LEEVENSPARK

GPS Guide to Aerial Surveillance With an ever-increasing appetite to know about people's on-the-ground activities, both foreign and domestic, the U.S. government proves an apt customer for companies developing innovative aerial surveillance platforms. Recent demonstrations launched an aerosphere resembling a gargantuan ping pong ball and ducted fan vehicles that can hover, zoom, or perch on a building ledge. These unmanned vehicles require autonomous navigation, and GPS quite naturally fills the bill. The SA-60 aerosphere can hover at 16,000 feet, observing 154 square miles beneath it. AerospheresThe U.S. Navy contracted for tests and evaluation of the SA-60 spherical airship produced by Techsphere Systems International of Atlanta, Georgia, with New Orleans, Louisiana-based Proxity Digital Networks and its subsidiary Cyber Aerospace. The SA-60 low-altitude airship can carry a customer-specified sensor suite for battlefield or homeland surveillance, monitoring warzones or other ar