Balboa Geolocation Expands its Voice of the Customer Advisory Board for Public Safety and First Responder Markets to Drive Awareness and Adoption of its POINTER Geolocation Technology. POINTER is a Novel, Patented, Highly Accurate, Real-Time, 3-D Geolocation Technology for GPS-Denied and Degraded Environments - Indoor, Underground, Underwater, and Metallic Structures Developed by Caltech NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Exclusively Licensed by Balboa Geolocation for All Fields of Use Globally.
November 1, 2022
Balboa Geolocation (“Balboa Geo”) is pleased to announce it has significantly expanded its Voice of the Customer Advisory Board ("VCAB") to include highly experienced first responders including fire, rescue, and law enforcement professionals for Public Safety markets.
The VCAB is Chaired by Greg Price, former head of Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, First Responder Group.
New VCAB members include:
- Battalion Chief Andy Wordin, Los Angeles Fire Department;
- Steve Vandewalle, San Diego Fire and Rescue;
- Deputy Chief Rodney Reed, Harris County (Houston) Fire Department;
- Kelly Oliver, CEO, The Oliver Group LLC and former Section Chief-Supervisory Technical Enforcement Officer, US Department of Homeland Security; and
- Chief Leeanna Mims (Ret), Seminole County Fire Department, Fla.
“We are honored to have a such a distinguished and experienced group of first responder professionals from across the country join Balboa Geo’s VCAB, stated Joseph A. Boystak, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Balboa Geolocation. The VCAB will provide extraordinary insights and guidance for the design, testing, concept of operations, and deployment of the POINTER system”, Boystak further noted.
We believe POINTER will provide incident command with an effective onsite technology to help save lives and protect high value assets on the fire ground or tactical edge, serve as an excellent tool for training and education post event, help improve workflows and processes and assist with forensic analysis or litigation support, stated Greg Price, Chair, VCAB. We will be working closely with VCAB members as we prepare to launch POINTER in the market.
POINTER is a first-in-class geolocation technology consisting of easily deployed transmitters and receivers along with 3-D (“xyz” axis) visualization software-as-a-service (SaaS) designed to track and locate, in real time, individuals and high value assets in GPS-denied or degraded environments including indoors, underground and underwater. It is not dependent on other fixed infrastructure such as satellites, cellular towers, etc. to generate position, navigation, and orientation data. POINTER was developed at Caltech/NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with significant research grant funding support from US Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, Department of Defense, among others and equity funding by Balboa Geo.
POINTER is slated to be commercially available in 2023 for first responders, military, and other large addressable commercial and industrial markets.
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March 17, 2022
The STAB is intended to provide scientific and technical advice to Balboa Geo in connection with the development of its hardware, software, and data analytics platform associated with the POINTER system. The STAB will be comprised of leading experts representing a variety of technical and scientific disciplines all of which will drive and enhance the design, development, and performance of POINTER. These disciplines will include applied physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, systems design, software and advanced algorithm development. A key function of the STAB will be to help optimize the performance of NASA's JPL prototype POINTER system. The STAB will also serve as a resource to Balboa's management and coordinate with external engineering, design, and contract manufacturing resources. The STAB will also provide insights and guidance for additional applications of POINTER and subsequent generations of the POINTER technology. This may include integration with other geospatial technologies, communication platforms, vision and acoustic systems, sensor fusion, and sophisticated data analytics. The STAB will advise on intellectual property and patenting opportunities. The initial members of the STAB include; Kirill Shcheglov, MS, PhD; Greg Price, BS; Chris Peay, MSECE; and Evan Jones MS, PhD (candidate). Please refer to the Team section on the Balboa Geo website for detailed bios. STAB members bring to Balboa Geo deep expertise, complimentary skills all of which are relevant to the POINTER technology. Also notable, several of the STAB members previously worked together at NASA's JPL. We will continue to selectively add scientific and technical expertise to the STAB to drive additional innovation, superior product performance, and differentiation in the marketplace, stated Joseph A. Boystak Founder and Chairman of Balboa Geo.
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March 15, 2022
The VCAB is intended to provide critically important and timely input to Balboa Geo in connection with design, development, and use cases associated with the POINTER technology. “We are honored to have Greg Price serving as the Chairman of the VCAB”, Boystak further noted. Greg brings a deep understanding of the POINTER technology and substantial market connectivity to the VCAB. Greg served as the immediate past Division Director for the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) First Responder Group. During his 15-year career at DHS S&T, Greg partnered with industry, academia and federal/state government to develop technologies that improve first responder safety and productivity. Greg’s areas of expertise include requirements gathering, program and project management, technology development and technology transition. Under Greg’s leadership at DHS S&T, the First Responder Group successfully developed and transitioned 22 technologies to the commercial market including POINTER. Under Greg's leadership of the VCAB, Balboa Geo intends to recruit additional experts and end users of the POINTER technology from public safety, defense, industrial, and commercial sectors. This collective input from the VCAB will provide Balboa Geo with continuous and unique insights, and desired product features that will enhance the performance and usability of the POINTER system in the field, as well as drive adoption. As Chairman of the VCAB, Greg will have a direct reporting relationship with Balboa Geo's executive management and board of directors.
Please refer to the Team section on the Balboa Geo website for a detailed bio on Greg Price.
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January 6, 2022
"POINTER, A Beacon in the Dark" New technology being developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate for use by firefighters and paramedics will help track first responders inside hazardous environments that may be obscured by smoke and flames. On October 27, 2021, members of the POINTER project from NASA-JPL teamed up with first responders to test the tracking technology under simulated house fire conditions. The demonstration was carried out inside a residential structure on the Caltech campus in Southern California, the same structure that was used in the April 30, 2021, demonstration. Short for Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders, POINTER began taking shape in 2014, and now the technology is being matured for use by fire departments nationwide. During this demo, firefighters with the Pasadena Fire Department and paramedics put the technology through its paces under realistic search-and-rescue conditions. While rescues were simulated inside the structure, teammates located outside were able to track the location of their colleagues in 3D, seeing through walls and floors. Unlike positioning technologies such as GPS or radio-frequency identification, POINTER doesn’t use radio waves. Though radio waves offer a reliable means to determine your location in a relatively open space, they can become unpredictable indoors. The system utilizes magnetoquasistatic fields that can pass through walls and other construction materials, a technique developed by JPL researchers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trM7Jue6T70
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December 10, 2021
The Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate ("DHS S&T") has launched a new communications campaign. "POINTER In Their Own Words" to highlight the importance and unmet need for highly accurate, lifesaving geo-tracking capabilities in GPS-Denied/Degraded environments. This first series will be a part of the larger campaign interviewing Fire Service professionals across the country to highlight the critical need for POINTER.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPaVPPbYHq_gaETQd2iawllVZDQCQuOsV
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April 26 - May 7, 2021
Balboa Geolocation’s POINTER technology (developed at Caltech / Jet Propulsion Lab) for GPS-denied environments was nominated and selected to participate in TRIDENT SPECTRE 2021. TS is the Naval Special Warfare Innovation Battle Lab. It’s an annual exercise focused on the integration of operations, intelligence, and technology, and comes together as a result of continuous planning and collaboration with joint interagency stakeholders. At the Core of all planning are USSOCOM operational capability shortfalls and needs from the intelligence community.
Balboa Geolocation, in conjunction with Caltech / Jet Propulsion Lab, will stream a live demonstration of POINTER from Pasadena, CA to Trident SPECTRE 2021 at Fort Story, VA. This demonstration will show real-time tracking and orientation of individuals inside a structure in a GPS-denied environment. It will also simulate a downed individual requiring rescue by a rapid intervention team. The real time data generated by POINTER will be run through BAE Systems, GXP visualization software and streamed live to monitors at Fort Story, VA.
https://www.cylitix.com/homepage/event-directory/ts21/
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Jet Propulsion Lab April 6, 2021
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pointer-seeing-through-walls-to-help-locate-firefighters
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Firehouse, April 6, 2021
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Government Technology: Emergency Management, January 28, 2021
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Department of Homeland Security, January 8, 2021
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Department of Homeland Security, January 7, 2021
Link to video:
https://www.dhs.gov/medialibrary/assets/videos/19049
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Balboa Geolocation to Commercialize Innovative Technology for First Responders and Military on Land and Underwater to Provide Highly Accurate, Real-Time Positioning Data:
Montauk Technologies Launches Balboa Geolocation, Inc - ‘Blue is the New Green’ - as Latest La Kretz Blue Economy Incubator Company at AltaSea with First-in-Class Geolocation Technology
Businesswire, May 12, 2020
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Los Angeles Business Journal, May 11, 2020
https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2020/may/11/montauk-buys-caltech-ip/
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Fire Engineering, April 20, 2020
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