Historic quadruple ‘first’ scored by new product
Livermore, CA – Aimed at the surveying and GIS professional market, Topcon’s new GMS-2 GIS hand-held mobile GPS receiver scores an historic quadruple “first.” The rugged, compact unit is the industry’s first GIS-GPS product with:
• Dual-constellation tracking;
• An integrated digital camera linking photos to feature locations;
• An electronic compass for bearing and direction information; and
• The functionality to be used as a GIS mapping system, an L1 static survey grade receiver or a field controller.
With all these features—and options to suit every job site situation and budget—in one small, durable unit. Topcon’s GMS-2 provides an unparalleled solution for multi-function GIS-GPS tasks in the field.
Using a Windows CE operating system, the GMS-2 is equipped with vivid, color touch-screen, a powerful Intel processor, internal wireless Bluetooth™ connectivity, accuracy levels from sub-meter to centimeter range, removable, rechargeable lithium ion battery, SD memory slot and USB port.
Also available are numerous options including a beacon receiver, Topcon Tools GIS post-processing office software, and various TopSURV field software programs.
Topcon’s field technologies simplify and expedite GIS mapping tasks. Digital images, GPS coordinates, compass bearings, and attribute information can all be obtained with integrated imaging technology in a single trip to the field.
Mike Weir, Topcon GIS sales manager, said, “This unit opens up diverse opportunities for surveyors and GIS professionals. The capability of having dual-constellation access guarantees increased productivity on the job site. Using the unit’s integrated digital imaging technology eliminates the need for external devices in the field.”
Weir said, “The digital camera feature eliminates the headache of configuring devices to work together and/or linking photos to GPS locations manually back at the office. It’s all boils down to saving time, and increasing productivity.”
GMS-2 provides two choices of field management and mapping software “to fit specific GIS requirements. For standard GIS location and navigation functions in addition to survey tasks,” he said, Topcon’s “field controller software, TopSURV-GIS, adds GIS mapping capabilities to survey functionality like stakeout, topographic and basic coordinate geometry (COGO) tasks.” Combining GIS field operations with total stations and RTK GPS is “a complete solution,” Weir said.
The unit is also “ideal for the advanced GIS professional who demands the functionality of ESRI software in the field,” Barbara McInerney, GIS product marketing manager, said. “TopPAD is a new field mapping and management software from Topcon. It combines the power of ESRI ArcPad field software with a special user interface designed specifically to take advantage of all GPS functionality available in a Topcon GIS mapping system.”
Arne Hultgren, planning manager, Roseburg Forest Products, California Division, said, “With the GMS-2, I’m able to get a fix in some of the worst conditions easily, in many cases, to within a foot due to the use of additional satellites.”
Hultgren said, “The GMS-2 allows us to accurately get positions, not only out in the open, but also under heavy tree canopy. In addition to that it allows us to code those points with actual text or numeric attributes. And we can record images to those points and record not only the position, but also the visual features of the job site.
“The camera feature,” Hultgren said, “is indispensable because what we are able to do is to record not only the location of that property line but also to get a photograph of the actual monumentation. And that way someone going back in 10-15 years is going to have a much better likelihood of being able to find that.”
Hultgren said, “It’s just not a GPS data collector, it’s so much more. Quite frankly, I keep thinking of new ways to use it every day; it’s been something that we needed for a long time.”
McInerney said, “For high accuracy GIS projects, the GMS-2 is a great fit as a field controller running TopSURV-GIS for an RTK GPS system.”
“The revolutionary GMS-2 offers professionals a flexible, multi-function device with superior performance in both GIS and land surveying applications,” she said.
For more information, visit Topcon’s website: www.topconpositioning.com.
About Topcon
Topcon Positioning Systems, a developer and manufacturer of positioning equipment, offers the world’s leading selection of innovating precision GPS, GIS, laser, optical surveying, and machine control, products, software, and applications.