IPhone apps: Lambert is indeed a cool app for structural data, but I'd like to also draw your attention to Theodolite at the App Store. It costs a bit more, but also does a lot more. Theodolite was written by an engineer. Think of the iPhone x axis parallel to it's long dimension, the y parallel to the short dimension (so the xy plane is the screen plane), and z normal to the screen. Theodolite has an HUD that simultaneously shows horizon (tilt around the x axis), horizon (tilt around the y axis), and azimuth (view direction of camera and screen). Lay the x axis on a structural plane, make the iPhone vertical using the elevation scale, and the horizon scale gives dip, the azimuth scale gives strike. Lay the x axis along strike, rotate the xy plane to lie on the surface and the elevation scale gives dip, the azimuth gives dip direction. So you can do standard S&D or dip vectors. You can copy and paste these data into the global clipboard so notes can go into another app. You can email the data real time (point by point). You can capture the screen with HUD and camera view so you archive data and measurement conditions. I believe there is an iPad version. Right now, you have to be careful with the scales because the app seems to designed to be used with the iPhone vertical. Recorded dips might be complements to the real dips. This can be parsed and corrected from the data. Hopefully, the author will allow users to configure those scales.
You might be able to find a used iPhone 3 or 4 cheaply to use in the field minus cellular data.
Having said this, my primary field data is still pencil notes and sketches in a book. I like the tactile experience. Unlike Prof. Dewey might do, I don't watercolor every outcrop like Monet. But I do find photographic (nee digital) records to be immensely useful after the fact. In graduate school, Lynn Glover taught me to use drafting leads in a holder and a sandpaper sharpener for field notes. After many years of using mechanical pencils, I now find myself going back to wooden pencils for field notes.
Perhaps a helpful thread here would be: what traditional writing tools (pencils, charcoal, blood), and recording devices (notebooks, slates, backs of graduate students) are best and where do we get them? Input welcomed.
Andy Bobyarchick
Sent from my iPad
Wien
On Apr 7, 2011, at 3:53 AM, "MCCAFFREY K.J.W." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I agree with Jussi. The Lambert app is great. It just needs an extension
> to be able to view the data in the Google Earth Iphone app and you would
> have a great field tool for recording and visualising field data in the
> field. One of the issues is that our students now have these phones and
> apps such as Lambert and, in the UK, the excellent BGS IGeology app that
> tells you. There is no getting round it our students are using these
> things now - our first years where using IGeology in the Lake District
> week before last to get information about the geology immediately under
> their feet but this did not help them to recognise basic rock types and
> structures. I don't think we can ban them from using these apps in the
> field and, especially when they are doing independent work, we won't be
> able to enforce a ban. The problem as always with IT systems is the
> familiar 'Garbage in/Garbage out'. I think very quickly - and I mean in
> a year or so, we are going to have to adapt our field teaching to teach
> students how to use these things effectively - that means of-course
> that we will need to know how to do it first!!
>
> Ken
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mattila Jussi
> Sent: 07 April 2011 06:18
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Good softwares for drawing geological maps and
> outcrop/texture sketches? (Toshi Shimamoto)
>
> Hi,
>
> Although I will still personally stick with my Brunton compass and
> analogue notebooks, for those who are interested, there is already an
> iPhone app called Lambert, having the features proposed by Malcolm. With
> it one can measure the orientations of lines and planes, store the
> coordinates of the measuring locations and export the data to PC in
> ascii-format. As a plus, it has a built-in stereonet viewer for the
> measurments. If I remember correctly, it costs around three euros in the
> app store, so it's a bargain.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jussi Mattila
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Malcolm McClure
> Sent: 07. huhtikuuta 2011 1:04
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Good softwares for drawing geological maps and
> outcrop/texture sketches? (Toshi Shimamoto)
>
> Dear Colleagues
>
> I recognise and endorse the value of good sketches in a field
> notebook, and made many over the years, but fell far short of the
> standard I saw penned by Geoff Larminie on the North Slope. There is,
> however a modern way to achieve excellent geological results using an
> iPhone 4.
>
> This phone has great potential to become the field geologists' essential
> companion, replacing the Brunton Compass, as accurate compass readings
> come as standard and a very accurate Clinometer by Peter Breitling can
> be downloaded from the App Store. There will undoubtedly be a market for
> the enterprising if someone can combine these functions to record serial
> dip/strike readings with the built-in GPS co-ordinates in some future
> App. These readings could then be down-loaded onto a GIS map.
>
> The iPhone 4 can also be used as a sketchpad using the Brushes app by
> Steve Sprang. This app provides a simple sketchpad for basic ideas. It
> can also, in the field, import photos taken by the iPhone 4's built in
> camera. These photos then form a layer that can be immediately annotated
> with geological observations.
>
> To say nothing of the safety value of having a mobile phone in the
> field.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Malcolm McClure
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