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All,<br>
<br>
I've been following this Thread with interest. I did some work on a
SVG application a few years back dealing with AVL, that tracked
Snowplows and did some simple monitoring. We may have pushed the
envelope at the time though, since getting things adopted by the fleet
managers was an uphill struggle most of the time. We had some pretty
slick solutions to things technically, but the thing to worry about is
ease of use.<br>
<br>
You need to make these types of collections systems easy (preferably
easier) to use than whatever system is being currently used by the
customer. I've been pondering building a collection system having to
due with automatically geo-referencing photographs with direction and
bearing all being captured. Any device listed here that also has a
camera would be a candidate for such a setup. The biggest obstacle to
implementation is something that is deemed to be too much work to use
won't get very much play by the field workers. I would like to build
something that is push-button simple. Always on device, continuous
tracking, with compass heading of device, all being captured when the
shutter is clicked. Combining this with a method to apply the meta
data of the user (device login) and time index in an automated
fashion. Point and click, and the data is ready for re-distribution
after storage, via a map based lookup.<br>
<br>
The more automation put into them, the more likely they will be used in
the field. They need to be very simple to use, I would venture to say,
so simple that it's almost an after thought by the users that they are
using them. I have a Treo 650 and a EMTAC (before they were EMTAC)
GPS bluetooth reciever for example that I've been thinking about using
in such a manner. <br>
<br>
I believe that if the software and hardware systems are applied
correctly, and if the collection process can be automated to a
significant
degree, the need to manually enter things via a keyboard is reduced and
can even be eliminated in some cases. combining the capture process
with a multiple choice CGI form would suffice for most data capture I
think.<br>
<br>
bobb<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Mateusz Loskot wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid44CA2EC9.4060508@loskot.net" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Jason Birch wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Mateusz wrote:
---------------------------
I can't imagine surveying in forest with laptop, but I can with Tablet
PC.
There were many attempts and devices tests taken by polish forestry
officers and laptop was found as unusable in field (works 2-3 hours,
heavy, damage prone with water and sand, difficult to hold it and work
on it together). The only option with bigger screen I see is rugged
Tablet PC.
---------------------------
I've been a bit disappointed in the form factors that have been
available recently. We've had good success with a bunch of old rugged
Itronix FEX21 (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.itronix.com/products/hpcs/fex21.asp">http://www.itronix.com/products/hpcs/fex21.asp</a>) units
that were half-VGA with an integrated keyboard, but I haven't seen
anything on a more modern OS that comes close other than the OQO
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/">http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/</a>) product. I have some hopes for
UMPC, but the battery life is still way too short for useful field
application.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Jason,
I agree.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">In a lot of cases, PDAs are too small, and tablets are either too large
or don't have a keyboard. Trying to force-deploy devices that have
difficult data entry mechanisms or are too bulky for the field often
leads to severe resistance to adoption, especially when dealing with
work forces that are already having difficulty with the paradigm-shift
caused by digital data entry.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Unfortunately, I don't see any better solution than using what's
available on the market + working out some best practice
well-defined and simple for common user, but that can be a challenge.
Best regards
</pre>
</blockquote>
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