Man overboard rescue system wins international navigation prizes   Christine Edwards and Peter Hall of the British company, Sci-Tech, were awarded the Galileo Master prize in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008. Their winning idea is a novel tracking system for seamen falling overboard. It is made up of a navigation device installed onboard the ship and mobile modules that are worn by all crew members. The system constantly sends the position of the man overboard to the ship, which is thus shown relative to the ship. The ship can then be navigated to this position. The position of ‘man overboard’ is updated constantly by receiving real-time data from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in the first instance by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). In the future it can work with the European satellite navigation system Galileo which will provide greater accuracy. Edwards and Hall were also awarded the special prize for the best application of EGNOS by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority GSA. Here is seen at the award ceremony (from left) Emilia Müller (Bavarian Minister for Economics), Christine Edwards (Sci-Tech), Peter Hall (Sci-Tech), and Ann Sta (Head of Galileo Programmes at UK Department for Transport).   Thiercelin crossing the stormy Atlantic in the 2004 Transat race European Satellite Navigation Competition     Winners, special prize sponsors, regional organisers and participants are here seen at the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008 award ceremony 21 October 2008 in Munich, Germany.   The winner of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme’s special topic prize in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008 is Pierre Salmona from the French start-up company, Locus, for a mobile phone-based museum guide which by combining WiFi and stationary pseudo-satellites, so-called pseudolites, allows indoor navigation. Here he is seen with Frank M. Salzgeber, Head of the ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office (left) and Thorsten Rudolph, Director of Anwendungszentrum GmbH in Oberpfaffenhofen and the instigator of ESNC.   Bavarian Minister for Economics, Mrs Emilia Müller at the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008 award ceremony Tuesday 21 October 2008 in the Court Church of All Saints of the Munich Residence, in Germany.   The Swedish-Israeli start-up company, Road-Guard, impressed the Bavarian jury in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008 with their ‘GreenDrive’, a mobile phone-based ’guide’ about ecological driving and obtained second place overall. The ‘Horizon Prediction’ technology patented by Road-Guard founders Alex Ackerman, here seen left in photo, and Yossef Shiri, right, predicts the routes ahead and recommends to the driver the most economical speed in each case within the given speed limit. The objective of this mobile driver assistant system is to minimise the influence of the driving style on fuel consumption and thus to reduce consumption by 15-25 percent.   The Italian regional winners in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008 are Ivan Allevi from the Italian company Allix. They were awarded the prize for a tracking platform that facilitates the very precise surveillance of fleets by combining low-cost standard GPS receivers with EGNOS and has already been used in the transport of toxic waste.   Dr Charles Worringham, seen here, from Queensland University of Technology and Bruce Satchwell from Alive Technologies developed together a remote monitoring system for the rehabilitation of patients with heart disease, who would hardly have any opportunities, due to time reasons or extreme distances as for example is the case for many patients living in Australia, to participate in a cardiac rehabilitation programme. Release date: 19 January 2009