Posted by
michael
on from the you'll-put-your-eye-out dept.
freitasm writes "Geekzone is reporting on Ike, made by Surveylab. Ike is a handheld data capture device that integrates GPS, an electronic compass, a laser distance meter, an inclinometer, a digital camera, and a Pocket PC 2003 handheld in a single unit, ideal for GIS and other surveys."
I'm in engineering physics (lasers and other stuff to those who don't know), and graduates always pull pranks on a certain day, very ceremonial blah blah blah. Anyway, I tried to convince them that we should get an aquarium of fish with lasers attached and put it in the office window or something. But would they go for it? No. Bastards and their "feasibility".
My sister's roomate did succeed in attaching a laser pointer to my sister's cat's head for a few minutes; apparently, it was quite a sight (cats love to chase laser pointers).
In 1957 Eisenhower created the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, a think tank charged with creating ideas to compete with the Soviet Union). To collaborate on these ideas, they created Internet?s predecessor Arpanet, first envisioned by the head of DARPA computer projects, J.C.R. Licklider of MIT.
Arpanet overcame this limitation with the development by Vint Cerf from Stanford University, of TCP/IP, or Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is based upon packet switching, developed by Leonard Kleinrock at MIT in 1961.
Story can be found here http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=200 2/9/25/100351
Is that a Pocket PC, GPS and Laser Range Finder...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 4, Funny
...in your pocket or are you just happy to see the hole you're burning into my retina.
I like it...
by
59Bassman
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm not sure what I'd do with it personally, but the concept is cool.
I can see this being used by lots of folks probably not in the original target market: professional hunting guides. All in one unit rangefinder/gps/camera? Make it durable and I bet the hunting crowd would be all over them.
When one reads the last few sentences, the magnitude of the chang ein what people can do strikes you. No longer is a $20M satellite needed to image the earth. Shoot, who'll be the first to set up an OS site to share pictures of GPS points? Then we truly can have one wicked awesome map program on our notebook that flashes up exactly what the turn looks like before we get there! Future is bright!
How long do you think it takes to report a traffic accident today? How long did it take 30 years ago?
Everybody will have all this neat stuff eventually and then life will be alot different.
What I am hinting at is much more "drunk" of an idea than you realize: large companies and governments were needed through the past centuries to co-ordinate. Someone had to rule and cause harmony. Distributed powerful tools and communications are starting to change this social paradigm. People and entities in general now openly migrate to goverenments offering the best tax/benefit tradeoffs (us jobs to india, china, mexico and US citizens migrate residence to TX, FL, etc.).
Put a powerful device in the hands of the masses and the uses and innovation are exponential. That is what is happening with the Internet and will happen with all human efforts over this century.
A more concrete example is a super-computer. In the past these were mega-millions of dollars but now people regularly tout distributed frameworks as having nearly equal power at thousandths of the cost (of course for some problems loose coupling is not a solution;-).
Oh, maybe you did not know I was referring to the referenced article. Anyways, Delorme Maps is a great, amazing program but has lots of wrong data (2003 version). I proposed to them to have a sort of beta program where the GPS allows them to learn their flaws as drivers take the more optimal paths. No response from them but surely this device is also knocking on the door of future features.
When you're new at a job and have to navigate through the Maze of Cubicles to find the Restaurant at the end of the Company Building before the end of Lunch-Break Time, I guess this is a killer gadget.
There _might_ be other possible uses too, but I guess this one will be the most prominent.
Re:I like it...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I was thinking about getting better aim on those geocache sites that are under heavy cover. Simply use the laser range finder from an open spot to see where you need to get to once you're under the brush.
My first thought was that you could make a pretty half-decent 3D imager out of it. The laser range finder and inclinometer alone would do the trick. The GPS adds an extra level of position measurement and the camera allows redundant range calculation via triangulation with the laser, making it even more accurate range measurement.
Of course, to image an object in 3D in any sort of reasonable time, your wrist will probably get a little sore.
Well, there already is a site which does just that. The spacing between point coordinates is currently one degree. which is still too coarse for a detailed map. Also, many points haven't been visited and documented yet. Volunteers are welcome!
-- The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
Re:i'm waiting...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
it can at 25 fps.
Been waiting my whole life!
by
smokin_juan
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· Score: 4, Interesting
... for something like this with a cell phone. this is close but the wait continues.
Re:Been waiting my whole life!
by
whizzard
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· Score: 1
for something like this with a cell phone. this is close but the wait continues.
Assuming you're serious, the specs say that this has bluetooth, so you would be able to use it with a cell phone.
Re:Been waiting my whole life!
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
What?!? No Ogg support! Forget it.
Re:Been waiting my whole life!
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smokin_juan
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· Score: 1
Not completely serious - "my whole life" is a bit of an overstatement, but serious none the less. You say that with bluetooth it could work with a cell phone, but I've had in mind an integrated device that is expandable to boot. A swiss army knife of gadgetry... Come to think of it a blade, pliers and toothpick probably could be squeezed in as well.
Re:Been waiting my whole life!
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Chrontius
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· Score: 1
I believe it was George Carlin who said that only in America could you stick any two things together and someone would buy it.
-- If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Re:George Carlin
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
he was referring to sex.
Re:George Carlin
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
> only in America could you stick any two things together and someone would buy it.
So you think New Zealand is America?;-)
Re:George Carlin
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Stick any two things together, huh? Good idea!
You've just given me the inspiration to invent: * the 2W laser ice cream scooper * tax form TP * floppy disks/magnets * the sword/toothpic combo * the TV phone * a shirt with belt loops * a shoe/frisbee
And last, but not least, 2-click shopping!
Yay! The tricorder is just around the corner
by
Uncle+Op
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· Score: 2, Funny
This is cool. A great toy that will let everyone put up 3D models of their houses so they can offer virtual tours on the web. Or put out for bids on landscaping or renovations.
I love toys...
Could be useful to golfers
by
The+I+Shing
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I've been asked by golfers if there's a device that will let them measure the exact distance to the pin (or at least the green).
I've always been at a loss to tell them what they could use, at least when it came to handheld optical devices.
-- You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Re:Could be useful to golfers
by
bugnuts
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· Score: 3, Interesting
There are several devices for this, from the $20 monocular to a $300 laser rangefinder.
The $20 version simply has markings, similar to a rifle scope, where the user simply matches the height of the pin to the markings and reads the result. The farther away, the smaller the pin.
A $20 version that uses no batteries is often far better suited for most golfers, imho. The only time it's not as useful is when the pin is missing or non-standard size.
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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CrankyFool
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· Score: 3, Informative
Hand-held optical devices that measure distance have been around for a while -- I have the Bushnell Yardage Pro 500 which lets me get a distance reading up to about 1000 yds. Hell, Bushnell makes range finders specifically for golfers.
The only problem with these that I've found is that you need some decent flat surface perpendicular to the laser to reflect it -- so trying to laze, say, a building works pretty well, but trying to laze the flag on the green would be problematic (and I've had issues trying to laze some mammals and such at longer distances when trying to set my sights).
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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Jaywalk
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· Score: 2, Informative
There are several devices for this, from the $20 monocular to a $300 laser rangefinder.
Yeah, but this thing checks the incline as well. It's a lot different hitting to a green that's a few feet above you to one that's a few feet below. On the down side, the site says the range of the laser is only 100 meters, so its current form would be pretty useless for golf.
-- ===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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TigerNut
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· Score: 1
So tape a golf pin to the moose, and then you can use your BYP500.
--
Less is more.
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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mr_lithic
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· Score: 2, Informative
Best thing for golfers these days is the incredibly expensive (but nice) Suunto G9. Roughly 800 bucks for a watch . . hem hem sorry - Wristop Computer.
Uses GPS to work out where you are and then calculates how far you are hitting the ball. Supposely there are a number of popular golf courses available for download so you can tell hole distance etc.
Must make sense for people who play this silly game. .
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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BigBadBri
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· Score: 1
Well don't recommend this, 'cause the rangefinder only goes up to 100m - no use unless they're on a pitch and putt course.
-- oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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lelitsch
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· Score: 1
Try a Leica Vector. Basically a binocular with a built in range finder. Used by a lot of military snipers.
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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bugnuts
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· Score: 1
Hmm.... that, with a.50BMG, would definitely make golfing more interesting.
Re:Could be useful to golfers
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I've been asked by golfers if there's a device that will let them measure the exact distance to the pin (or at least the green).
I've always been at a loss to tell them what they could use, at least when it came to handheld optical devices.
The main problem being that in a lot of serious competition, use of ranging aids is prohibited.
Detail level
by
savagedome
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· Score: 1, Informative
and the built-in digital camera captures images of up to 1280 x 1024 pixels
Thats only a little higher that 1MP. Don't the GIS surveys need more detail than that?
Our GIS dept just bought the latest Sony 5mp camera. They are replacing some 3mp's to get the higher detail.
Re:Detail level
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
No.
Re:Detail level
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theMerovingian
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· Score: 2, Informative
There are 2 kinds of GPS equipment - mapping grade and survey grade. Survey grade has accuracy down to about 1cm, and mapping grade is generally in the range of 1-10 meter accuracy.
This thing is mapping grade, but of dubious quality. The world leader (also in New Zealand), is Trimble. They will run you about 6k for a submeter accurate unit, that is rugged and comes with a good warranty.
-- "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough."
--Mario Andretti
Ike is a handheld data capture device that integrates GPS, an electronic compass, a laser distance meter, an inclinometer, a digital camera, and a Pocket PC 2003 handheld in a single unit, ideal for GIS and other surveys."
Still, it's missing a wasabi dispenser.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
GIS?
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Funny
How is this good for Google Image Search?;o
GPS not accurate enough
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plcurechax
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· Score: 5, Informative
GPS, Differential GPS, and WAAS isn't accurate enough for high quality survey work. All of these of limited accuracy of more 1 meter, whereas any decent survey should measure error hopefully less than 10 millimeters.
And what do you think that GIS specialists use? You think that they are using personal-use GPSs? Get real.
I was given a demonstration of what they had back in 1994 when I was a Scout. They were accurate to the size of a dime (and that long before SA was turned off and WAAS was available -- so they are obviously not hampered by the scrambled signals).
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
True, but for the average nerd just using the thing for geocaching, I dont forsee any problems... except maybe complaints of back and foot pain from that thing.. whats it called, uh... exer..cise?
What about when that more accurate Galileo GPS thing comes out?
Re:GPS not accurate enough
by
addie
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· Score: 4, Informative
Perhaps for engineering survey work, but for geological mapping, this tool would be a god-send. 1 meter accuracy is more than enough to get a general idea of the lay of a formation. A notebook would still be necessary to take down strike/dip measurements, but those could then be easily correlated to the GIS info back at the camp. The digital camera could also be useful for keeping track of variations in color, consolidation, weathering features, etc on samples in a formation.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
BS. I USED professional grade GPS in 1994 for GIS, and I can tell you that they were not accurate down to a dime at that time. Even with differential correction we were only able to get about +/- 1 meter, which is just fine for our purposes, but not for land surveying.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Informative
any decent survey should measure error hopefully less than 10 millimeters.
Wow, that's really an uninformed statement.
There are plenty of apps where low-res is appropriate.
In my line (wildlife biology/gis), it is rare to require anything higher than 1 m resolution. And really, the datasets we use most commonly are 28.5 m res.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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WhiteBandit
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· Score: 1
I agree for the most part. However, I don't know if I'd want to take something like this out in the field. Dust/Rain/Mud/Trees are no match for your Brunton, but I'd be hesitant to get down and dirty with this.
Another plus is that if my Brunton somehow goes tumbling down a cliff, it should still work. What will happen if I accidentially drop this All-In-One device when trying to get dip on an outcrop that is on a cliff?
Another plus is that if my Brunton somehow goes tumbling down a cliff, it should still work
I tested this theory, unintentionally. I'm happy to report that it still works as good as new. What a gorgeous piece of equipment.
As for your other points, you're absolutely right. I would only carry this tool if I still had my 2 compasses and maps in my pack along with me.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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TigerNut
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Carrier-phase differential GPS and a low-multipath environment will get you centimeter-level accuracy. WAAS and SA being turned off help speed up the acquisition process but that's about all; the fundamental resolution achievable by GPS receivers (when used to measure carrier phase) is limited by the clock accuracy (satellite and receiver) and close-in multipath. For more information on GPS technology check out
GPS equipment manufacturer FAQs
--
Less is more.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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MillerAH
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· Score: 2, Insightful
GPS, Differential GPS, and WAAS isn't accurate enough for high quality survey work. All of these of limited accuracy of more 1 meter, whereas any decent survey should measure error hopefully less than 10 millimeters.
Wrong, each of these technologies is sufficiently accurate for surveying. GPS alone has (can have) an error rate of less than 2cm over 50 miles. You just have to have a known point. Everything can be calculated in real time or post processed. Most systems like this (certified for surveying) are well into the $20ks, unfortunately.
Good Resouce: http://www.icivilengineer.com/Surveying/GPS/
P.S. It can take up to 5 minutes to get a single point, even in the clear. If your under even a moderate tree cover, you're screwed with GPS.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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plcurechax
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· Score: 1
Wow, that's really an uninformed statement.
There are plenty of apps where low-res is appropriate.
I did not mean to diss low-resolution usage - glad to hear such technology could be useful to you, but there was a naive subtext that traditional land/engineering surveying would be replaced with these high-tech gadgets without realising that they still operate on a very different scale of accuracy.
Yeah, but it's plenty for calling in airstrikes...
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I think the laser rangefinder is a little lacking for that purpose. I would prefer a couple hundred more meters between me and that daisy cutter raining down from above.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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plcurechax
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· Score: 1
Carrier-phase differential GPS and a low-multipath environment will get you centimeter-level accuracy.
Since the device as depicted and described in the article appears to be a single GPS receiver, Carrier-phase D-GPS is not applicable. And there is the gotcha of a known reference point requirement which you didn't mention.
Re:GPS not accurate enough
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TigerNut
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· Score: 1
My comment was on the previous poster's inference that the dime-level accuracy of his 1994 demonstration would probably have been improved by the availability of WAAS and/or the lack of SA, which is not the case since you can't get that level of accuracy using single point measurements to begin with, even with WAAS on and SA off.
--
Less is more.
I'll buy one myself
by
Jotaigna
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· Score: 2, Funny
when they manage to shrink them to the size of Derek Zoolander's Mobile Phone.
-- "The quality of life is inversely proportional to the number of keys on your keyring."
I hope Nokia didn't help them with the Bluetooth code.
Too much real-world value
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RobertB-DC
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I'm afraid this gadget has too much real-world application to be of interest to the geek crowd.
We just bought a few acres of land, and this device would have been the ideal tool for the surveyor. It's clear from the discrepancies between the survey drawing and the aerial views that the surveyor made his measurements, wrote them down, then made his drawing from his notes. The numbers are right, but the outlines of the buildings aren't quite where they should be.
This device, plus a windoze PC with appropriate software, will let the surveyor simply walk to the survey points, point & shoot, hotsync, and print. It's just what the surveyor needs to do his/her job.
So it's obviously too useful to be a geek toy.
-- Stressed? Me?
Of course not.
Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Re:Too much real-world value
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Don't know too much about distortion and aerial photography, (or surveying for that matter) do you?
Re:Too much real-world value
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RobertB-DC
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· Score: 1
Don't know too much about distortion and aerial photography, (or surveying for that matter) do you?
Duh. This is Slashdot. If I had a clue what I was talking about, I would have to recuse myself from the discussion.:)
-- Stressed? Me?
Of course not.
Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Re:Too much real-world value
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
too bad you had to use "windoze" in your post - otherwise I'd be inclined to take you seriously regardless of your apparent ignorance about the topic at hand.
... to play with this while driving down the highway.
-- --
Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Getting close, but not there yet
by
Animats
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· Score: 1
This is good enough for rough surveys, but not good enough to allow collecting random images, locating them in space, and building 3D models. Another generation or two, and the expensive tripod-mounted Reigl scanners used for model-building will be replaced by handheld devices.
So now I will be able to find exactly where I want to hike up the mountain, be able to know which way I am going, know exactly how far I am from the top, tell how close to verticle I am approaching, take photos as I approach the summit and then have company that will understand me when I trip and crash and go tumbling down said mountain.
-- Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
-Martin Luther
sounds like something made by swiss army. all it needs now is a magnifying glass and a toothpick. on a serious note, the perfect addition to the features on this would be cell phone. and wifi. i decided i'm going to wait out on getting a new cell phone until it does absolutely everything i want (no, not need - want).
New cell phones do have one saving grace, Bluetooth. There are several models on the market now that you can connect to a bluetooth PDA, and with a company like cingular you can have wireless internet for $4 a month, it just deducts from your wireless minutes.
GPS devices with Bluetooth are pretty sick too . ..
I never found my PocketPC all that great for usage w/the GPS (I am using PocketPC 2002 though). I have constant stability issues and in the extreme temps we experience here (it got down to -22 without windchill in January) the PocketPCs just don't hold up well enough.
This sounds like a civilian version of the GPS/lidar/etc/binoculars recently used by the military for spotting targets for artillery and other attack missions.
Look at the target, center the crosshairs, read the *target's* GPS co-ordinates (or dump them into the battle net).
-- Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Re:Sounds like a plowshare.
by
IronBlade
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· Score: 1
Look at the target, center the crosshairs, read the *target's* GPS co-ordinates (or dump them into the battle net).
That's one reading you don't want to confuse with your own co-ordinates.. could get messy...
-- Important info:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
http://dieoff.org/synopsis.htm
http://www.peakoil.net
Re:Sounds like a plowshare.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
That's one reading you don't want to confuse with your own co-ordinates.. could get messy...
Already happened in Afghanistan. Just after projecting the target's coordinates, the battery gave out. When new batteries were installed, the user didn't recognize that the coordinates that came up were not the ones he'd projected before the battery failure -- they were his own current coordinates. He then called for an airstrike on his own position.
nhaaa.. to be a tricorder it has to make funny noises for no reason and flash lots of leds in mysterious ways;-)
Re:Yay! The tricorder is just around the corner
by
Baron_Yam
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· Score: 1
The tricorder is old news - it's already been made (minus the ability to detect things like tachyons, of course) and the market spoke. The company (Vital Technologies in Bolton, Ontario, Canada IIRC) went tits-up, I believe.
I imagine this might come in handy for consensus surveys. Take a picture of the person who signs your petition/donates to your organization, get their photograph and GPS position recorded in a database.
AND SELL ALL THE DATA TO THE MATRIX PROJECT MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes... yes... indeed. Time to screw my tinfoil cap on a tad bit tighter now.
Could have used one of these at the SuperBowl...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Funny
could have taken a picture of Janet Jackson's breast and documented the time, exact location, inclination, direction and the exact distance from "the breast" to my seat with the range finder. The exact answer to "where were you when the "wardrobe malfunction" occured"...
Its not new
by
fozzylyon
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· Score: 2, Informative
It sounds like the old P40ES system that county and state surveyors have been using for over a decade. A co-worker was even involved in the P40's developement and said that it was a simple task of relaying the opt signal to the three receivers (compass, inclinometer, ld meter). The only NEW developement I see here is the "digitality" of the compass and the addition of the digital camera. Besides that though, I doubt that its worth the retraining of a personnel who are adept at working with the previous equipment. If there had been a need for this device, SURE. But our tax dollars shouldn't be spent on the latest and greatest if it isn't an improvement.
I have always said that a pair of binoculars with all theses features plus a wireless modem or some sort would be an effective utility for the military. It would make it easier for combat controls to send target information to strike aircraft.
Heck you make it better you can give the average solider a 2000 lb hand grenade.
Re:Military Applications
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
And you don't think we - oops, I mean they - have it already? Don't mind that black helicopter landing on your lawn, it's for your own protection...
Because no one I know in the Air Force (the major force that would deploy it first) has heard of it.
I already have my tin foil hat on, so no worries about the black helicopters they can't find me.
Real neat but expensive!
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JGski
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· Score: 4, Informative
$12K a pop! That won't be on my Christmas list for a while. I'm sure people will whip up an open-source clone project. Interestingly this a lot like something I "invented" as a teen (on paper anyway, I still have the drawings in my garage)! I won't give away my age, except to say that was more than one patent life ago.:-)
BTW, the secret to finding prices on a web site for products that "don't list price" is to check the press releases - reporters tend to ignore press leads that don't have an estimated price. It would not look good with readers to present rave article for a product none of them can afford or budget for.
Re:Real neat but expensive!
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Hartree
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· Score: 3, Informative
I think that's NZ dollars, so it's about $8400 US. Still pretty pricey.
Re:Real neat but expensive!
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I think you'll find that is 12K NZ$, which at the moment is around 8K US$ (normally would be closer to 7K)
Thanks for giving this neat gadget for Christmas. I thought I'd send you this email from it to let you know how it's working out. As you can tell from the coordinates, I'm backpacking in the Alaskan wilderness. It's great here. Just me and nature. I've never done any camping this ambitious, but with this toy how can I go wrong? Here's some pictures. Isn't it beautiful? Oh look! There's a bear and some cubs a couple hundred yards away. Here's some pictures. Hold on, I'll let you know exactly how far away with the laser rangefinder. The big one is precisely 220.6 meters away. This is so cool! Oh now it moving. Now it's 190.2 meters away. Make that 153.6 meters. It's hard to beleive something that big could move so fast. 98 meters now. Hmmmm, I don't suppose I'm irritating the bear by shining this laser in it's eyes? It's 46 meters away now. I should probably go. I love you Dad. Tell Mom I lov...
<NO CARRIER>
Archaeology
by
ParticleGirl
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· Score: 4, Interesting
It's the perfect tool for an archaeologist. We need compasses, GPS, inclinometers, digital cameras-- but I probably couldn't use it under the canopy of a jungle, and since the battery is only good for 8 hours and rechargable in a car-- and I wouldn't see a car nor a generator for a couple of months-- it remains, sadly, impractical. I guess I just have to tote around the 6 separate, heavier instruments and the supply of batteries. If this had smarter batteries, I would be ecstatic right now. I'm sure that archaeologists who work closer to civilization (and therefore care less whether they're carting 1 instrument or 6) are probably pretty psyched, though!
This sounds like the ideal device for handheld wardriving or 'war-walking'. With some open source software from handhelds.org for the PocketPC, thanks to Jim Gettys and his team, the Kismet wireless and a host of open source tools, you've got the basics. The integrated GPS and the laser distance meter then give you almost everything you'd need to start finding wireless networks, map then, and publish the results on the Internet. Wait! See someone suspicious coming towards you? Just put the device into your pocket and walk away, or enjoy the sight of birds on the rooftops or the shape of the fluffy clouds.
Aside from the included hardware, just add a WiFI card with the Prism II chipset and the homemade antenna of your choice, and you're off to the races. This is the first all-in-one handheld wardriving unit I've heard of.
Real Estate maybe but not professional survey
by
mr_lithic
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· Score: 2, Informative
This would be perfect for real estate agents who need to combine their pda's and electronic distance measurers but it seems a little imprecise and lightweight for real survey work.
The title of top survey data collector is still the HP-48GX.
When we ran survey we would try to grab the tripod with the HP-48 bracketed on it. This little data collector would make our lives easier, reduce the overall time for the survey and increase the time in the pub. All very good things.
HP-48GX - Good data bucket and a good deal cheaper than the grand that Topcon and such want for their Data Collection handhelds.
In my day, we didn't have flashy things up in the air at night. Every morning, three hours before we went to sleep, our da would wake us up. We'd have warm gravel for breakfast and then we'd have to crawl over broken glass to draw all of the stars up in the sky for us to navigate by. Then we'd have to blink our eyes rapidly to make them seem like they were flashing. And we lucky to have them.
What are the true capabilities of a tricorder? What is the difference between a star trek tricorder and one from the next generation. Do they have tricorders yet in star trek enterprise?
So my question is, what exactly is a tricorder supposed to do?
I think different people have differnet tricorder. For example, the medical officer will have tricorder which will tell the vital signs.
Re:tricorder feature list
by
Cpt_Kirks
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· Score: 1
From the "STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION TECHNICAL MANUAL":
The sensor assemblies incorporate a total of 235 mechanical, electromagnetic and subspace devices mounted about the internal frame as well as imbedded in the casing as conformal instruments. 115 of these are clustered in the forward end for directional readings, with a field-of-view lower limit of 1/4 degree. The other 120 are omnidirectional devices, taking measurements of the surrounding space
It also has data storage capacity of 6.91 kiloquads and an built in subspace tranceiver assembly. It draws about 15.48 watts of power from it's rechargeable sarium crystal, giving about 18 hours of full instrument use.
Re:tricorder feature list
by
jheinen
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· Score: 2, Funny
It's the 24th Century and battery life is only up to 18 hours?!?!?
-- -Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
Re:tricorder feature list
by
mbrewthx
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· Score: 1
What's a kiloquad? is it 1000 4's..
All these lovely features but they forgot the clock...
-- __________
Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
..they could have hooked up with ...
by
burgburgburg
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· Score: 2, Funny
They can take pictures of all the girls they could have hooked up with.
You mean, all the girls they could have hooked up with if they weren't carrying the combined GPS, electronic compass, laser distance meter, inclinometer, digital camera, Pocket PC 2003 handheld? Come on, even then it's unlikely.
Another integrated unit
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Trimble Navigation sells a high accuracy Windows CE device, GeoXT Designed for rugged work & completely integrated. Focussed more on submeter GPS, but can be attached to laser rangefinders.
Laser Speed Gun?
by
WorkingHome
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· Score: 2, Insightful
It would be fun to play around with the laser distance mechanism to see if you could design a speed gun with this thing. I would hope they would allow developers access to the appropriate APIs to allow this. It wouldn't be good for police work, but it would be fun the average consumer. The price needs to come down quite a bit, though.
"ideal for GIS and other surveys"
by
flacco
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· Score: 2, Funny
...and for targeting mortars.
-- pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Just a thought for you...
by
59Bassman
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· Score: 1
You mention being under the canopy of a jungle, so this is probably less than helpful. However, never having been under a jungle canopy I don't know how much light you get. But this solar PDA charger would indicate it's at least possible to run a PDA device in remote areas for extended periods. Ever able to find a "hole" in the canopy to see the sun?
Re:Just a thought for you...
by
ParticleGirl
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Nope, it's usually multi-layered and dim and wet and dampness poses one of the biggest problems for gear, generally. The thickness of the cover not only makes solar-power really impossible, but makes getting a GIS signal generally impossible, too. If someone makes it possible, a lot of us would be ecstatic. NASA gives a hand and remote sensing helps, but under a canopy as dense as rainforest can be is about as remote as you can get these days, where satellite at least makes it possible to establish contact with something in the middle of deserts and oceans.
Re:Just a thought for you...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
There are hand crank generators for gameboy advanced, ~3.3v lion packs, with better than 2 to 1 run to crank times. There are of course also solar chargers, mostly impractical, but if you dig around in the pbs archives one of those boston shows had rollable panels they were using as roofing shingles. As for breeching canopy how about say estes rockets, trailing antenna leads?
Re:Just a thought for you...
by
willtsmith
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· Score: 1
You could use a freeplay charger. That would do the trick.
They've released these for cell phones.
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Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
one size doesnt fit all
by
io-waiter
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· Score: 2, Informative
Well yes and no, depending of type of surveying you are doing. I think that its impossible to find one handheld today that is an useful tool for all type of survey work. Most surveying use aerial photos as a base, unless they are corrections or add-ons to old maps, or based on magnetical, sonar, radar or other obscure methods. So photos taken by the survey man himselfs are often of interesting details, but 1024x768 seems low (even if it has good optics)
Geological surveying
-Soil, large screen needed, can be done from cars, editing directly onto map.
-Bedrock or any large boulders what youre after you want good GPS accuray, easy data input (text) and a nice camera.
-Chemical/water surveying, data input device with nice GPS.
Economical
-dGPS or better is needed.
General factors
-Precision, dGPS is an bonus in many cases but a must in few, good GPS reception will do in most cases ( few handheld/gps combos has that)
-Price, most heavy duty, waterproof super handheld thingies cost 6x an ipaq with GPS...
-Another tool
/IO-waiter
Battery Life?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
well? lets say you link this thing to a laptop, feeding it coordinates and range data, and photos via bluetooth?
I give it, 15 minutes.
Re:Yay! The tricorder is just around the corner
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Patrik_AKA_RedX
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· Score: 1
Do we really want everybody to be able to put 3D models of their houses online? I mean, it's not as if we'll be able to go through their underwear drawer, so what's the point?
On second thought, it would make the burglar business more intresting.
Perfect for Geocaching!
by
Coaster-Sj
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· Score: 2, Interesting
If they could bring the price down these would be perfect for Geocaching!
I'm drooling at the thought.
It would be easy to write some software to allow you to upload a GPX file and then have the unit load all the waypoints and be able to display the cache info.
Anyone want to donate $12000 for me to test it?
-- "Average intelligence is pretty damn stupid"
This is no *Pocket* PC
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Serious+Simon
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· Score: 2, Insightful
It's huge and heavy: 260mm x110mm x 70mm weighing more than a kilogram. Not something you would put in a pocket, and only to be "handheld" for a short time.
Almost everything I want!
by
unfortunateson
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· Score: 1
Ok, it's a little bulky, and I don't really need a laser rangefinder (mmm... verify USGS benchmark towers... aaaaah). And maybe it's a little pricey.
But it's tough to get all this into one package. Most add-on cameras and GPSr's for PDAs take the same CF or SDIO slot, meaning one or the other. Being able to take a picture and know where and exactly when it was taken from the GPS is useful. Now, if it only had a QVGA or better screen (can't tell from the specs), high-quality audio reproduction (yes, WinCE supports MP3, but does the hardware have a decent response?), and a 20GB hard drive, it'd be perfect.
This is especially useful for wardriving and warflying...
Not quite. Read the specs.
I have constant stability issues and in the extreme temps we experience here (it got down to -22 without windchill in January)
According to the page, these things are good only to 0C - so it would be useless for you.. and to add insult to injury, max. temp is only +40C.
With a temperature rage that limited (and the fact that it's not waterproof - not even IPX2), I gotta wonder what the market for something like this is? ("Hey, let's make a GPS specifically for people who don't go outside!")
GPS is accurate enough for most things
by
dschl
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· Score: 1
Maybe 10 years ago GPS wasn't good enough. However, it is good enough for land titles in British Columbia (not very many survey monuments to tie into for minesites in the middle of nowhere). I don't know if I would want to do building construction layout (millimetre accuracy) using GPS, but if GPS is fine for land titles, it should be OK for most purposes. The Geodetic Survey Division of Natural Resources Canada has some more info on the different GPS methods. Check out the final part on Carrier Positioning accuracy - sub centimetre (10mm) is acheivable.
-- Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
Re:GPS is accurate enough for most things
by
plcurechax
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· Score: 1
However, it is good enough for land titles in British Columbia (not very many survey monuments to tie into for minesites in the middle of nowhere).
Provided they met Survey accuracy standards of 0.02 meters, 2 centimeters plus "100 parts per million times the baseline distance" up to 0.12 metres.
AFAIK a single receiver GPS, as found is all consumer grade GPS units, and based on the photo in the article, the device in question, do not met this criteria.
Re:GPS is accurate enough for most things
by
dschl
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· Score: 1
Read my second link. You weren't talking about single receiver consumer grade GPS - you specifically mentioned differential GPS in your initial post about GPS accuracy, and did not restrict your comments to only the instrument in question.
You may note that I also did not reference the instrument in the article - I was discussing GPS in general.
-- Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
I was working at Wellington City Council and saw the prototype of this product, the Zypod they were calling it. The IKE will be very useful for GIS users capturing and maintaining data on assets. Any local government organisation would find this indespensible.
Imagine you have to survey all the Bustops, Signs, Manholes, Lampposts, playground equipment, Trees/Plants. You point and click and you have the GIS Position, Photo and data capture metadata immediately available. For comaprison, try using the GPS, Digital Camera and GIS system on a laptop and work out the capture time per point after matching up all the data.
When I saw the ptototype they were working on users developing their own custom forms for the capture so after you capture the data, you fill in your own custom form.
Now for possible abuses:
Police capture images and locations/times of people
Slashdot geek builds up a library of girls he can neevr have. Over some time with enough data on a campus you could even build a model to predict their location and time!!!
Just a couple of points, guys:
1) Cost is $NZ11.8k - this works out to about $US8.3k
2) Wi-Fi is onboard - actually, the 'Pocket PC' used is the iPAQ 5550.
3) Their is a crosshair which shows what the Laser is aiming at on screen, while video is showing. While your aiming, the handy meter at the side updates the current Laser distance at 10Hz.
4) Battery Life is 8 hours, but yeah, using Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi reduces this severly.
Actually, you can use external batteries with the ike - these are optional extras...
Also, ike has already been used in situations where there is a canopy issue - under the canopy, ike can't get a GPS signal, just like a normal GPS, but if you can find a spot where you can get a GPS position and you can see where you want to aim, then you can get the position you are looking for.
The $6 version
by
eggmit
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· Score: 2, Informative
It's an optical rangefinder program for the Pocket PC. The program has a database of images (person, tree, car, etc) of known heights. You hold the Pocket PC at arm's length and resize the image on the screen until it's the same height as the distant image. Based on all that, it calculates the distance to the image.
You can also specify values like the height of your Pocket PC screen, the length of your arm, or the height of the thing you're measuring (if you want to find the distance to Yao Ming, for instance).
Perfect for Augmented Reality
by
KILNA
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· Score: 1
Augmented Reality is basically annotating meatspace with metadata. This device can collect images and text and associate them with a temporal and postional location, all in realtime since the device has networking. Now if that isn't made for augmented reality data collection, I don't know what is. Now all we need is a good open, public data store like the web, a means of looking up information based on positional criteria, and come up with some decent equipment to strap to our heads... and then we've got something!
-- Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
This would probably make an EXCELLENT tool for detectives if it would digitally sign record collections. You can take photos and get imprinted GPS information. Take notes on them and record voice notes over the photos.
-- --------
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Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Almost a tricorder
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Just missing the life signs scanner, wide spectrum scanners, and classic black leatherette case with chrome finish.
I suggested this.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Worked with PPc's earlier, we had some problems with pulling in revenue. Beeing intrested in military applications, i immediately saw the need for a field device with:
A Laser rangefinder = measure DISTANCE between OBSERVER and TARGET A Compass = which DIRECTION is the TARGET A GPS = WHERE are the OBSERVER now
From there on it would be simple trigonometry to find out the GPS coordinates of the enemy and launch a missile.
When i told my boss(es) this, they looked at me like i had arrived from mars.. they walked away talking to eachother and giggled.
Slashdot Mirror
...can you mount it on the head of a shark?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Back in my day we only had luck and those flashy things up in the air at night.
For all of us that don't have enough toys to begin with. This will consolidate some of them..
Its a tricorder!
reporting on Ike...
I didn't know President Eisenhower was a geek.
...in your pocket or are you just happy to see the hole you're burning into my retina.
I can see this being used by lots of folks probably not in the original target market: professional hunting guides. All in one unit rangefinder/gps/camera? Make it durable and I bet the hunting crowd would be all over them.
for all the Slashdot geeks. They can take pictures of all the girls they could have hooked up with.
Hell, they can even look at each other range finders to see who actually got the closest to a girl.
for one that can record video. :)
... for something like this with a cell phone. this is close but the wait continues.
I believe it was George Carlin who said that only in America could you stick any two things together and someone would buy it.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
I love toys...
I've been asked by golfers if there's a device that will let them measure the exact distance to the pin (or at least the green).
I've always been at a loss to tell them what they could use, at least when it came to handheld optical devices.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
and the built-in digital camera captures images of up to 1280 x 1024 pixels
Thats only a little higher that 1MP. Don't the GIS surveys need more detail than that?
Free XBox, PS2
Still, it's missing a wasabi dispenser.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
How is this good for Google Image Search? ;o
GPS, Differential GPS, and WAAS isn't accurate enough for high quality survey work. All of these of limited accuracy of more 1 meter, whereas any decent survey should measure error hopefully less than 10 millimeters.
when they manage to shrink them to the size of Derek Zoolander's Mobile Phone.
"The quality of life is inversely proportional to the number of keys on your keyring."
"Ike is a Pocket PC running [...] Bluetooth."
I hope Nokia didn't help them with the Bluetooth code.
I'm afraid this gadget has too much real-world application to be of interest to the geek crowd.
We just bought a few acres of land, and this device would have been the ideal tool for the surveyor. It's clear from the discrepancies between the survey drawing and the aerial views that the surveyor made his measurements, wrote them down, then made his drawing from his notes. The numbers are right, but the outlines of the buildings aren't quite where they should be.
This device, plus a windoze PC with appropriate software, will let the surveyor simply walk to the survey points, point & shoot, hotsync, and print. It's just what the surveyor needs to do his/her job.
So it's obviously too useful to be a geek toy.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
This is good enough for rough surveys, but not good enough to allow collecting random images, locating them in space, and building 3D models. Another generation or two, and the expensive tripod-mounted Reigl scanners used for model-building will be replaced by handheld devices.
So now I will be able to find exactly where I want to hike up the mountain, be able to know which way I am going, know exactly how far I am from the top, tell how close to verticle I am approaching, take photos as I approach the summit and then have company that will understand me when I trip and crash and go tumbling down said mountain.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Jesus, it takes all that hardware just to do a Google image search nowadays? Talk about bloat ...
sounds like something made by swiss army. all it needs now is a magnifying glass and a toothpick.
on a serious note, the perfect addition to the features on this would be cell phone. and wifi. i decided i'm going to wait out on getting a new cell phone until it does absolutely everything i want (no, not need - want).
This is especially useful for wardriving and warflying...
See here.
I never found my PocketPC all that great for usage w/the GPS (I am using PocketPC 2002 though). I have constant stability issues and in the extreme temps we experience here (it got down to -22 without windchill in January) the PocketPCs just don't hold up well enough.
This sounds like a civilian version of the GPS/lidar/etc/binoculars recently used by the military for spotting targets for artillery and other attack missions.
Look at the target, center the crosshairs, read the *target's* GPS co-ordinates (or dump them into the battle net).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Add a gas spectrometer and you have a tricorder!
Beam me up scotty!
Evil Man
The tricorder is old news - it's already been made (minus the ability to detect things like tachyons, of course) and the market spoke. The company (Vital Technologies in Bolton, Ontario, Canada IIRC) went tits-up, I believe.
We would have loved that at the geophysics job I had right after college.
There's probably a much bigger market for this device than most people think.
I imagine this might come in handy for consensus surveys.
Take a picture of the person who signs your petition/donates to your organization, get their photograph and GPS position recorded in a database.
AND SELL ALL THE DATA TO THE MATRIX PROJECT
MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes... yes... indeed.
Time to screw my tinfoil cap on a tad bit tighter now.
could have taken a picture of Janet Jackson's breast and documented the time, exact location, inclination, direction and the exact distance from "the breast" to my seat with the range finder. The exact answer to "where were you when the "wardrobe malfunction" occured"...
It sounds like the old P40ES system that county and state surveyors have been using for over a decade. A co-worker was even involved in the P40's developement and said that it was a simple task of relaying the opt signal to the three receivers (compass, inclinometer, ld meter). The only NEW developement I see here is the "digitality" of the compass and the addition of the digital camera. Besides that though, I doubt that its worth the retraining of a personnel who are adept at working with the previous equipment. If there had been a need for this device, SURE. But our tax dollars shouldn't be spent on the latest and greatest if it isn't an improvement.
Does this thing have a pricetag yet? Couldn't seem to track down an amount.
"the starry sky above and the moral law within"-Kant
Heck you make it better you can give the average solider a 2000 lb hand grenade.
BTW, the secret to finding prices on a web site for products that "don't list price" is to check the press releases - reporters tend to ignore press leads that don't have an estimated price. It would not look good with readers to present rave article for a product none of them can afford or budget for.
It's the perfect tool for an archaeologist. We need compasses, GPS, inclinometers, digital cameras-- but I probably couldn't use it under the canopy of a jungle, and since the battery is only good for 8 hours and rechargable in a car-- and I wouldn't see a car nor a generator for a couple of months-- it remains, sadly, impractical. I guess I just have to tote around the 6 separate, heavier instruments and the supply of batteries. If this had smarter batteries, I would be ecstatic right now. I'm sure that archaeologists who work closer to civilization (and therefore care less whether they're carting 1 instrument or 6) are probably pretty psyched, though!
Do something about world hunger. Click here
Here's a thought: step away from the IKE and start walking towards the member of the appropriate gender of desire.
Aside from the included hardware, just add a WiFI card with the Prism II chipset and the homemade antenna of your choice, and you're off to the races. This is the first all-in-one handheld wardriving unit I've heard of.
The title of top survey data collector is still the HP-48GX.
When we ran survey we would try to grab the tripod with the HP-48 bracketed on it. This little data collector would make our lives easier, reduce the overall time for the survey and increase the time in the pub. All very good things.
HP-48GX - Good data bucket and a good deal cheaper than the grand that Topcon and such want for their Data Collection handhelds.
In my day, we didn't have flashy things up in the air at night. Every morning, three hours before we went to sleep, our da would wake us up. We'd have warm gravel for breakfast and then we'd have to crawl over broken glass to draw all of the stars up in the sky for us to navigate by. Then we'd have to blink our eyes rapidly to make them seem like they were flashing. And we lucky to have them.
Too bad the company that made it (a Canadian company called Vital Technologies) has gone under, apparently it really worked!
So my question is, what exactly is a tricorder supposed to do?
- Some obvious features:
- Temperature measurements
- Radiation measurements, light, radar, gamma rays, etc
- Communications capability
- Data storage/retrieval
- Radiation emmision capabilities
- Bells,whistles and flashing lights
What have I missed?to integrate a cell phone into that gadget
MMM I wonder how far it is to that rock
....
points range finder
Pocket pc is shutting down
D'Oh!
Worst
You mean, all the girls they could have hooked up with if they weren't carrying the combined GPS, electronic compass, laser distance meter, inclinometer, digital camera, Pocket PC 2003 handheld? Come on, even then it's unlikely.
Trimble Navigation sells a high accuracy Windows CE device, GeoXT
Designed for rugged work & completely integrated. Focussed more on submeter GPS, but can be attached to laser rangefinders.
It would be fun to play around with the laser distance mechanism to see if you could design a speed gun with this thing. I would hope they would allow developers access to the appropriate APIs to allow this. It wouldn't be good for police work, but it would be fun the average consumer. The price needs to come down quite a bit, though.
...and for targeting mortars.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
You mention being under the canopy of a jungle, so this is probably less than helpful. However, never having been under a jungle canopy I don't know how much light you get. But this solar PDA charger would indicate it's at least possible to run a PDA device in remote areas for extended periods. Ever able to find a "hole" in the canopy to see the sun?
Well yes and no, depending of type of surveying you are doing. I think that its impossible to find one handheld today that is an useful tool for all type of survey work. Most surveying use aerial photos as a base, unless they are corrections or add-ons to old maps, or based on magnetical, sonar, radar or other obscure methods. So photos taken by the survey man himselfs are often of interesting details, but 1024x768 seems low (even if it has good optics)
/IO-waiter
Geological surveying
-Soil, large screen needed, can be done from cars, editing directly onto map.
-Bedrock or any large boulders what youre after you want good GPS accuray, easy data input (text) and a nice camera.
-Chemical/water surveying, data input device with nice GPS.
Economical
-dGPS or better is needed.
General factors
-Precision, dGPS is an bonus in many cases but a must in few, good GPS reception will do in most cases ( few handheld/gps combos has that)
-Price, most heavy duty, waterproof super handheld thingies cost 6x an ipaq with GPS...
-Another tool
well? lets say you link this thing to a laptop, feeding it coordinates and range data, and photos via bluetooth?
I give it, 15 minutes.
Do we really want everybody to be able to put 3D models of their houses online? I mean, it's not as if we'll be able to go through their underwear drawer, so what's the point?
On second thought, it would make the burglar business more intresting.
If they could bring the price down these would be perfect for Geocaching! I'm drooling at the thought. It would be easy to write some software to allow you to upload a GPX file and then have the unit load all the waypoints and be able to display the cache info. Anyone want to donate $12000 for me to test it?
"Average intelligence is pretty damn stupid"
It's huge and heavy: 260mm x110mm x 70mm weighing more than a kilogram. Not something you would put in a pocket, and only to be "handheld" for a short time.
Ok, it's a little bulky, and I don't really need a laser rangefinder (mmm... verify USGS benchmark towers... aaaaah). And maybe it's a little pricey.
But it's tough to get all this into one package. Most add-on cameras and GPSr's for PDAs take the same CF or SDIO slot, meaning one or the other. Being able to take a picture and know where and exactly when it was taken from the GPS is useful. Now, if it only had a QVGA or better screen (can't tell from the specs), high-quality audio reproduction (yes, WinCE supports MP3, but does the hardware have a decent response?), and a 20GB hard drive, it'd be perfect.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Ever tried to aim an invisible infrared laser beam at an object 20 centimeters across 100 meters away without a viewfinder?
When they come out with a visible beam (doubles as a presentation pointer!) and 300-meter range I'll think about buying one.
Ideal for improving my sorry golf game.
...and get free laser eye surgery!
- GPS
- Mobile phone
- Digital camera
- MP3 player
- Palm pilot / Pocket PC / etc.
When I can have all of those in one unit, I'll think about buying it. Until then, I'm not going to own any of the above.Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
...with 20 kilometer long power cord, since the batteries last roughly 30 seconds before expiring in a blue blaze.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
This is especially useful for wardriving and warflying...
Not quite. Read the specs.
I have constant stability issues and in the extreme temps we experience here (it got down to -22 without windchill in January)
According to the page, these things are good only to 0C - so it would be useless for you.. and to add insult to injury, max. temp is only +40C.
With a temperature rage that limited (and the fact that it's not waterproof - not even IPX2), I gotta wonder what the market for something like this is? ("Hey, let's make a GPS specifically for people who don't go outside!")
Maybe 10 years ago GPS wasn't good enough. However, it is good enough for land titles in British Columbia (not very many survey monuments to tie into for minesites in the middle of nowhere). I don't know if I would want to do building construction layout (millimetre accuracy) using GPS, but if GPS is fine for land titles, it should be OK for most purposes. The Geodetic Survey Division of Natural Resources Canada has some more info on the different GPS methods. Check out the final part on Carrier Positioning accuracy - sub centimetre (10mm) is acheivable.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
I was working at Wellington City Council and saw the prototype of this product, the Zypod they were calling it. The IKE will be very useful for GIS users capturing and maintaining data on assets. Any local government organisation would find this indespensible.
Imagine you have to survey all the Bustops, Signs, Manholes, Lampposts, playground equipment, Trees/Plants. You point and click and you have the GIS Position, Photo and data capture metadata immediately available. For comaprison, try using the GPS, Digital Camera and GIS system on a laptop and work out the capture time per point after matching up all the data.
When I saw the ptototype they were working on users developing their own custom forms for the capture so after you capture the data, you fill in your own custom form.
Now for possible abuses:
The weathers here - Wish you were beautiful
Just a couple of points, guys: 1) Cost is $NZ11.8k - this works out to about $US8.3k 2) Wi-Fi is onboard - actually, the 'Pocket PC' used is the iPAQ 5550. 3) Their is a crosshair which shows what the Laser is aiming at on screen, while video is showing. While your aiming, the handy meter at the side updates the current Laser distance at 10Hz. 4) Battery Life is 8 hours, but yeah, using Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi reduces this severly.
Well, camera phones have been more of a hit in Europe and Japan. And they don't even have a built in laser!
This sounds like a civilian version of what an air combat controller would use to call in an airstrike with GPS guided bombs.
did anyone else notice the specs' claim that a cold start would take *two minutes*? i'll wait for the PalmOS (or other) version, thanks.
My dad studied engineering physics in the fifties. He says he's a physicist who knows which end of a screwdriver is "up".
I'm confused -- nifty features, but it runs nasty, proprietary "Microsoft's Pocket PC 2003 Premium". Am I supposed to like it or hate it?
Actually, you can use external batteries with the ike - these are optional extras... Also, ike has already been used in situations where there is a canopy issue - under the canopy, ike can't get a GPS signal, just like a normal GPS, but if you can find a spot where you can get a GPS position and you can see where you want to aim, then you can get the position you are looking for.
http://zedev.com/software/rangefinder/
It's an optical rangefinder program for the Pocket PC. The program has a database of images (person, tree, car, etc) of known heights. You hold the Pocket PC at arm's length and resize the image on the screen until it's the same height as the distant image. Based on all that, it calculates the distance to the image.
You can also specify values like the height of your Pocket PC screen, the length of your arm, or the height of the thing you're measuring (if you want to find the distance to Yao Ming, for instance).
Augmented Reality is basically annotating meatspace with metadata. This device can collect images and text and associate them with a temporal and postional location, all in realtime since the device has networking. Now if that isn't made for augmented reality data collection, I don't know what is. Now all we need is a good open, public data store like the web, a means of looking up information based on positional criteria, and come up with some decent equipment to strap to our heads... and then we've got something!
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This would probably make an EXCELLENT tool for detectives if it would digitally sign record collections. You can take photos and get imprinted GPS information. Take notes on them and record voice notes over the photos.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
BUT CAN IT RUN LINUX?
Just missing the life signs scanner, wide spectrum scanners, and classic black leatherette case with chrome finish.
Worked with PPc's earlier, we had some problems with pulling in revenue. Beeing intrested in military applications, i immediately saw the need for a field device with:
A Laser rangefinder = measure DISTANCE between OBSERVER and TARGET
A Compass = which DIRECTION is the TARGET
A GPS = WHERE are the OBSERVER now
From there on it would be simple trigonometry to find out the GPS coordinates of the enemy and launch a missile.
When i told my boss(es) this, they looked at me like i had arrived from mars.. they walked away talking to eachother and giggled.