Field Data Capture Devices
Or…
Smartphones

HTC G2
 5 Megapixel camera
 Standalone GPS chip
 Wireless internet
 Small learning curve
 Tens of thousands of apps
 Ability to modify system & create custom apps
 Could install phone service to each device

Auto-Geotagged Photos

GPS Status & Toolbox app
Data captured
Jeffrey’s Exif Viewer

GPS Tracks

Video

Why?
• More for less $
• More devices = more participants
• User Friendly
• Can understand the way people submit data
• Open source
• Automatically ‘tags’ data
• No special software needed to work with resulting data

Accuracy
Just as good (maybe better) than handhelp gps units
See:
“SMARTPHONES IN THE FIELD: PRELIMINARY STUDY COMPARING GPS
CAPABILITIES BETWEEN A SMARTPHONE AND DEDICATED GPS DEVICE”,
Klimaszewski-Patterson, Anna, Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences
(2010) 33: 270-279, http://nevada-reno.academia.edu/AnnaPatterson/Papers/318871/Geographic_Fieldwork_Preliminary_study_comparing_GPS_capabilities_between_smartphones_and_dedicated_GPS