Posts Tagged ‘ Ipad ’

Contact Omega for more information (Disclosure: I have no financial ties to this program……….but I am partial to it ) 

Found a neat little App over the weekend for the IPad. Map Draw

This is a pretty basic program that allows the user to draw fairly interactive designs over maps. This type of App would be very useful in the Location Based Policing model as it allows for portability, personal customization, and share-ability. How neat would it be for a supervisor to map out areas of interest prior to a shift and simply email the areas to the appropriate officers. Might even save some trees from the paper mill…..

Some highlights from the program (App costs $1.99):

• Use your finger to draw on the map. Our touch system makes plotting your route easy and accurate, and total distance is stored. This is the perfect tool for dynamically mapping a route or run on the IPad.
• Maps support forward geocoding, allowing you to search for any location by name or address.
• Use the zoom to location feature for easy access to your current location when drawing a route.
• Map type can be toggled between standard, satellite, and hybrid. The type is stored and remembered for each individual map.
• Plotting contains undo and clear-all support.
• Each map you create is stored in a journal-style interface for easy access. Every entry is plotted on a graphic map display.
• Journal interface is customizable.
• Application supports both landscape and portrait orientations.
• All Saved routes can be freely edited at any time. Changes are saved automatically.
• Information is cached locally, allowing you to view a route and map offline. However for pinching and zooming, an internet connection is recommended.
• Maps can be exported via email, or saved directly to the device in the photo library.
• All exported maps can be freely drawn on, allowing you to add additional notes, or paint directly on the map like a canvas.
• Application contains built-in help and support, is intuitive and easy to use

Redlands Police Department is also doing some work with Location Based Services (LBS) in policing. I know they were awarded a grant through the NIJ at about the same time as the Lincoln Police Department. I know that their research is also ongoing, but I thought I would share this video that they have floating around out there:

Initially, it seems as though they are focusing primarily on hardware, i.e. IPad and IPhone. Hardware is definitely going to be in the discussion as far as Location Based Policing (LBP) goes. One thing to keep in mind about LBP is that it is going to require some sort of computing device to display the information. This form factor could come in many shapes and sizes (and in some ways we can’t imagine yet). Android devices, Apple devices, Blackberry, and Mobile Data Terminals are all possibilities. You also have the preferences on laptop vs. phone vs. tablet vs. “fill in the blank”. Some people would say that requiring some sort of hardware is a “drawback” to LBP, but I would disagree. The last thing we as a nation want is for the bad guys to have (and utilize) better technology than the men and women sworn to catch them.