TRX Receives ACA Luis Villalobos Award for Indoor Location Innovation</h1> <article> <h1>TRX Receives ACA Luis Villalobos Award for Indoor Location Innovation</h1> <p>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:27:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>The Angel Capital Association (ACA) announced at its 2013 ACA Summit that TRX was awarded the <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10634275.htm" title="ACA Luis Villalobos Award for Innovation" target="_blank">ACA Luis Villalobos Award for Innovation</a>. We appreciate and are humbled by the recognition of the innovation of our sensor fusion and mapping technology for indoor location. The ACA also recognized the value TRX indoor location brings to both public sector and consumer applications.</p> <p>“Innovation is the touchstone of angel group investing,” said Marianne Hudson, executive director of ACA. “This year’s winner of the Luis Villalobos Award, TRX Systems, exemplifies the highest order of innovation with an indoor location technology that solves enormously challenging real world problems to make people’s lives safer and more productive.”</p> <p>The crux of what TRX does is to deliver X, Y, & Z (3-dimensional) data to applications that need accurate location awareness, even when people are indoors and underground. The solution improves as people move about a building, creating more complete feature and signature maps. This dynamic sensor fusion and mapping allows robust 3D location on a broad array of platforms and for a broad array of applications - even those for which pre-mapping of infrastructure is not possible.</p> <p>Thanks to those at the ACA for recognizing TRX Systems!</p> </article> <article> <h1>Making Accessible Transportation Modern & Cool at SXSW</h1> <p>Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:16:00 GMT</p> <p>by Dr. Kamiar Kordari</p> <p>TRX Systems participated in the <a href="http://sxsw.com/" title="SXSW 2013" target="_blank">SXSW 2013</a> conference this week to showcase one of the applications of its indoor location technology. The interactive events in South by Southwest (SXSW) are primarily focused on new and emerging technology and the conference has earned the reputation as a place for new ideas and creative technologies.</p> <p>Dr. Kamiar Kordari presented at a session titled "<a href="http://schedule.sxsw.com/2013/events/event_IAP1930" title="Making Accessible Transportation Modern & Cool" target="_blank">Making Accessible Transportation Modern & Cool</a>" alongside experts from IBM and US Department of Transportation. This talk highlighted a TRX project funded by the Federal Highway Administration to build the next generation of navigation systems for the 285 million people with vision impairment and blindness in the world. In this project the TRX NEON Indoor Location System is combined with a smartphone mobile app that uses phone's camera to guide the visually-impaired and blind in complicated environments. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TRXSystemsTV" title="In the video shown at SXSW" target="_blank">In the video shown at SXSW</a>, Dr. Kordari demonstrated the use of computer vision algorithms to recognize signs in a building. This vision component verifies that the user has reached the correct destination. Future developments will include finding stairs, elevators, hallways, and doors in the visual scope to help with the navigation.</p> <p>Wearable technology, and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/11/google-details-glass-mirror-api-at-sxsw-shows-off-gmail-nyt-evernote-and-path-integrations/" title="Google Glass" target="_blank">Google Glass</a> in particular, was the mostly discussed topic this year in SXSW conference. This points to a trend where technology is becoming smarter in continuously adapting to our physical environment and behaviors. Precise location technologies, user motion detection, and computer vision are some of the enabling technologies behind this trend that TRX has been focused on and we are proud to be driving a number of the cutting-edge innovations in this space.</p> <p>Special thanks to Mr. Mohammed Yousuf from USDOT for organizing this session, and our program manager Ms. Charlene Wilder from Federal Transit Administration for her support in this project.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Motorola Solutions Announces 3Q Availability of TRX Indoor Location</h1> <p>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:19:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>Motorola Solutions, Inc. announced today third quarter availability of the <a href="http://mediacenter.motorolasolutions.com/Press-Releases/Motorola-to-Showcase-Public-Safety-Solutions-Driving-Safer-Cities-Thriving-Communities-at-IWCE-2013-3a18.aspx" title="TRX NEON Indoor Location Solution" target="_blank">TRX NEON Indoor Location Solution</a> working with the <a href="http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Product+Lines/APX" title="Motorola APX" target="_blank">Motorola APX</a>(TM) radios at the IWCE show in Las Vegas. APX radios wirelessly pair to the TRX NEON tracking unit, sending real-time location information and precise details to incident commanders about personnel movement and activity. The integration between the Motorola radios and the TRX NEON System is being shown in live demonstrations at IWCE.</p> <p>The NEON solution is being made available for event security, training, and other mission-essential applications requiring a highly portable system that can deliver precision indoor location. NEON uses unique APX Bluetooth pairing as well as APX data capabilities to transmit location information back to command centers, and stores personnel location data to support after action review for training applications.</p> <p>The TRX NEON System has been developed with the support of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security S&T, the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, the US Army, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.</p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Systems Nominated as a CRTC TechAwards 2013 Finalist</h1> <p>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:13:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.chesapeaketech.org/" title="Chesapeake Regional Tech Council" target="_blank">Chesapeake Regional Tech Council</a> is holding its 8th annual TechAwards 2013 on March 14th, "<a href="http://www.chesapeaketech.org/?page=techawards" title="Geek is the New Chic" target="_blank">Geek is the New Chic</a>", and will be honoring the region's rising tech companies, outstanding innovators and all-around top "geeks." TRX Systems Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, Dr. Carole Teolis, is being recognized as a nominee for the Woman in Tech Award which honors individuals who best exemplify the outstanding contributions made by women in advancing technology in industry, business and society. </p> <p>After several widely publicized tragedies where first responders lost their lives due to inability to locate them inside a burning structure, a small team that included Dr. Teolis, Dr. Gilmer Blankenship (TRX Board Member), and Ben Funk (TRX VP Engineering) began investigating the feasibility of building a system to track and safeguard firefighters inside burning buildings. Excited by the potential of such a system, Dr. Teolis and her colleagues applied for <a href="http://youtu.be/FG13Sx5aIgQ" title="National Science Foundation Small Business Innovative Research" target="_blank">National Science Foundation Small Business Innovative Research</a> support. They won the award in January 2007 and Teolis joined the newly formed spin-off company, TRX Systems.</p> <p>Teolis and her colleagues developed a fundamentally new approach for indoor location – fusing the results of an array of small, cost effective sensors to identify building features and create site maps as people move around a building. Combining the information from inertial, RF, magnetic, pressure, with a priori available or discovered map information enables delivery of location even where GPS is not available (indoors, underground, and in heavily forested areas).</p> <p>Today, TRX Systems, Inc. is an award winning developer of NEON — a unique indoor navigation technology that has solved the difficult problem of locating, mapping and tracking people when they are inside buildings where GPS is not available, and in outdoor urban areas where GPS is often unreliable. Thanks to CRTC for highlighting the achievements of Dr. Teolis as a leading technology innovator.</p> </article> <article> <h1>GPS-Veteran NavtechGPS Partners with TRX On Indoor Location</h1> <p>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:49:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi.</p> <p></p> <p>TRX Systems is pleased to announce that <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10473467.htm" title="NavtechGPS, an expert in GPS/GNSS and precise positioning technology, has partnered with TRX" target="_blank">NavtechGPS, an expert in GPS/GNSS and precise positioning technology, has partnered with TRX</a> Systems to distribute and help customers integrate the TRX NEON Indoor Location System.</p> <p>NavtechGPS has broad distribution channels and significant technical experience in precise positioning technologies. This background and experience will assist customers in integrating TRX Systems’ NEON Indoor Location System and TRX Systems’ sensor fusion and mapping technology within indoor and GPS-denied location environments.</p> <p>“We are excited to finally see an indoor real-time positioning system that doesn't need to rely on infrastructure.” says NavtechGPS Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Franck Boynton.</p> <p><a href="http://www.navtechgps.com/departments/equipment/indoor_locating_and_positioning/trx_systems_neon_indoor_location_system/" title="NavtechGPS" target="_blank">NavtechGPS</a> has nearly 30 years of practical, hand-on experience in applying GPS / GNSS and precision locating technologies for a broad spectrum of applications, including position, navigation and timing (PNT) applications for dismounted personnel. NavtechGPS also has existing client relationships with military, commercial, government and research institutions, making it easy for customers to acquire the TRX NEON System for their applications.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Indoor Location and Indoor Maps</h1> <p>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:36:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX has long been focused on delivering accurate indoor location in areas where floor plans are not available. However, floor plans are increasingly becoming available to assist in indoor location, opening up the ability to deliver higher accuracy location for a broad range of applications – even in buildings where Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other sources of infrastructure-based location are not consistently available.</p> <p><a href="http://support.google.com/gmm/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1685827&topic=1685871&ctx=topic" title="Google has more than 10,000 floor plans" target="_self">Google has more than 10,000 floor plans</a> available, <a href="http://www.micello.com/" title="Micello" target="_blank">Micello</a> delivers access to floor plans for over 15,000 indoor venues, Microsoft (<a href="http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/08/03/new-airport-maps-for-bing-and-mall-maps-come-to-mobile.aspx" title="Bing" target="_blank">Bing</a>) delivers maps for thousands of local shopping malls and other venues, and Nokia – long a leader in mapping for navigation – delivers routing and guidance indoors through their “<a href="http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/07/16/nokia-leads-the-way-with-indoor-mapping/" title="Destination Maps" target="_blank">Destination Maps</a>” initiative. And map innovation is not stopping with the indoors. Apple, Nokia and others are delivering fantastic maps of 3D spaces (the 3D map view from Nokia through <a href="http://here.com/40.7159284,-73.8979684,20,0,0,3d.day" title="Here.com" target="_blank">Here.com</a> is fantastic).</p> <p>While TRX delivers location in many locations and venues where maps are not available, 3D map and floor plan information provides valuable constraints that can significantly improve the accuracy of indoor location estimates. If you don’t know about a wall – or if that wall might change in real time (in a military, or fire application, for example) – you certainly can’t count on it for navigation. However, in training, enterprise, and consumer applications, walls, doorways, and other building features can provide significant enhancements.</p> <p>The challenge in the past has been getting consistent access to such mapping data, and keeping it accurate. TRX discovers map features as people move about in buildings, however, if no-one has traversed an area, features can’t be discovered. Given that there are a myriad of companies with staffs focused on delivering accurate indoor mapping data, it is now possible to merge dynamically discovered features with known features – opening up not only using a richer set of map data for location calculations, but also the potential to dynamically update maps when they have changed. The merger of known maps with dynamically built maps is a powerful capability when it comes to improving indoor location calculations.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Indoor Location - for the Other 90% of Our Lives</h1> <p>Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:33:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>GPS technology is now an integral part of our lives - affecting how we plan our days and navigate, and delivering essential security for our families. With a clear view of 3 GPS satellites, you can acquire an approximate 2D (X&Y) position and with a clear view of 4 GPS satellites, you can obtain a 3D (X, Y, Z) position. </p> <p>However, a variety of factors conspire to disrupt our getting accurate position information from GPS. When operating in urban areas, signals can reflect off buildings and vehicles, driving errors into the receiver location estimate (this effect is known as "multipath"). As a result, GPS-based location tends to have significant errors in many urban environments. When you walk indoors, the satellites are typically blocked entirely, making GPS impossible to acquire.</p> <p>As Tony Costa of Forrester Research points out in "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2013/01/23/indoor-venues-are-the-next-frontier-for-location-based-services/" title="Indoor Venues Are The Next Frontier For Location-Based Services" target="_blank">Indoor Venues Are The Next Frontier For Location-Based Services</a>", we spend 90% of our lives indoors. Some of these indoor spaces are large and complicated, so better navigation would be helpful. We would all like to avoid looking at more "you are here" signs! Beyond that there are critical life-safety applications - including returning more precision for public safety applications. And for accessibility reasons, it is vital that we offer solutions for navigating precisely both indoors and out.</p> <p>The myriad of solutions being developed to seamlessly deliver indoor location is broad and complex - ranging from geolocated lights to Bluetooth nodes to mapped Wi-Fi spaces. However, solutions can generally be divided up into two categories:</p> <p>1) Infrastructure-based, geolocated nodes/anchors. Infrastructure-based solutions are becoming available for high-density public areas (malls, airports) that typically rely upon mapping the location of Wi-Fi access points in these locations or installing geolocated & networked nodes <span>(Bluetooth, LED lights, etc.)</span> which communicate with your phone or a receiving device. Because high density public spaces typically have many Wi-Fi access points, Wi-Fi mapping can be very helpful in these locations. These public spaces get significant traffic so the time and energy spent doing the mapping and/or node installations tends to be worthwhile. </p> <p>2. Infrastructure-free, sensor fusion & map building. The sensor fusion and map building technologies innovated by TRX complements these infrastructure-based solutions. Any "global reference" - whether it is GPS, precisely mapped Wi-Fi, or geolocated Bluetooth nodes - delivers an initialization point, location update, or location constraint. When these global references are not available, get moved, or have gaps in coverage, it is in some cases vital - and in other cases desirable - to continue to seamlessly deliver location. That's when embedded sensor and dynamic mapping solutions can really help. Information from gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses, pressure and other sensors - along with known or inferred map information - can be fused in a way to deliver a relative location estimate. That is to determine how and where you have moved since you last received a global update.</p> <p>A combination of these technologies will be used to close the gaps and deliver location during the 90% of our lives spent indoors. This should make our lives more efficient and more importantly - should make the world a safer place. </p> </article> <article> <h1>Hiring! Mechanical Engineer, Electronics Packaging, Indoor Location</h1> <p>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:00:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX is looking for a talented Mechanical Engineer to design and manufacture compact, rugged enclosures for the TRX Indoor Location Device and future products. We need someone that will oversee all aspects of the mechanical design from concept through medium scale manufacturing, including creating and testing prototypes using rapid prototyping processes, holding design reviews, and performing detailed failure mode analysis. The job includes a close collaboration with TRX Electrical Engineers during the design process, and management of our interfaces to outside test labs to verify drop test, IP67, and mil spec ratings compliance. It also includes working with manufacturers to build injection mold tooling, all operations management responsibility for our builds (finding/ordering necessary parts, etc.), development of final assembly instructions and product documentation, and coordination with any outside resources used to support device assemply. We are looking for someone that is comfortable with interacting with strategic partners and customers in order to support all requests related to mechanical components. Contact us if you want to work with a great team & game changing technology! <span>More details </span><a href="http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/result/10317896/994072/DiceId_10317896/TRX%2BSystems/mechanical-engineer--indoor-personnel-location-products" title="HERE" target="_blank">HERE</a><span>. </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>"Geolocation Techniques, Principles, and Applications" - New Book</h1> <p>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:57:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi. </p> <p></p> <p>TRX's Chief Technology Officer, Carole Teolis (supported by contributions from other members of the TRX team) has co-authored a new book titled "Geolocation Techniques, Principles, and Applications". The book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in a comprehensive overview of geolocation technologies and approaches for indoor navigation- including covering RF & ranging (and the impact of multipath environments), cellular, inertial, and localization and mapping corrections.</p> <p>The authors of the book include Camillo Gentile (National Institute of Standards and Technology), Nayef Alsindi (Etilsalat BT Innovation Center, Khalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research), Ronald Raulefs (German Aerospace Center), and Carole Teolis (TRX Systems).</p> </article> <article> <h1>Maryland Industrial Partnership Program - 25th Anniversary</h1> <p>Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:44:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carole Teolis</p> <p>The University of Maryland sponsors an industrial collaboration program called the <a href="http://www.mips.umd.edu/" title="Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program" target="_blank">Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program</a>. The program supports Maryland companies (MIPS provides funding which is matched by the participating companies) in collaborating with university faculty and students. The collaborations provide access to technology expertise and state-of-the-art university lab facilities. It also provides a mechanism for transferring university technology to companies. The goal by jointly funding collaborative university-industry R&D projects is to help companies integrate cutting edge technologies into their products to solve real problems. The program has been incredibly successfully both in technology transfer and in creating and retaining jobs in the State of Maryland. </p> <p>TRX collaborated with MIPS to develop a ruggedized design for our indoor location system to meet the requirements of the DOD and public safety communities. The program gave TRX access to both facilities and resources required to ensure we would meet the demanding requirements of these markets.</p> <p>Last night MIPS held its 25th anniversary gala. During the Gala, it was noted that MIPS has supported development projects with more than 500 different Maryland companies since 1987. The commercial products resulting from these MIPS projects have generated more than $23.6 billion in revenue! In addition to TRX, the companies and products represented at the MIPS gala included Martek Biosciences (nutritional oils), Hughes Communications (HughesNet™), MedImmune (Synagis®), and Black & Decker (Bullet® Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit). <a href="http://mtechumd.wordpress.com/" title="The MIPS blog has some excellent profiles of these programs." target="_blank">The MIPS blog has some excellent profiles of these programs.</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Urban Operations Training & Indoor Location</h1> <p>Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:45:00 GMT</p> <p>By Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX is increasingly applying our NEON<sup><sup>TM</sup></sup> indoor location system to support personnel monitoring and after action review for urban training operations. We announced this week that TRX was awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s (ARL) Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED), Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) to enhance the NEON system to meet the needs for training in urban and other GPS-denied areas.</p> <p>The concept of operations for urban training is similar to that of many security applications in that the applications require a system that is highly portable, easy to use, can track multiple personnel in real-time, and can make use of flexible communicaitons options. In the case of training, however, is possible to rely upon additional information as input navigation estimates. For example, it is possible to use knowledge of floor plans to enhance location estimates in most training environments. It is also possible to take advantage of global updates from not only GPS but in some cases also geolocated RF nodes. This all allows delivery of even higher accuracy in indoor environments, with the objective of consistently meeting "in-room" accuracy requirements and delivering solid personnel orientation information. However, it is essential that any information used for location calculations can be obtained without a requirement for pre-installed or networked infrastructure that is expensive to install and maintain.</p> <p>Historically, after action review of urban training has been implemented through use of video and, in some cases, through deployment of infrastruture-based location technologies that support personnel tracking (e.g., utra wideband). However, these traditional solutions drive a need for installed infrastructure that requires expensive networking & maintenance. By applying NEON for urban training, TRX delivers cost-effective and flexible training - any time and in any geographic location - without pre-installed infrastructure. The after action review capabilities allow for effective, real-time assessment of individual and team learning.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Year of Indoor Location?</h1> <p>Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:32:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>Infrastructure-intensive solutions for indoor location are already being broadly deployed in museums, airports, universities, retail stores and shopping malls. Applications supported include navigation as well as shopping analytics, local advertising, and social networking. <a href="http://telecomlead.com/mobile-vas/cisco-and-motorola-to-drive-growth-in-indoor-location-technology-installations/" title="More than 10,000 stores will have infrastructure-based location solutions installed by the end of 2012!" target="_blank">More than 10,000 stores will have infrastructure-based location solutions installed by the end of 2012!</a></p> <p>Within public safety, <a href="http://www.rrmediagroup.com/newsArticle.cfm?news_id=8749" title="the FCC is holding a workshop on October 24th" target="_blank">the FCC is holding a workshop on October 24<sup>th</sup></a> to discuss an upcoming test bed to improve indoor location accuracy for wireless E-911. This application presents a harder challenge – delivering E-911 location as accurately as possible when you do not control the buildings and can’t install precision Wi-Fi or Bluetooth infrastructure. <a href="http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-17/issue-4/features/glanser-system-locates-and-tracks-firefighters-in-buildings.html" title="DHS S&T is investing in and supporting development of indoor location for public safety for first responders" target="_blank">DHS S&T is investing in and supporting development of indoor location for public safety for first responders</a> – an even more difficult scenario where you need higher precision location for individuals operating in confined, hazardous spaces and lives are at risk.</p> <p>While it is relatively straightforward to “live beta” social and couponing applications, mission-critical life safety applications require extensive testing & application validation across all corner cases. However, "mission essential" markets are now beginning to test and deploy location technologies – to enhance situational awareness at events and within training environments where there is more environmental control. These deployments are important precursors to mission critical, life safety deployments. </p> <p>Years of development in technologies including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ranging, sensor fusion, and mapping collectively now allow us to locate with more precision than ever forecasted a decade ago. This year we will increasingly see this technology in use – first in less critical, and perhaps more social applications – but ultimately throughout a broad range of markets ensuring safe & efficient operations indoors and out.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Software Developer – Indoor Location Algorithms, Image Processing</h1> <p>Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:30:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX Systems is looking for a software developer that can <span>design, develop, test and deploy algorithms for </span><span>indoor location and image-based landmark and object </span><span>detection. The desired background for the job is:</span></p> <p>- Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/EE<br>- Fluent in at least 2 of these languages: C/C++/C#, MATLAB, Java/Android<br>- Experience with Software development in Visual Studio<br>- Experience with Databases (SQL)<br>- Experience with advanced image processing, computer vision and pattern recognition algorithms<br>- Strong code optimization and debugging skills<br>- Strong communications skills<br>- Enthusiastic and self-motivated<br>- Up to ~5 years experience<br>- Must meet eligibility requirements for working in US</p> <p>Also Beneficial:</p> <p>- Graduate degree (MS or PhD) in CS/CE/EE<br>- Experience with OpenGL<br>- Experience with network programming<br>- Experience with geospatial image data<br>- Experience with openCV</p> <p>Please submit resumes to info@trxsystems.com.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Market for Indoor Mapping Expected to be over $2.5B by 2017</h1> <p>Fri, 07 Sep 2012 19:10:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p><a href="http://www.abiresearch.com/press/indoor-maps-and-services-to-reach-over-25-billion-" title="ABI Research" target="_blank">ABI Research</a> recently studied the indoor maps and services market, and predicted that it would reach 2.5B by 2017. That's 500,000 maps across consumer and enterprise markets.</p> <p>While TRX Systems focus includes complelely infrastructure-free indoor location - even assuming no knowledge of building floor plans - our algorithms also create maps and make use of known mapping data where it can be relied upon. Inputs to the TRX Systems' NEON indoor location algorithms include dynamically discovered or pre-stored building feature data, and more complete and reliable data sets naturally enable higher precision location.</p> <p>Indoor maps or floor plans simply can't be counted on for some mission critical applications such as incident management of fire or SWAT operations. However, DOD and SWAT training, enterprise, and consumer location applications will be able to access increasingly complete mapping data as a key component of location analytics.</p> </article> <article> <h1>WPI Precision Personnel Locator – Successful Test of Indoor Location</h1> <p>Thu, 09 Aug 2012 04:43:00 GMT</p> <p><span>by Carol Politi</span></p> <p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) held its annual Precision Personnel Locator Conference this week (sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, S&T Organization). The conference had a different feel than previous years – reflecting the fact that great leaps in technological progress have been made in the past year. TRX participated in several presentations and demonstrations, as did a host of researchers and companies focused on solving the problem of delivering safety for firefighters as they operate inside buildings.<span></span></p> <p>First, in the <a href="http://www.firehouse.com/news/10757117/firefighter-locator-test-a-success-at-wpi-workshop" title="test by Worcester Fire Department" target="_blank">test by Worcester Fire Department</a>, the DHS S&T GLANSER team (Honeywell, Argon ST, and TRX) demonstrated the GLANSER system. Two tests were performed in a three story building with entries on multiple levels as well as split foyers. In the first scenario, a firefighter became trapped in the building and a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) had to be deployed. The RIT team successfully found the downed firefighter. In the second, firefighters became separated and were able to be re-connected through instructions made possible by looking at the 2D and 3D views of firefighter location. The GLANSER program is managed by Jalal Mapar of the DHS S&T. Thanks to <span>Deputy Chief of Operations Sullivan and the entire <span>Worcester </span>team for their support with the testing!</span></p> <p>TRX also presented and demonstrated its <a href="http://www.trxsystems.com/GPS-Denied-Navigation-Products/" title="NEON Indoor Location System" target="_blank">NEON Indoor Location System</a>, including discussing a new program for the US Army that supports urban training operations. This program is intended to enhance live training effectiveness through implementation of the TRX system by warfighters engaged in urban training operations, and includes development of new features as well as integration into existing training architectures. Globe discussed its <a href="http://www.globeturnoutgear.com/news/2/27/Globe-WASP-Project-Wearable-Advanced-Sensor-Platform" title="WASP (Wearable Advanced Sensor Platform)" target="_blank">WASP (Wearable Advanced Sensor Platform)</a> which includes an integration of the TRX NEON Indoor Location System and the <a href="http://www.zephyr-technology.com/bioharness-bt" title="Zephyr BioHarnessTM" target="_blank">Zephyr BioHarness</a>. Globe also showcased that system - including integration into the firefighter turnout gear - and discussed test results from recent trials in Atlanta, GA and Annapolis, MD.</p> <p>Thanks to all the firefighters that attend the WPI workshop. Your investment in providing time and feedback – including the all day usability workshops at last year’s WPI conference – drove significant enhancements into TRX products over the past year. This input certainly helped support a successful set of demonstrations at this year's Workshop.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Carol Politi, CEO, Receives 2012 Brava! Award From SmartCEO Magazine</h1> <p>Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:22:00 GMT</p> <p>by Ann Rote</p> <p>Congratulations to our own Carol Politi, CEO for receiving the 2012 Brava! Award from Washington's SmartCEO Magazine. This award recognizes Carol's exceptional entrepreneurial leadership and passion for community service.</p> <p>Carol was recognized at last night's award dinner and is currently being featured in the July issue of <a href="http://www.smartceo.com/issues/Washington%20DC" title="SmartCEO Magazine" target="_self">SmartCEO Magazine</a>.</p> <p>Way to go Carol! We are all very proud of you!</p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Systems Demonstrates NEON Indoor Location and Tracking System</h1> <p>Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:04:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX demonstrated the new NEON Indoor Location system during the recent Joint Navigation Conference. The figure below shows the system in operation at the conference venue - with two individuals intialized outdoors using GPS and then entering the building through two different paths. </p> <p></p> <p><span>NEON sensor fusion and mapping algorithms are using to deliver location indoors. The individuals being tracked begin to walk together in the middle of this path, demonstrating the ability of person to person ranging to further correct the location calculations. Floor plans are used for visualization, but are not used in this demonstration as an input to the navigation algorithms.</span></p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX GPS-denied Location at 2012 Joint Navigation Conference</h1> <p>Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:55:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX Systems is presenting and demonstrating at the <a href="http://www.jointnavigation.org/" title="Joint Navigation Conference" target="_blank">Joint Navigation Conference</a> in Colorado Springs next week. Carole Teolis, CTO of TRX is presenting "Navigation and Mapping in Natural Structures" in the session titled "Navigating in Challenged Environments (Urban, Indoor & Sub-Surface Navigation)". TRX is demonstrating the TRX indoor location and tracking system in the exhibit hall and in Operational Demonstration V, and TRX technology will also be demonstrated as part of the demonstration of the GLANSER system (development of which is supported by DHS Science and Technology) hosted by Honeywell. <b></b></p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Systems Indoor Location Named Finalist in TEDCO ICE Awards</h1> <p>Mon, 21 May 2012 18:35:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX Systems was selected as one of 15 finalists for the <a href="http://www.marylandtedco.org/_media/pdf/ICEAwardsFinalists.pdf" title="Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) ICE Awards" target="_blank">Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) ICE Awards</a>. TRX was selected as a finalist in the category of "Corporate Excellence". The criteria for this category was growth based on number of employees, revenue and investments, community involvement and company recognition. TRX will be demonstrating its technology at the <a href="http://www.marylandtedco.org/calendarofevents/detail.cfm?eventid=406" title="annual ICE Awards ceremony on May 31st" target="_blank">annual ICE Awards ceremony on May 31st</a>. </p> </article> <article> <h1>Globe Profiles WASP 3D Indoor Location & Physiological Monitoring</h1> <p>Sat, 12 May 2012 14:45:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi </p> <p>TRX Systems is working on a program with <a href="http://www.globeturnoutgear.com/news/2/27/Globe-WASP-Project-Wearable-Advanced-Sensor-Platform" title="Globe Manufacturing called WASP" target="_blank">Globe Manufacturing called WASP</a> that combines physiological monitoring of personnel (from Zephyr Technologies) with TRX 3D location. The objective is to operationally integrate these technologies in a way that will simplify deployment. The program is funded and managed by the US Army NSRDEC/National Protection Center. The video below shows testing performed in Atlanta as part of integration and validation of the systems.<span></span></p> <p></p> <p>A blog post from FireEMSblogs.com (<a href="http://backstepfirefighter.com/2012/04/25/globes-waspphysiological-and-location-monitoring-on-the-fireground/" title="Globe's WASP Physiological and Location Monitoring" target="_blank">Globe's WASP Physiological and Location Monitoring</a>) provides more detail on the program. "The tracking and location data is amazing. Instead of having to rely on a repeater system as with other tacking technology firefighters using WASP can have their movements tracked in real time and recorded. Obviously the benefit to this is exponential. Not only can we use this with the LUNAR report, but we can possibly reduce the time it may take to find the downed firefighter and remove him or her to the outside. It is all speculative of course but I believe that you cannot honestly deny the possibilities that the technology presents." (Bill Carey, daily news and blog manager for Elsevier Public Safety - <a href="http://www.firefighternation.com/" title="FireRescue Magazine/Firefighter Nation" target="_blank">FireRescue Magazine/Firefighter Nation</a>, <a href="http://www.jems.com/" title="JEMS" target="_blank">JEMS</a> and <a href="http://www.lawofficer.com/" title="LawOfficer" target="_blank">LawOfficer</a> sites.) </p> <p>The partnership with and strong support from the user community in deploying these technologies is supporting great progress in further development and realistic integration of location and tracking technology. Thanks to <a href="http://www.mfri.org/" title="MFRI" target="_blank">MFRI</a>, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Fairfax and all the other departments that have provided assistance and support, and to DHS and the US Army for the funding required to push forward critical developments in these areas.<span></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Closes New Investment to Scale Indoor Location Business</h1> <p>Wed, 09 May 2012 19:39:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9491661.htm" title="announced" target="_blank">announced</a> today that we have closed investment from <a href="http://www.newdominionangels.com/" title="New Dominion Angels" target="_blank">New Dominion Angels</a>, the <a href="http://www.choosemaryland.org/Pages/default.aspx" title="Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED)" target="_blank">Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED)</a> and several inside investors. <span>More than $650K was raised to support application-specific development for the TRX indoor location system along with sales and marketing investments.</span><span> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Welcome Barry Sandler, VP Sales</h1> <p>Mon, 07 May 2012 21:14:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX Systems is pleased to announce that Barry Sandler has joined TRX as Vice President of Sales. With over 25 years experience, Barry is a proven technology sales veteran with a track record of consistently delivering value for customers in mission critical industries spanning web, IT services, and navigation technologies. Most recently, Barry was VP Sales for TrafficLand, the largest authorized aggregator and distributor of live traffic video supporting web, mobile, broadcast, navigation and emergency response. Prior to that, Barry was VP Sales, Mid-Atlantic for SunGard Availability Services, a $3 billion company providing disaster recovery and information technology services. Barry began his career at McDonnell Douglas Automation Company as a Senior Account Executive. Barry has a MBA degree from Penn State University and a BS degree from the University of Maryland. Welcome aboard Barry!</p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Receives Tibbetts Award for Indoor Location Developments</h1> <p>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:27:00 GMT</p> <p>by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX was selected as one of 18 companies to receive the <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/24/4438772/innovative-small-businesses-receive.html" title="Tibbetts Award" target="_blank">Tibbetts Award</a>! This award is given by the US Small Business Association who selects award winners based on "the economic impact of their technological innovation, and on whether they have met federal research and development needs, encouraged diverse participation in technological innovation, and increased the commercialization of federal research".</p> <p><a href="http://primordial.com/index.php/products/ground-guidance" title="Primordial" target="_blank">Primordial</a> also recieved a Tibbetts Award for their innovative Ground Guidance work. Genzyme Corporation and Sensors Unlimited Goodrich Corp., now both large companies, were both named "hall of fame" winners for their early Small Business Innovation Research Program work. Past award winners include Qualcomm, Via Sat, and iROBOT. It is great to be included with such great companies!</p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://archive.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbir/tibbetts/index.html" title="Roland Tibbetts" target="_blank">Roland Tibbetts</a>, <a href="http://www.sba.gov/administrator/7585/3215" title="Karen Mills" target="_blank">Karen Mills</a> (<span>Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration</span>), Carole Teolis (TRX CTO and co-founder), and <a href="http://www.sba.gov/about-offices-content/1/2890/leadership/6300" title="Sean Greene" target="_blank">Sean Greene</a> (Associate Administrator for Investment and Special Advisor for Innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration)</p> </article> <article> <h1>Indoor Location Demonstrations at FDIC</h1> <p>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:11:00 GMT</p> <p>by William English</p> <p>The 84th Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Indianapolis, IN included over thirty-thousand fire-fighting professionals. The exhibition spaces of the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium were filled with a wide assortment of the latest in fire-fighting equipment ranging from apparatus, tools, and protective clothing to thermal imagers, CBRN sensors, biometric monitoring, and incident management systems. Personnel location systems including TRX technology were demonstrated by both Globe and Honeywell (DHS GLANSER).</p> <p>Globe Manufacturing exhibited the latest in protective clothing featuring racks of equipment where attendees could find and try-on their size and fit of G-XTREME turnout gear and comfortable protective boots. In the front of the Globe exhibition space, the <a href="http://www.globeturnoutgear.com/news/2/27/Globe-WASP-Project-Wearable-Advanced-Sensor-Platform" title="Wearable Advance Sensor Platform" target="_blank">Wearable Advance Sensor Platform</a> (WASP) was demonstrated and presented. There was an ongoing, live demonstration of the Zephyr Bioharness integrated into a specially designed undershirt produced by GLOBE. TRX Systems location was presented showing the results of a recent field trial with the Atlanta Fire Department. The WASP program is a collaborative effort between Globe Manufacturing, TRX Systems, and Zephyr Technology in conjunction with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center.</p> <p>TRX Systems technology was also found in the Honeywell exhibition space. Three live demonstrations of the <a href="http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-17/issue-4/features/glanser-system-locates-and-tracks-firefighters-in-buildings.html" title="DHS GLANSER location system" target="_blank">DHS GLANSER location system</a> were shown. <span>The GLANSER program is a collaborative effort of Honeywell, Boeing – Argon ST, and TRX Systems in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Division (DHS S&T). </span>Attendees received an early look at new features within the TRX Systems User Interface presenting tracking results from latest version of the GLANSER Locater Unit (GLU). The screenshot, below, shows the indoor tracking demonstrated at FDIC.</p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>TRX Wins Innovator Award for Indoor Location Technology</h1> <p>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:32:00 GMT</p> <p> by Carol Politi</p> <p>TRX Systems was presented with the Innovator Award at the recent TechAwards 2012 hosted by the <a href="http://www.chesapeaketech.org/" title="Chesapeake Regional Tech Council " target="_blank">Chesapeake Regional Tech Council </a>(CRTC). The Innovator Award is given to a company, located in the Washington/Baltimore/Annapolis region that best exemplifies the entrepreneurship and innovative style it takes to keep the technology industry cutting-edge and forward moving. TRX Systems was recognized for development of the <a href="http://www.trxsystems.com/GPS-Denied-Navigation-Products/" title="TRX indoor location system " target="_self">TRX indoor location system </a>which uses sensor fusion and map building technology to deliver location in areas where GPS is unreliable or not available. </p> <p>Thanks CRTC for this great honor and for recognizing TRX as a regional, technology leader! Our team is proud to be recognized among such a great set of companies.</p> </article> </main></body></html>