GPSS History & Business Strategy

Hi ! This page was originally set up in 1997, but it sometimes needs an update. You will see I've not changed much below for years. It provides you with the broad history of the GPSS product, launched in 1995, and some "Ancient History" - mostly relating to myself, dating from the 1960s. Some of the "ancient" software, designed or written by me in the past, pioneered some of the concepts - and in some cases the algorthims - used within GPSS. Note that the last time I was employed as a programmer/analyst was 1971 :-) After that my "day jobs" were ten years as a NATO scientist, followed by 14 years of management within UK Defence Industry. This page concludes with our Sunninghill business strategy, that has not changed significantly since the business started in 1994. This page should be of some value to those opening a business discussion with me, since it explains "where I'm coming from" :-)

Robin Lovelock, Sunninghill, UK. July 2010.

Summary

Here are a few milestones in the career of Robin and the evolution of GPSS:

• 1965 on - Robin starts to learn about computers and software.
  Joins Ferranti, the UK defence contractor, who sends him to University.
• 1969 Robin graduates with B.Sc., works as Programmer/Analyst on CAAIS.
• 1971 Robin marries June and works as senior scientist for NATO, 10 years.
• 1981 they return to UK. Robin works 14 years as a senior manager with EASAMS in defence.
• 1991 Robin gets into PCs, GPS software, etc. Starts business in spare time.
• 1994 Robin leaves EASAMS to start "Sunninghill Systems" (GPSS) full time.
• 1995 GPSS v1 launched in UK (August '95) on millions of PC Magazine CDs. First TV publicity .
• 1996 First military and police contacts funding updates to GPSS
  GPSS v2 (Feb 96) - supports multiple vehicle tracking.
  GPSS v3 (May 96) - support for use in the air and covert tracking
  GPSS v4 (Sep 96) - support for use anywhere in the World
• 1997 GPSS launched free, Worldwide on the Internet. Spreads rapidly.
• 2000 GPSS (business) Partnership Network established. GPS S.A. removed :-)
• 2001 GPSS v5 with free USA street mapping. GPSS now used in 143 countries.
• 2005 GPSS now used in 155 countries. Superkeys and PAYPAL introduced.
• 2006 GPSS used in 157 countries. GPSSppc for Pocket PC and Smartphone launched.
• 2007 GPSS used in 161 countries. GPSS Baseline includes GPSSppc.
• 2010 GPSS/GPSSppc used in 164 countries.

information below has not changed since 2001 ...

Ancient History

Robin graduated in 1969 with a B.Sc in Electronics Engineering, sponsored by Ferranti the Defence Contractor. He had already specialised in real time computer systems, and as a student had been particularly interested in artificial intelligence and pattern recognition. The biggest influence at that time was HAL, the gently speaking computer, in Kubrick's film, '2001 a Space Oddesy', and the original book by Arthur C Clark.

At Ferranti he worked on communications and radar tracking software which saw action over ten years later in the Falkland's War between the UK and Argentina. He then spent ten years working as a scientist (although he still regarded himself as an engineer) at an overseas NATO research establishment. A significant proportion of time was spent in the Laboratory on software which demonstrated concepts to the military, including the use of mapping on colour raster displays - which were new at that time. Robin had the priveledge of managing the design and implementation of a PDP11 based system used by SACEUR in the SHAPE bunker. (the existance of this system is not classified and was presented at a conference several years later in 1980). Many of the basic map display facilities in GPSS could be seen in this system. SHEWS, the SHAPE Early Warning System, took real time information from the chain of Air Defence radars sites strung from Northern Norway to Easter Turkey, and presented this information on touch-interactive colour raster displays. The system went operational in 1976, and it may still be working now.

Robin returned to the UK and was recruited by the Directors of EASAMS, the Systems House of GEC-Marconi, to assist them move into the Command and Control business. At that time they were a studies and avionics systems house, having done all the design and software for the Tornado fighter aircraft. In 1981 Robin began demonstrations of EAMACS, a software based mapping system which included use of terrain elevation data to solve military problems like where to deploy forces. Within ten years EASAMS had won two 100 million pound C3 contracts, which Robin contributed to winning and implementing. One included similar map facilities on UNIX platforms, for a country in the far east - against stiff American competition. The other was the ADCIS system for the British Army - a mobile network of some 1000 rugged VAX and PC computers mounted in vehicles and networked by radio.

During the last five years of the 13 years within GEC-Marconi, Robin became particularly interested in GPS, PC Computers, and Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products such as Microsoft software, speech recognition and synthesis. The Lovelock household got its first 386 PC in January 92, and early that year Robin was demonstating a DOS based application which included GPS, mapping, speech output, and use of terrain models.

Robin liked the odd bit of programming to get his hands dirty, even when his job back in the office involved management or business development. Some of his software was used to support exhibitions and promotional videos such as " The Barosa Operation". This video, released in late 1992, shows the technology being used in an Army context - GPS/PC/Radio equipment was mounted in three vehicles and on the backs of two infantry soldiers. All five systems communicated by radio and demonstrated how GPS, communications, map display and text-to-speech software could be exploited. This DOS software evolved into the SSDEMO product which was used as a demonstrator by Sunninghill Systems.

SSDEMO was a DOS application which received GPS data in standard NMEA or proprietory Trimble TCIP format on a coms port. It displayed the information on maps, of typically 1:50,000 scale detail, and spoke using the Soundblaster text-to-speech software distributed with their sound cards. It included vehicle navigation facilities capable of being used 'on the ground' or 'near the ground' in an attack helicopter. It supported radio communications via a second COM port on the PC which would be connected to a radio modem. Position, bearing and free text messages could be exchanged over the radio, using a time-slot protocol whose timing was synchronised from the GPS data. The units were tracked on the map, and received free text messages were automatically spoken. Terrain models, holding height and type of vegatation every 10 metres, could be used to demonstrate terrain screening and/or route planning across ground. i.e. a similar calculation to that done in the Microsoft Autoroute Express, but without the luxury of someone having provided a road network. i.e. the vehicles (or men) might follow roads, paths, or simply cut through the undergrowth. The criterea for the route might also be based on not being seen from somewhere - not just minimum time.

SSDEMO was supplied in its basic form, with 1:50,000 scale mapping and text-to-speech, to BT Laboratories for their mobile system demonstrator. At their request, it was upgraded by Sunninghill Systems to use recorded speech - since the BT Chairman (and most other audiences) did not like the voice produced by the FirstByte text-to-speech (TTS) software (which was ahead of its time). June Lovelock's voice was used to replace the TTS.

SSDEMO appeared in many forms until its first appearance on UK Television running in a Lexus Soarer on 5th May 1995. It was only delivered to EASAMS and BT, although it was used at military exhibitions by RACAL. By May 1995 the new, Windows based GPSS product was in development and appeared briefly on the 5th May TV programme with recorded speech, speaking English and French.

The reason for GPSS being a Windows application was primarily to enable COTS voice recognition products to be exploited. By early 1995, Robin had decided what his business strategy and software product should be. The strategy was to issue a basic, free version of the software direct to the public, and collaborate even-handedly with any business opening up the market for GPS-based car navigation. He would stick to only software - so that he did not pose any threat to any business making use of the software. e.g. he would not offer the public GPS receivers with his software bundled in - it was up to other businesses to do that if they wished. In the same way, GPSS does not include a route planning capability - but it does offer the means of importing route guidance information from other software.

The main features of the first version of GPSS released in the summer of 1995 were : speech output in English and Japanese to describe where you were, and provide guidance to places. Ability to work with any scale of mapping, chosen according to what was available and what was good value for money.

Modern History

Here is a simple summary of the main up-issues of GPSS.

• GPSS Version 1 (August 95) - basic in-car product. Able to work with voice recognition and speak English and Japanese. Only for UK.
• GPSS Version 2 (February 96) - able to support multiple vehicle tracking and two way exchange over Inmarsat-C satellite communications.
• GPSS Version 3 (May 96) - support for use in the air and covert tracking. Ability for you to add your own maps.
• GPSS Version 4 (September 96) - support for use anywhere in the World, and the optional 'Instrument Panel' of dials.
• GPSS Version 4.1 (December 96) - more and better UK maps, plus additional specialist features such as chase facility, DGPS support, etc.
• GPSS Version 4.x (February 97 and later) - regular improvements made available to everyone via this web site.
• GPSS Version 5. (January 2001 and later) - with free street mapping over all USA.

The first (floppy disk) 'country disks' of maps and sounds for places outside the UK were released in October '96. GPSS was supplied and used used in several places around the World including the USA, Japan, Korea, Australia, Africa and parts of Europe. But things 'really started to happen' when the software itself was put onto this Internet web site.

In February '97, the first copies of GPSS were released from this Web Site onto the Internet, followed rapidly with maps and sounds for many countries in response to e-mailed requests. The maps were mostly samples from the 'country' disks already delivered (Sunninghill Systems only prepared new country disks in response to the first request or order received from that country. This process normally took no more than 24 hours).

In September 1997 GPSS was up and running 'on the road' connected to GPS in over 54 countries. By the end of 2000 this had reached a total of 138 countries., all of which were supported by free mapping which could be downloaded from the web site. "GPS Enthusiast" and "business" contacts in many of these countries had helped Robin with data, also available free on the web site, to make GPSS speak many other languages, including Russian and Dutch. In many countries the mapping would go down to street level, with permission from the holder of the copyright, and help in GPS calibration from local contacts.

In early 2001, GPSS version 5 was made available free on the web site, together with street level mapping for the whole of the USA. All of the web site, including GPS Software, speech and mapping, is available on the "free" GPSS CDs pressed for duplication by business partners.

Business Strategy

Sunninghill Systems intend GPSS to become the de-facto standard for the software used within future car-computer systems. Robin and June will then be happy to take a small licence fee from the many millions of car-computers running some future version of GPSS.

The philosophy is to continue offering the latest basic UK package at a low price of typically 20 pounds Sterling, plus additional countries at 30 pounds per country - with permission to distribute identical copies. Major up-issues of GPSS will be accompanied by release of the old issue to PC Magazines to distribute on their CD-ROMs, and onto the Net from this Web Site.

This is an effective way of making contacts with other businesses who can exploit GPSS to sell their hardware solutions (e.g. car-computers, Notebook PC, GPS receivers) or compatible software (e.g. voice recognition, route planning, or more detailed maps).

Sunninghill Systems will continue to form non-excusive arrangements with other companies such as GPS, PC Computer, Software or Car Navigation System suppliers to help them sell their products and promote the wider circulation of the GPSS software.

The main source of income for Sunninghill Systems has been provision of high-value configurations of GPSS to those that need and can afford them. One example is use for Inmarsat-C communications, where the licence per computer was 10,000 pounds - since the alternative would have been much more expensive. Sunninghill Systems are often funded to upgrade the GPSS product by someone who needs it to do something extra to meet their requirement. e.g. process messages received in a different format. These improvements to the product may remain 'hidden' (as for the Inmarsat-C logic), or become available to all. The cost of these early upgrades are all negotiable, depending upon the effort required to implement the change, and the likely increased value of the upgraded GPSS product.

In the Summer of '97 Sunninghill Systems signed a contract with GPS Technologies, based in Singapore and Malaysia, for use of GPSS within a new low cost car-computer product aimed at the mass consumer market. More detail of this deal is on the news pages of this site. This type of agreement can be repeated many times over, for different parts of the world, and for different market sectors. The nature of these contracts is permission to use the software in exchange for an annual licence fee plus 1% of the total sales revenue.

I've not changed any of the words above, since most remain as true today as when they were written. Unfortunately the business in Singapore was killed at birth by the Asian Recession, but it was always our strategy to "back many horses" and try to conduct business so that these horses (our business partners) do not "trip each other" :-) A quick browse through our business and partners pages will show that we have good reason to be "quietly confident" that we are slowly reaching our goal. These things take time :-)

Robin Lovelock, Sunninghill, UK. August 2001.