[GRASS-dev] check out GIS on iOS

[Michael Barton]

A bit over a year ago, if anyone remembers, I was inspired by a symposium that Helena and I attended at the AAG meetings to offer some thoughts on the future of GIS interfaces. One of the things I mentioned is that the iOS interface (iPad and iPhone) was especially conducive to tactile manipulation of geospatial data. 

Recently, a group has produced a new GIS app that runs in this environment. The app is called iGIS, and is produced by <http://www.geometryit.com/igis/>in Australia. It is still a bit buggy but already allows for the import of vector (as shapefile) and raster (produced by MapTiler) data via USB or wifi connections, overlay of vectors and a raster basemap (when online, you also have access to Google basemaps), the ability to change vector appearances, basic querying and thematic mapping, editing of vector data tables, and rudimentary digitizing. Map layers can be rearranged and turned on/off. It also can access and use the GPS functions built into iOS devices. It uses the full range of EPSG projections and seems to do reprojection on the fly. That's actually a pretty good start. Currently, it is free of charge. I don't think it is open source, although it seems to use some open source tools.

ESRI also has some iOS GIS apps out, also free. But these seem closely tied to ESRI geodatabases and ESRI server online data. 

This is potentially exciting environment for geospatial tools, combining GPS, portability, and much more functionality than older hand-held units. I don't know what it would take to make GRASS data and raster tools available this way, but someone from the GRASS or QGIS communities might be interested in looking into it.

You can see a screen shot at <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7437464/iGIS_example.PNG>. This shows archaeological sites as vector points and a vector streams layer over a Google satellite base map of central Arizona.

Michael
______________________________
C. Michael Barton 
Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

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		http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

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