iPad Investigation - Field Mapping on an iPad 2 - Geospatial Technolog...

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Geospatial Technologies in Education This blog is maintained by Meg Stewart and Alex Chaucer. Meg is currently at latitude: 4141'40.38"N; longitude: 7355'1.16"W (Poughkeepsie, NY, U.S.A.) and Alex is at latitude: 43 5'48.76"N; longitude: 7347'7.06"W (Saratoga Springs, NY, U.S.A.) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. TwitterFlickrYoutube Subscribe via RSS

iPad Investigation - Field Mapping on an iPad 2

In June 2011 I had access to an iPad 2 with 3G connectivity. I used it on a summer project with a

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iPad Investigation - Field Mapping on an iPad 2 - Geospatial Technolog...

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student to investigate whether the iPad 2 could be used to collect geographic and geologic field data. The student was making a geologic map of a summer camp and the idea was to do a head-to-head test using the new iPad 2 and a tablet PC while he mapped. Prior to the project, in January 2011, I put out a call on a GIS list and on Twitter to see what was being done with iPads and mapping. Not all that much. But keep us posted. Long overdue, here is some of what I found out. To make a long story short, the student and I decided to forgo the match-up investigation and just map using the tried-and-true tablet PC. It just works and there was limited time to do the mapping. First, let me state that the goal of using an iPad 2 for field mapping is to 1) create new data on the device, those data can be points, lines or polygons; 2) locate ourselves fairly accurately from within the app (using the 3G); 3) load maps (shapefiles, KML/KMZ and/or raster maps) that we want to use as a basemap; 4) export our points, lines or polygons as shapefiles or KML/KMZ; and 5) use a pen (aftermarket purchase) to tap and draw points, line and polygons. Now, for what we did find out about using an iPad for field mapping. The work is on-going, by the way. But we are giving a poster at the northeast GSA on what we did find out, geologically if not technologically.

Purchased (or free) apps that have GIS/geospatial capabilities or potentially so: ArcGIS - A visual aid, nothing more. This make no sense to me. I cannot make or create any new data on this app. Why, ESRI? Or is that Esri? If Im wrond, please let me know. (free) Avenza PDF Map - Has potential to allow for data creation. Dropbox integration. Easily export and import maps and waypoints to and from Dropbox. I would like this to work. (free) EarthObserver - Good for educational purposes. ($0.99) Google Earth - A visual aid, nothing more. Can there be a Google Earth Pro app some day? Please? (free) GISRoam - A GIS that I couldnt get to work. This app is free, but to make your GIS data available you need to purchase a subscription on their server (free app - subscription is about $20, I think) GPSNote - Add a note in geospace. Not all that useful. (free) KMZ Loader - Loads Google Earth KMZ files for use in other apps. Couldnt figure out the usefulness of this one. (free) QuakeWatch - Good for educational purposes. Real-time EQ information. ($0.99) Terrapad Lite - Free, but has ads. Terrapad gives you the flexibility to enter, query, modify and export your geographic data This app has potential but kept crashing. (free) Terrapad Pro - The pro version is also more feature-packed allowing Shapefile import and export, GPS tracking, raster map imagery, spatial queries, detailed information about geometries and a host of

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other features. All extensions are free in Terrapad Pro. Sounds good, right? This was very crashy. Please send information on how to use it! ($49.99)

Geology NY - It was recommended that I get this one because I live in New York and the mapping was to be done in NY. It was not all that informative but might be useful for educational purposes. (iPhone app only $9.99) Star walk - Love this! But its not a mapping app. Never mind that, if youve got 3G on your iPad, take it out in the evening and look to the sky! Very fun and certainly educational. ($4.99) Strike and Dip - Works great. Forget your Brunton Compass and take your iPad (or iPhone (this is an iPhone app) Save outcrop fieldnotes to the app and send them to yourself or to someone else on the mapping team. ($4.99) Strike Line - Also works great for getting a strike and dip, or trend and plunge, minus the note-taking feature. (free)

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Compass HD - This is a compass. (free) Emerald Observer - Im not recalling why I bought this app. I dont see it listed on the iTunes store anymore but I paid $0.99. It may have been replaced by the Emerald Chronometer HD. A watch on your iPad. ($4.99) Coordinates - Coordinates makes it a snap to convert between the three formats for latitude and longitude: decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, and degrees-minutes-seconds. So useful! ($0.99) iCMTGIS - This is a real GIS. And it really worked. It was not elegant to use but it did do mapping. And the cost cannot be beat. Here was a nice tutorial showing how to iCMTGIS provided by John Van Hoesen, a professor at Green Mtn College. (free) iGIS for iPad - iGIS represents a new era in mobile GIS solutions by enabling users to load, view, investigate, create and export their own data over a background of Google maps satellite imagery. I couldnt get this to work. Would love to have some help on this. (free for a limited time(?)) MotionX GPS Drive - Useful for replacing your in-car navigation system. ($2.99) MotionX GPS HD - Same as above? Not sure the difference. Sorry about that. ($1.99) MapBox - This is a GIS. MapBox has a suite of open source map-making tools. Use this app to take your maps offline and on the go. I want this to work. Cant figure out how to do that. (free) iSeismograph - An educational tool for showing students how earthquakes are measured using the internal G-Force Sensor. ($0.99) Theodolite HD - This app allows you to take photos that encode the direction that you are viewing, levels out the shot, which is really useful for field work. Theodolite is a multi-function augmented reality app that serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer. Their words, not mine. I like using this app. Example below. ($3.99)

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Keep in mind that, if youre using an iPad for field work, you should buy a case, ideally a rugged one. Check out this one. I saw these for sale at Best Buy. Also, you need a 3G data plan and the minimum cost per month for that is $20. One very unfortunate aspect of using an iPad for field mapping is the tie you must have to a desktop (or laptop) machine. The apps are housed on your office Mac or Windows PC and so are your data. If you want to upload more data (or download them) you have to go back to that computer. If Im wrong about that, please let me know because I found that to be a total hassle. I did not have my home computer (where I downloaded the apps to) out in the field with me. I will continue to hone in on how to use the iPad for mapping, but for now, this is the update.

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