Road rage = emotions + location

The New Scientist has an article in their blog about an artist who is mapping people's emotions. Basically, he's got people hooked up to simple arousal sensors on their skin and has those sensors plugged into GPS units. From there, he aggregates stress levels across a number of people. Perhaps even cooler, he's allowed the people with the sensors to tag what they were doing or how they felt at certain points. Check it all out at the project's site to download and view the data via Google Earth.

New ultra-sensitive GPS chip

There are a few new GPS receivers on the market with the spankin' new SiRFstarIII chipset. This new chip allows for fast time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and is sensitive to very low power signals -- so low, in fact, that some claim GPS reception indoors and even better reception under canopies and in dense urban areas. Some of the new receivers on the market that include the Garmin GPSMap 60Cx and the Bluetooth Globalsat BT-338.

WAAS on the MOVE

WAAS, that set of wonderful satellites that greatly improves our GPS accuracy, will be experiencing some changes. For the next two months (until the beginning of April 2006), the company that owns one of the WAAS satellites will be moving it westward. From the article:

WANDERING WAAS: SATELLITE TO RELOCATE One of the geostationary satellites carrying the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) signal won't be so stationary during the next 60 days. Satellite owner Inmarsat will be repositioning and re-aiming a satellite, shifting coverage to the west. The move will have no effect on the vast majority of GPS users. That's because most pilots use just the basic GPS signal, provided by the U.S. military. "But there may be times during the next two months when WAAS won't be available for precision vertical guidance," said Randy Kenagy, AOPA director of advanced technology. "That means you should check notams to make sure that LPV (lateral precision with vertical guidance) approach will be available when you want it." See AOPA Online.

Basically, this means that the vertical accuracy may not be stellar for the next two months. After that, my guess is we'll have better WAAS coverage here in the Wild Wild West (but that's just my speculation).

Stronger GPS on the way?

Does anyone know anything about the US Chamber of Commerce's recent announcement of L2C GPS capabilities on the way? I've been searching for some extra info for a bit, and it seems that there's at least one satellite up there broadcasting on this band. Are there actually more? What's the time table? To summarize, L2C is to be the civilian version of the military's L2 frequency, which is transmitted at higher power, meaning better reception under cover, through walls, in cities, valleys, etc. There's a pretty decent summary here

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That, sir, is implantable

World's smallest GPS receiver, by a company called Rakon. I want to put one in every organ in my body so if any of them are ever stolen, I will know where to find them. Then I could make a website called "Map Ken-ichi's Pancreas." No doubt the advertising royalties would enable me to buy a new pancreas.