GM stopped making an earlier version of the Camaro in 2002 but decided to bring back the iconic muscle car to appeal to car enthusiasts and younger buyers. The new version will offer better fuel efficiency and more sophistication than the 1969 version on which it’s loosely based.

“The Camaro convertible concept instantly evokes an emotional response – it’s a vehicle that you want to make room for in your garage,” said Ed Welburn, GM’s vice-president for global design.

The rear-wheel-drive convertible concept features a V8 engine and manual transmission. It also has a four-wheel independent suspension system and four-wheel disc brakes, the automaker said.

To connect to a high-speed wireless network from a car, consumers pretty much have been limited to one choice: rigging a laptop computer with a special modem and subscribing to a pricey, and sometimes temperamental, wireless service.

But Autonet Mobile, a start-up wireless technology company based in San Francisco, was expected to announce this week that it had reached an agreement with Avis Rent A Car System to provide an optional wireless access point — better known as a Wi-Fi hot spot — to Avis customers in the United States by March. For an additional $10.95 a day, Avis will issue to motorists a notebook-size portable device that plugs into the power supply of a car and delivers a high-speed Internet connection for passengers.

For now, the service is intended for business travelers. But Autonet sees its service as appealing to families traveling with children, although its unit is expected to cost $399 — about twice as much as current cellular card technology — plus $49 a month for service.

A mobile Wi-Fi hot spot that lets laptops and other hand-held computers link to the Internet without cables represents an important step toward what technology experts call the “connected car” — a vehicle in which passengers’ devices and the car’s essential systems are always online.

“I think this is a precursor to the connected car,” said Roger Entner, a wireless telecommunications analyst at Ovum, a consulting firm based in London. “This shows us a glimpse of where we will be in the future.”

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Rolls-Royce will unveil its R3.5-million Phantom Drophead Coupé at the upcoming North American International Auto Show here in January 2007 and says series production will start in England around the middle of 2007.

It’ll be the first such car to be offered by Rolls-Royce since the Corniche was launched in 2002 and uses 1300 new parts over those developed for the Phantom that was launched on a boat in 2004.

“The two-door, four-seat convertible,” the Rolls people say, “is a less formal interpretation of classic Rolls-Royce design. Using the lightweight rigidity of an all-aluminium space frame, it marries modern technology to a sleek, streamlined convertible body.

“Its exterior lines echo the timeless styling of the great Rolls-Royce cars: a long bonnet, large wheels, short front and long rear overhangs and the quintessential dynamic line descending along its flanks.

“The cabin design emphasises the airy openness of top-down motoring, embracing the elements and creating a stunning, social environment.”

Rolls-Royce’s chief designer, Ian Cameron, added: “This car gave us the chance to think about the very nature of convertible motoring, in particular what it means to Rolls-Royce, and we were determined to make the car a joy to live with and engineered it to give years of effortless service.”

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Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile , Research) plans to unveil a deal with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile , Research) in January that will put the software company’s technology into some of the automaker’s cars, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The system, to be called “Sync,” includes a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and an in-vehicle operating system that eventually will be an option for the entire Ford brand lineup, the WSJ said.

Sync is designed to allow hands-free mobile phone communication and other wireless information transfers in the car, including email and music downloads, the sources told the WSJ.

It will debut next year as an option on at least two Ford brand models, the Focus and Five Hundred sedans, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal. The paper also said the system would be an option on the entire lineup, including trucks starting in the 2008 model year.

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New technology such as alcohol-detecting devices in cars may hold the key to eliminating drunken driving, the activist group Mothers Against Drunk Driving assert in a campaign started Monday.The organization and the U.S. Department of Transportation are pushing for such devices as well as tougher enforcement around the country.

“If we can’t stop drunks from driving, we’ll stop vehicles from driving drunks,” said Glynn Birch, president of MADD, at a news conference. Birch said technology, along with tougher laws and enforcement, has put the elimination of drunken driving “at our fingertips.”

The organization wants states to pass laws that would require breath-test interlock devices in vehicles for all those who have been convicted of drunken driving even after the first offense. Only New Mexico has such a law for first offenders; 45 states and the District of Columbia allow the device for some offenders.

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