This week kicks off field season for the students and researchers in one my research unit's major initiatives, the Western Tethyan Metallogeny program. This involves a bunch of individuals in various countries with various levels of GIS experience collecting data in a variety of means, from the traditional Brunton-notebook-sharpie group, to the industry-sponsored Trimble-wielding group who already have an on-site setup. I'd like to tell you they glide off like a bouquet of pheasants, but in my mind, keeping track of this many people and the field data is more akin to tracking a crash of rhinos (... a bloat of hippopotamuses? If this makes you giggle, click HERE for more animal grouping terms).
Back to our dilemma: how do we outfit a bunch of people with a multitasking, GIS-capable field tool that might stand up against traditional data collection techniques in the digital age? Well... I have no idea. Our first experiment is with the ipad mini. Eek! Sure, there are loads of apps with functions that run the gamut from aligning horizons and reading angles of features (not meant for strike and dip, but well-suited to it), to annotating geotagged photographs, and even to estimating the local magnetic field strength... but the real question for any kind of spatial data collection is this: Can you trust the GPS coordinates??
Apple's website is characteristically vague ("look into my ipad... you will love it... don't ask questions), and I found only a few blog entries for field tests on ipads (see list below for review of mapping on ipads and other mobile computing devices). No, I don't expect sub-meter accuracy with our ipad, but I'd like to at least be within 20 ft of the outcrop in case we need to find it again... Let's be frank, if I wanted to use a Trimble for sub-meter accuracy, I would. What I want is a lean, mean, field-crushing machine.
Here's the field test: ipad in rural Oregon, up in the coastal hills, without a SIM card (and therefore no cell-tower assisted GPS). Drum roll please.....: Success! First highly un-scientific test conducted at a remote cabin with a cup of house-roasted coffee in hand, gives us an error range of 0-10 m.
Next up: filtering out the pandemonium of the app store to find some really useful tools.
Reviews of the Ipad/mobile computing for geologic fieldwork:
- A thorough review of mobile computing for geologic fieldwork: http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/content/6/3/275.full
- https://ipad.redlands.qld.edu.au/blog/2012/06/23/using-ipads-scientific-fieldwork
- http://gmcgeology.blogspot.ca/2011/06/geologic-mapping-on-ipad-for-real.html
- http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2011/07/02/using-the-ipad-in-geological-fieldwork/
- http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2011/07/02/using-the-ipad-in-geologic-field-work-part-2/
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