Fieldtrip GB: Creating a customisable mapping and data capture app for the HEFE community

Ben Butchart (b.butchart@ed.ac.uk)Addy Pope (addy.pope@ed.ac.uk)

Fieldtrip GB - Overview

Home Screen Save maps for use offline

Authoring tool: Form Builder

Create your own data collection form and deploy it to your phone

Authoring tool: Record Viewer

Search and filter recordsExport as GML / geo JSON and collate data

Challenges developing data capture apps

• Relatively high cost • Rapid advances in technology…, so can become redundant

quickly• Multiple operating systems• Mobile Network signal coverage is patchy – urban focus.• Versatile apps for data collection…do not allow apps to be

‘branded’ …- proliferation of standalone apps could create clutter

• Users expect apps to be intuitive and have high usability

Roy, H.E., Pocock, M.J.O., Preston, C.D., Roy, D.B. & Savage, J. Tweddle, J.C. & Robinson, L.D., (2012) Understanding Citizen Science and Environmental Monitoring, UK Environmental Observation Framework, http://www.ceh.ac.uk/products/publications/documents/CitizenScienceReview.pdf (accessed 29/01/2013)

Fieldtrip GB Open data mashup

• Strategi• Vector Map District

• Land-Form PANORAMA• OpenStreetMap

• Natural England

Why Fieldtrip GB needs its own map?

Fieldtrip GB OpenStreetMap

Google Maps EDINA Openstream

Mashup Issues 1: Partial labels out of scale

Strategi labelling optimized for 1:250,000 scale

causes conflicts out of scale

Mashup Issues 1: Manual Label Correction

Mashup Issues 2: Label Alignment

VMD (beta) water features point labels only

Mashup Issues 3: Urban vs. Rural

Mapserver 6.2 Masking

1 mapping stack to cater for both urban and rural environments

How it all works

Architecture

SERVICE ARCHITECTURE

• Apache web server • Mapcache (Tile cache)• Python WSGI (PC API)• Citrix Netscaler load balancer• VSphere VMWare (SUN X4150 cluster)

Map GENERATION ARCHITECTURE

• OpenStack private cloud • Apache Web Server• Mapserver 6.2 • Mapcache seeder• PostGIS

Client Architecture

• PhoneGap• OpenLayers

Why PhoneGap?

• OpenLayers map library more versatile• Easier to implement custom forms• Lower cost of delivering to multiple

platforms

Data storage outsourced (Dropbox)

Future Direction: Embracing The Sensed World Web

We are planning…

• Make your own app.• Capture map and annotate.• Photo sketch capture.• Augmented Reality captures. • Strike and dip measurements.• Ambient noise capture.• 3d point cloud capture.

but you decide….

Sensed World Web

[ “a condition where as humans we begin to enhance our own human senses and connect those senses to networked databases” ]Butchart, B (2012) Towards a Sensed World Description Language, http://www.perey.com/ARStandards/[Butchart]Sensed_World_Web_AR_Standards.pdf,Sixth International AR Standards Community Meeting, Geneva.

THE Fieldtrip GB TEAMBen Butchart ( project manager)Addy Pope ( product design)Murray King ( engineer) George Hamilton (engineer)Panos Terzis (engineer)Michael Koutroumpas (engineer)Tim Urwin (GIS / cartography)Fiona Hemsley-Flint (GIS / cartography)Jackie Clark (graphic design)

http://fieldtripgb.blogs.edina.ac.uk/

Come and have a play with the app at the EDINA stand