Word: gps
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...search-engine war is heating up. Amazon's A9.COM SEARCH ENGINE, a challenger to Google, began letting users take a virtual walk down the block last week. A9 has gathered and organized 20 million photos of 10 U.S. cities, using digital cameras, GPS receivers and special software. Plug an address into A9's Yellow Pages, and you can see your neighborhood. Ask for the nearest drugstore, church or just about anything else you want, and A9 will take you on a digitized stroll there...
...With GPS guidance, Mitchell can dig a small furrow in the land and then pinpoint to within an inch where each seed is placed. With such precision farming, he injects fertilizer right on top of the seeds without ever touching the wheel. The heavy machinery takes the exact path every time it passes through the rows, also allowing him to minimize the amount of land that is compacted--a serious cropping problem. Since installing a GPS three years ago, the Mitchell Farm has seen a 30% to 40% drop in fertilizer costs and an 8% annual increase in yield over...
...wireless network also provides GPS correction signals for what Mitchell calls his "most innovative work": real-time kinematics (RTK) nozzle control, which he helped develop for pesticides. Normally, when farmers spray their fields, they have to make several passes over the land to ensure every odd angle has been soaked. When they cross a waterway, they have to manually turn the sprayer off and on. "This is expensive and takes time," Mitchell says. With the RTK nozzle, the controller knows where the land has already been sprayed and turns the valves off automatically. Mitchell estimates this cuts...
...will not sign a contract or do testimonials for any company. "If something that starts in my head is used, that is absolute gratification--it's better than money." In the past few years, Mitchell has traveled the globe, from France to Japan, giving presentations on how wireless and GPS technologies can help farms. He has also been host to a steady stream of international visitors, researchers, farmers and manufacturers. "Mitchell's farm is like the house of the future," Grift says. "People can actually look at it and make the distinction between a wild idea and a possibility...
Unfortunately, for many farmers, such technologies are still out of reach financially. Typical costs for GPS and wireless network systems can run into the tens of thousands. As the seasons pass, however, the results may more than make up for the initial costs. "When Clay first started with the autopilot, the economics didn't seem feasible," says Doug Hefty, a farmer neighbor of the Mitchells'. "But as time went on, I had the opportunity to see what the yield did on his corn hybrids. He surpassed me by leaps and bounds--it's embarrassing. He's using less fertilizer...