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Wiring the Field
DG Researchers Boost Efficiency,
Accuracy of Field Computing with Flexible Geospatial Systems
By
Mack Reed
dg.o
Communications Manager
| Project Battuta | |
One facet of the project integrates different
geospatial datababases so that field investigators can examine a site
from a broad array of viewpoints, including (L to R) parcel maps, aerial
photographs and topographic information.
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Researchers are working to banish the image of harried field investigators with clipboards and replace it with a new
paradigm for collecting geospatial data in the field.
Digital Government grants have united researchers at Iowa State University University of California at Santa Barbara with government IT
experts in the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Agriculture and U.S. Geological Survey under the label "Project
Battuta."
For their model, they have adopted the image of a
camel-riding 14th century geographer - the intrepid Ibn Battuta, who
traveled 25,000 miles over 22 years to explore Europe, Asia and the
Middle East.
But in their work, they are remodeling census takers, environmental
scientists and other federal field data collectors into fully (and quite
literally) wired individuals equipped to build useful, more intricate
databases live on the spot.
Project Battuta is developing the foundation for designing handheld and wearable hardware and
multi-adaptible software infrastructures that tie
together maps, photographs, geospatial datasets and silicon into unified
data-gathering systems.
Ultimately, the design priniciples and prototype systems developed in Project Battuta could help federal
field workers navigate straight to remote, unmarked places, allow them
to record all their data on the fly and upload it immediately and securely into a
master database that can then be parsed, redistributed and reused
dynamically by other investigators.
This complex series of innovative systems and
subsystems could have broad implications for all types of government
field investigators,from environmental enforcers and social workers to
police and crisis managers.
"We're entirely enthusiastic about this as a way to get
involved in interesting research projects that have practical
applications for the way the government and citizens operate,"
says Sarah Nusser, the PI and statistician leading Iowa State's team.
"The collaborations are really very enjoyable."
Project Battuta's researchers are exploring four fields:
From the government's point of view, the project's benefits could
reach far beyond a smoother field experience for field workers, to a
savings of time, labor and money and a higher degree of accuracy, says
Cathryn Dippo, associate commissioner for survey methods research at the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
| UCSB wearable computer prototype | |
Researchers at UC Santa
Barbara are experimenting with a variety of wearable computer components
to give data collectors in the field more mobility in the field and flexibility in
retrieving and transmitting data.
Video:
"Next-Generation Mobile Field Data Collection for
Statistical Surveys"
RealPlayer
The UCSB Prototype Wearable Computer:
RealPlayer
| Project Battuta's systems will let BLS workers plan
ahead for the statistical samples they need, then add dynamically to the
master address database the location of any home or business they
encounter that was built recently, moved or simply missed in earlier
surveys.
"The process of keeping that up to date will be easier - it will be
digitized, it will be less tied to paper," says Dippo, who has worked on
Digital Government projects since the program's infancy.
"There's a need to make sure we don't go to the same sample area
numerous times, and having all that digitized in a way that's tied to
geography will allow us to meet our sampling needs more efficiently and
allow us to change what we're doing to meet programmatic needs," says
Dippo.
One of the chief advances so far for researchers has been expanding the set of possible actions for users relative to previous system designs, says Nusser.
"Survey organizations have taken a rigid client/server approach to
the way they build data collection systems, and in fact, we have here at
Iowa State, as well," she says.
"In exploring how to build an adaptable system that responds to what's
out in the field, we've basically redesigned the way in which you would
build a system for data collection," Nusser explains. "We've
gone from interactions determined a priori by the infrastructure design to automatically generated field wrappers
that can provide information on the field user, task, and computing environment to guide query processing, she says.
The researchers are studying how to design field wrappers so that they apply to a broad
array of mobile data-collection instruments, from wireless PDAs or cell phones
to handheld computers or graphics-enabled tablets, she said.
"What we started off with was we wanted people to get not only the data
prescribed (by their survey) but to get other kinds of innformation that
they may need because of an unexpected information. It's completely
rethinkng how you can build and design the system."
Another innovation Battuta researchers are pursuing is to apply cognitive
psychology principles used in designing field questionnaires to the mapping
systems that field researchers use on their handheld devices to find
their way from one data collection point to the next.
One such system involves directing a field worker to the next data
collection point by feeding the handheld computer a multi-faceted
location file that could contain a map, GPS info, field photos,
satellite photos and written directions, depending on the user's
preferences, Nusser says.
And the research into wearable computers at UCSB (see video) is
exploring ways to meld the data environment with the field environment
via eyeglass-mounted displays, CPUs and transmitter/receivers built into clothing, handheld input devices
and other innovations that lighten investigators' hardware load and put
them more directly in touch with the world they survey.
"This is a very exciting project," says Dippo. "It's one where you can
put your hands around something, you can see where it can really make a
difference."
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