The cat is out of the bag. The prototype location service I developed in March, YourLo.ca/tion was used on a recent rescue on Coquitlam, and the media have been reporting on the story. I had originally intended on testing the prototype…
Blog Archives
Calling for help early saves lives
Yesterday my SAR team was called to rescue three stranded hikers near Buntzen Lake. Global News covered the story. The location software they are referring to is YourLo.ca/tion, a prototype I whipped up based on some ideas myself and another…
Locating lost people using smart phones
A few weeks back I managed a search for two people lost near Buntzen Lake. After we rescued them, I learned that one of them had a smart phone with a GPS (in this case, an iPhone), but neither subject…
Tagged with: emergency, GPS, map, project, rescue, smart phone, SMS, technology, YourLo.ca/tion
Posted in Blog Entry
Posted in Blog Entry
TrueNorth is in beta testing
I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve been working on my side project, TrueNorth, for a long time. A really loooong time. I started it in 2005 when I worked out the math behind second-order georeferencing, and had something…
Confusing an estimate with reality
This post at kottke.org illustrates a problem with the user interface on many mapping applications. The application is supposed to show you where your phone is, but when it can’t determine the position accurately, it attempts to find a general…
GPS Dilution of Error Notice
In awesome space news, SAR Teams throughout southwestern BC were notified today that a known GPS dilution of error event will occur tomorrow (January 16th) between 2215Z and 2245Z. Converting Zulu (UTC) to normal time means that’s from 14:15 (2:15 PM) and…
Stop with the Smart Phones already
Last year I wrote about how you should stop using Smart Phones for backcountry navigation. News outlets continue to post comments from local SAR teams highlighting what I wrote about; people using their phones as navigation devices are running the…
Tagged with: backcountry, communications, gear, GPS, opinion, rant, safety, smart phone, social media, technology
Posted in Blog Entry
Posted in Blog Entry
SARScene 2012 Presentation
I attended SARScene again this year (see here for last year’s presentation), and gave a presentation titled “Best Practices in Managing Geospatial Data for SAR Teams”. The idea was to present practical tips on managing “geospatial data” which is a…
Tagged with: communications, GPS, how-to, mapping, OpenStreetMap, SAR, technology
Posted in Blog Entry
Posted in Blog Entry
Measuring Smartphone GPS accuracy
I’ve often wondered about how a Smartphone GPS would stack up against a purpose built wilderness GPS. I suspected that it would not perform as well because the GPS antenna is not as big. Following up on yesterday’s post on…
Calculating your own GPS accuracy
In my post on GPS accuracy I made some claims about the accuracy of GPS devices and used a graphic that was created by a third party that may have confused the issue for some people, as it appeared to…
BlueToque Software
Software Design, Architecture and Consulting
TrueNorth Geospatial
Mapping Software for Backcountry Professionals
YourLo.ca/tion
Locate people using their SmartPhones
