[Mobile GIS] GIS on mobile devices

[Brent Fraser]

Bob,

  Good point.  Linux is running on some mighty small devices, and there's
Windows XP Embedded from Microsoft as an attempt to slim down Windows.

   On the other hand, I think there is a demand for a hand-held (sub-set of
mobile) GIS Data Collection and Navigation system, just to be able to walk
around with it.  So far, the capabilities of a hand-held tend to be much
less than a laptop and I expect that trend to continue.  It would be great
to have a system scalable from hand-held to laptop, and I don't think that
would be too difficult. Just design for:

        - performance so the hand-held processors don't choke
        - small screens (320x240) as well as large laptop displays
        - allow for alternate input devices, e.g. pen

To get philosophical, hand-held development will likely always be "special"
(w.r.t. Windows anyways).  When hand-helds have the capabilities of today's
laptops, the laptops will be running a 64-bit o/s, and that will be the most
popular development target.

That being said, I think the OQO running XP would be perfect if I was going
to outfit a GIS department for data collection.  Hmm if I can buy an iPaq
for $400, should I buy a $1600 OQO? Depends on the application software?

Brent



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Basques" <bob.basques at ci.stpaul.mn.us>
To: "Brent Fraser" <bfraser at geoanalytic.com>
Cc: <mobile at lists.maptools.org>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Mobile GIS] GIS on mobile devices


> All,
>
> I'm wondering about this whole Mobile application thing from a bigger
> picture, point of view.
>
> Specifically, I'm wondering about whether the effort should be simply
> put into a generic installation that works on a LAPTOP install with no
> dependencies on any specific Mobile OS, and port to these kinds of
> things after the fact.
>
> Main reason of suggesting this is that the Micro PC market is really
> starting to take off again it seems, and there will be PDA sized full
> fledged PC OS to work with.  It seems like the emphasis in the near
> future, will be to apply this mobile software to these type of devices.
>
> Just some thoughts on this as I see the mail go by.
>
> For reference:
> http://umpc.com/default.aspx
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/default.mspx
>         http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/hardware.mspx
> And, what started it all . . . .
> http://www.oqo.com/
>
> bobb
>
>
>
> Brent Fraser wrote:
> > To all,
> >
> >   I enjoyed the FOSS4GEO BOF Mobile session, especially hearing the
various
> > use-cases (and the meeting notes are great!)
> >
> >    On a related note, I need to get started on investigation into
porting a
> > command-line serial GPS communication application to an iPaq running
Windows
> > Mobile 5.0.  While I'm doing that I thought I would get some discussion
> > started on directions for an Open Source Mobile GIS, specifically:
> >
> >     Language: C/C++ (my preference), or Java?
> >     GUI: wxWidgets? (my preference), QT?, (or whatever is in J2ME)?
> >
> >
> > My Desired Mobile GIS Application:
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >         - O/S: Windows Mobile 5.0 (preferred), and linux
> >         - Source: C/C++ ((I prefer Frank Warmerdam's C-like C++)
> >         - GUI lib: wxWidgets's wxEmbedded
> >         - Graphics: displays (with pan, zoom) vector and raster maps
> >         - Application: navigation, and GIS feature collection (a
must-have)
> >         - License: GPL
> >
> >
> > And Some existing Open Source Apps:
> > --------------------------------------
> > GpsDrive        http://www.kraftvoll.at/software/
> >         - O/S: linux, not Windows
> >         - Source: C
> >         - GUI lib: GTK+
> >         - Graphics: displays maps (pan, zoom)
> >         - Application: navigation, not GIS feature collection
> >         - License: GPL
> >
> > RoadMap         http://roadmap.digitalomaha.net/
> >         - O/S: linux, and prelim. Windows support
> >         - Source: C
> >         - GUI lib: GTK 1.2, GTK 2.0, or QT3
> >         - Graphics: displays vector maps (pan, zoom)
> >         - Application: navigation, not GIS feature collection
> >         - License: GPL
> >
> > Navlet          http://www.navlet.org/
> >         - O/S: not O/S-specific
> >         - Source: Java (J2ME)
> >         - GUI lib: Java
> >         - Graphics: displays maps
> >         - Application: navigation, not GIS feature collection
> >         - License: GPL
> >
> > Comments are appreciated!
> >
> > Brent Fraser
> > GeoAnalytic Inc.
> > Calgary, Alberta
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mobile mailing list
> > mobile at lists.maptools.org
> > http://lists.maptools.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile
> >
> >
>
>
> -- 
>
> ****************  You can't be late until you show up.  ***************
> ************  You never learn anything by doing it right.  ************
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>
>