Santa Clara, Calif. (August 10, 2004) Thales today introduced MobileMapper™ Beacon, a fully integrated wearable beacon module. MobileMapper Beacon delivers reliable real-time DGPS corrections for Thales’ MobileMapper line of handheld GPS receivers for GIS data collection.

MobileMapper Beacon provides access to standard RTCM SC-104 beacon corrections and delivers them to the Thales MobileMapper CE data collector via a BluetoothŇ wireless connection. The result is significantly improved positioning accuracy, less than one meter, without the need for post processing. Advanced digital signal processing techniques provide reliable demodulation of DGPS data from beacon broadcasts, even in challenging environments. MobileMapper Beacon can also provide RTCM messages to the standard MobileMapper receiver through a serial cable.

MobileMapper CE

MobileMapper Beacon is compact and fits conveniently onto a user-worn belt. Powered by 4 AA batteries, it’s lightweight—just 1.27 lbs. including batteries—and extremely rugged for effortless and secure portability.

MobileMapper Beacon is simple to configure using an uncomplicated menu interface on MobileMapper CE, which enables automatic or manual tuning of the receiver and monitoring of operational and performance tests.

For more information about MobileMapper Beacon, visit http://www.thalesnavigation.com.

About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group serving the defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of €10.6 billion in 2003.

Thales’ navigation business is one of the world's leaders in positioning, navigation and guidance equipment with global operations. Thales markets its Magellan® brand GPS solutions in the consumer electronics, recreation, and automotive markets, and its GPS and GNSS professional products in the survey, GIS/Mapping, and OEM markets. Through its joint venture with Hertz, Thales has developed the Hertz NeverLost® vehicle navigation system. Thales key innovations include the first U.S. commercial hand-held GPS receiver for positioning and navigation, and the first handheld GPS with industry standard Secure Digital Memory Card capabilities.

Thales’ navigation business is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. with European headquarters in Carquefou, France. For more information, visit http://www.thalesnavigation.com.