By Mike Klonsinski, President, Berntsen International, Inc.

Accelerating trend in 2024: Connected Asset Management

Mike Klonsinski

The promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) centers on the premise that every object’s data – location, origin, status, interactions – will be part of an interconnected digital world. While industries like manufacturing and healthcare have made significant strides in realizing this promise, the infrastructure sector has faced delays. However, a shift is anticipated in 2024 with the deployment of products and solutions that connect infrastructure assets in the field with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Asset Management Systems (AMS).

This evolution is made possible by a few key technological advancements:

1. Development and production of lower cost, reliable sensors to collect and communicate data from ‘things’.
2. Growth in bandwidth and storage that enables even simple products to communicate large amounts of data and be part of the connected world; and
3. Increases in the capabilities of GIS and Asset Management systems to integrate and make sense of large inputs of external data.

By Mary-Lou Smulders, Chief Marketing Officer, Dedrone

Mary-Lou Smulders

Four Drone Industry Trends for 2024

How much did the drone industry bring in in 2023? By Statista’s estimate, it was $1.32 billion … in the consumer electronics sector alone. To say that drones remain on a growth trajectory is an early candidate for the understatement of the year. Whether it is for hobbyist use as Statista tracked, for military usage in combat zones like Ukraine, or for commercial usage, the trajectory is clear: as the FAA becomes more comfortable with the idea of drones flying beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), drones are poised to continue reshaping our world in 2024 – for both good and bad.

In this new year, we see four major trends emerging based on this drone usage explosion.

Ukraine and Middle East Conflicts Push Global Drone and Counterdrone Investment
 
There’s a new drone news story coming out of the Russo-Ukrainian War almost every day, from Ukraine’s use of naval drones to its repurposing of fertilizer-spraying drones as bombers and more. Meanwhile, drones have quickly emerged as a major component of the conflict in Gaza. Hamas used commercially-available drones to carry artillery – a technique that Ukraine has used so much, that video of it is publicly available on YouTube courtesy of the BBC. Furthermore, Houthis in Y! emen are even using drones to shut down the Suez Canal and target ships heading to and from Israel in the process.

In short, countries around the world are seeing that while they may have thought they were prepared for the next phase of drone warfare, they probably aren’t as secure as they would like. Bloomberg, in its report, said as much.

By Jean-Yves Lauture, CTO, Eos Positioning Systems

Jean-Yves Lauture

The upcoming year holds great promise for GIS users who leverage global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) technology. In 2023, many of us closely followed the announcement by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) that their brand-new Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) had entered its first testing phase. This development made 10-20 centimeter-level positioning accuracy available worldwide — as a completely free service. Eos Positioning Systems’s latest GNSS receiver, the Arrow Gold+™, immediately capitalized on this new corrections source, which is broadcast directly from the Galileo constellation GNSS satellites. Now, in 2024, we predict that Galileo HAS will be the most significant game-changer for mobile GIS users globally. This is attributed to two key factors: Firstly, EUSPA has planned operational improvements and enhancements that will dr! astically boost the performance of Galileo HAS. Secondly, increased availability of Galileo HAS will allow various industries to explore even more use cases that Galileo HAS can uniquely address, surpassing our previous expectations.

Let’s explore the improvements EUSPA plans in the next phase of Galileo HAS. Currently, Galileo HAS is in Phase 1, termed “Initial Service.” With a lot of deployment work happening in 2024 towards Phase 2, we can anticipate a range of performance improvements in preparation for the “Full Service” (date unknown). One of the most exciting enhancements will undoubtedly be the improved convergence time. In the current initial service phase, convergence outside of Europe takes about 30 minutes to achieve approximately 20-centimeter accuracy globally, based on our initial tests. Within the European Union, convergence time is already much shorter than this, down to about 5 minutes. In Phase 2 of Galileo HAS, EUSPA has stated that convergence time will drop to an impressive 5 minutes worldwide, and under 2 minutes within the European Union! This improvement could come relatively soon, and we eagerly await to see if it will happen (or part of it) during 2! 024. For more details on what to expect in Phase 2, refer to the EUSPA website for Galileo HAS here: https://www.euspa.europa.eu/european-space/galileo/services/galileo-high-accuracy-service-has.

By Patrick Cunningham, CEO, Blue Marble Geographics

Patrick Cunningham

Where is Geospatial Technology Headed in 2024

2023 was clearly the year of ChapGPT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) offerings.  The technology has taken the Internet and media by storm with the advent of some actually useful applications amidst a host of seemingly useless applications.  Granted, it’s still early on this front, so I reserve the right to update that take.  Perhaps the most prevalent use is the effect on search and automated support desk assistance, which is already widely rolled out and in use as of early 2024.  Try calling your credit card company or broadband provider, and you are most likely confronted with an AI-assisted automated helpline. If you visit their websites or use their consumer apps, you are definitely going to be confronted with the tech.  As a consumer, I have found some of these tools to be a bit more useful than in the past, but in general, my experience has been that I personally still prefer to talk with a person when I am in need of assistance. The nature of the assistance! I seek when reaching out to support is usually not already available in help documentation or other searchable support tools. And though the promise of AI is that it can take that documentation library and infer the logic for the next step in support, I personally have not seen it. So the application of AI is really just another delay to what I want as a consumer. What the data will tell these companies as far as customer satisfaction with these types of tools remains to be seen.

The other big application of AI is that of writing. Ironically, as I sat down to write this article this year, the thought did cross my mind of asking ChatGPT to write up my takes on some of these topics, so in the end all I had to do was a little bit of editing. You’ll have to believe me when I say that I resisted that temptation. That said, it is becoming more and more common for professionals and non-professionals (think students) to take advantage of the speed and relatively decent accuracy of AI robots for writing. In my business, for the first time this past year, we have seen submissions for presentations and scholarship applications that were obviously written by an AI robot. This is a bit disturbing, but really no skin off our backs per se as there are still many high-quality, well-written, and human-driven submissions. However, this is a much bigger problem in academia.  But I digress.

Ajay K. Gupta

By Ajay K. Gupta, Founder & CEO, HSR.health

There are three broad movements HSR.health predicts will come to the forefront of healthcare in 2024: the spread of generative AI, AI-based research and data analyses, and the increased use of GeoHealth for health equity.

1. The Continued Adoption of Generative AI in Healthcare 

Generative AI solutions, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, will continue to grow in popularity and penetrate every section of healthcare. We foresee adoption and use in:

a. Telehealth and physician-patient interface

— As the remote work revolution continues in our country, so will healthcare also adopt many of its dictums with telehealth options becoming more and more popular with patients with limited mobility and/or living in healthcare deserts.

— Generative AI with its conversational interface will increasingly be used for patient education, walking patients through chat-like interactions on how to take their drugs, how to manage their illnesses, and even acting as triage to guide them on next steps of care.

b. Health education for the general public 

— Generative AI will also be used broadly for the general public seeking information on health issues. Instead of lengthy and often confusing written guides to things like vaccination and lead-proof homes, health departments will deploy LLM-powered generative AI solutions to “speak” to patients about their particular risk, through online, mobile, kiosks, or other channels

By Tony Agresta, Executive VP, General Manager, North America at NearMap

Tony Agresta

1. 1. Embedding location intelligence inside of systems for greater integration and solutions

Many different industries are leveraging location intelligence and embedding those solutions within systems to allow for deeper insights and learnings, empowering these industries to respond to their surroundings in a more meaningful way. Everyone wants to build a solution—companies want imagery and AI inside their workflow, however, it must be embedded for greater integration to not disrupt the infrastructure of a company. When an organization embeds this imagery and AI into its workflow through location intelligence, the companies’ workflows become more efficient and streamlined. With this integration, companies that utilize GIS data can better prepare and predict for what challenges may be ahead.

2. 2. The emergence of scalable 3D insights for greater data visualization

3D imagery is an area for growth and deeper analysis. The ability to navigate around an area and visualize proximity to neighboring properties see how things have changed over time is becoming more valuable. In 2024, the use of advanced 3D data sets such as Digital Surface Models will become more widely used to visualize and inspect properties and their surroundings. These insights will drive greater accuracy for a number of industries, like insurance, construction, engineering, roofing and more.

3. Organizations broadly will realize the value of GIS data and technologies

Geographic information systems (GIS) and the data they generate will be vital for companies to address challenges, like those that come with construction, underwriting, property assessment, reinsurance, corporate governance, sales and marketing, claims handling, customer service and more. Mapping and aerial companies will focus on making data layers easier to visualize inside of GIS tools. By creating, managing, analyzing, and mapping huge datasets and then relating them to the world around us, companies will glean valuable insights about spatial patterns and relationships. These companies will continue to realize the value of visualizing data and projections in a real-world context and will look to hire and retain people with a background in GIS, people who can import and analyze layers of data to support decisions.

About Author:

Mr. Agresta has worked in technology for more than 35 years and has extensive experience in sales, marketing, product management, and operations for technology companies focused on analytics, marketing automation, and mapping. His core strengths and expertise are in sales, marketing, product management, product marketing, SaaS, sales engineering, sales enablement and technology marketing.

By Francois Martin,  Vice GM, International Division at CHC Navigation

GIS Trends to Watch in 2024: Perspectives from CHC Navigation

Francois M! artin

As we enter 2024, the GIS industry is poised for exciting innovations that will shape the future of mapping and surveying. Whether it’s new GNSS receiver solutions with augmented reality, workflows transformed by AI, or increased use of airborne and handheld LiDAR, the coming years promise to bring advances that will make geospatial data collection faster, more accurate, and more automated. In this article, we explore some of the key trends and technologies that we believe will transform the industry landscape in 2024.

Solar Activity Peak: Challenge for GNSS Solution

The Sun is currently in its 25th active cycle, which is expected to peak in 2024, when geomagnetic storms triggered by plasma explosions known as coronal mass ejections can cause significant disruptions to GNSS. Compared to the last active cycle, high-precision GNSS positioning has become more common in various industries that rely on accurate positioning information to ensure normal operations. To minimize the negative impact of solar activity on GNSS positioning, the industry will need better GNSS positioning solutions in 2024. First, by further improving the design robustness of receivers to cope with complex space environments. Second, by more tightly integrating augmentation services with positioning chips to improve the usability of high-precision positioning results. Third, by applying machine learning technology to calculate the ionospheric model more accurately to minimize interference.

By Clément Galic, CEO, Unseenlabs

Clément Galic

2024 Market Trend: Enhanced Security as Radio Frequency Signal Detection from Space Transforms Maritime Security
As the CEO of a company specializing in space-based maritime surveillance, I foresee 2024 as a pivotal year for Earth Observation. We’re entering an era where the integration of radio frequency signal detection from space will transform maritime monitoring. This technology not only enhances maritime security but also plays a crucial role in environmental protection by tracking illicit activities at sea. The trend is clear: advanced EO technologies, particularly in maritime domains, are not just about data collection anymore; they’re about delivering precise, actionable intelligence to safeguard our oceans and global maritime interests.

Exhaustive maritime situation awareness is a critical global 2024 initiative. Unseenlabs is the world leader in radio frequency (RF) data and solutions for maritime domain awareness. Unseenlabs processes and analyzes this RF data, and provides unique knowledge for national security operations, for environmental protection, and for an increasing number of applications in the commercial sector.