Fossickers / Prospectors - iPad / iPhone / Android App in development

Hi All,

I just signed up as a site sponsor for 2 years. Nuggets in the process of upgrading my account which I am told will take a while as he is going on leave

So I am building an iPad / iPhone / Android App for Fossickers / Prospectors.

Heres your chance to be part of the development of a new product. I want to involve you all in the process right from the very start.

I want to build an app that is driven by your needs and wishes, based on your real world experiences out in the field, not something that a software developer dreamed up one night and thought was a good idea.

I am being up front with you, I will be selling this on iTunes / Google Play for a modest fee. However I will be asking you what you think its worth once we have it all working the way you want it to work.

So whats in it for you well I will also be making it available free of charge to Prospecting Australia forum members as a thank you for all the great information people have been sharing with me via the forum and for your invaluable help in producing this new product.

So given all that what features would you like to see in this new product?

Cheers,

Grant

maps that show national park boundaries relative to your GPS location

GPS enabled maps so you can navigate to or around crown land features and the boundaries of existing EL's and ML's

GPS enabled mapping on mineralogical and radiometric maps

EL and ML data optional to turn on and off that tells you the expiry , holders name and mineral types

maybe Joe can design a chest mount harness for the Ipad ( mini ) so you can fold it down , check your location , and fold it back up again

howzat so far ?

Sounds good, just have to check out how to get access to the data for all that. Also have to be careful with Privacy Laws regarding holders name, but if it is on the public record it should be ok.

Love the chest mount idea. Joe is pretty handy at that sort of thing.

Lists of fossicking areas across Australia
A note pad style thing for putting info about your finds/where,pics,be able to pin the location on a map
Instant messenger

I would like to see audio output mapping with gps coordinates, [1] so I don't walk over the same area twice [2] audio frequency mapping matrix to objects [3] review and be able to analyse data from the trip[4] sharing data optional with other prospectors to avoid trashed, overprospected areas.

Good luck with the app

[5] GPS messenger , for emergency
[6] alerts on old mines and shafts

Thanks fellows some great ideas there.

The messenger bit may be tricky as when you are out in the bush as you don't always have an internet connection so you shouldn't rely on it in an emergency situation. It could definitely tell you your GPS Lat / Long co-ords to give to an emergency operator via a voice call over a Sat Phone.

The GPS is also device dependent. If the device has GPS then I will try and support its use.

>A note pad style thing for putting info about your finds/where,pics,be able to pin the location on a map.

I was thinking it could also store the info locally on the device and then you could sync the data back to your PC at home to load it into your favourite mapping tool like Google Earth.

Good on you mate been wanting someone to do this for a while.
Fpr me its all about layers mostly in vic geovic data I.e.e leads working detail etc. O e app I use allows me to import old maps and syc them with locatipns to give estimates of location.

Adding waypoints with the ability to take a photo and link to the waypoint and snyc with cloud feature so o can show people where ive been and look at tgis on my pc as well.

Good luck with it mate

Good luck with the app Grant. Sounds like an amazing tool.
For someone like me a GPS emergency locating signal would be handy [with a auto dialling signal]
Good luck again

Thanks for the encouragement fellows it is greatly appreciated.

I will make a start on the mapping side of things as that seems to be the main feature people want and post some screenshots to get your opinion on the layout and usage aspects of it.

This is a great idea Grant, good on you for having the determination to go through with it. I do not even have a smart phone or Ipad so it would not benefit me agreat deal but I was thinking maybe a feature could be to detail what type of gold was found in each location eg: alluvial, reef, fine coarse or shotty etc. It might be a stretch but then people may be able to figure out if an area is worth doing their type of prospecting in, detecting or panning?

Good luck with it.
Cheers

Great idea Gcause. Thanks for making it available to us. i am sure we will be all over it.
Thanks again.

Hi Gcause,
You certainly have a great idea/concept with this project; Could you include UTM as well as Lat/Long, it's much easier to work in meters when transferring waypoints to and from paper maps and GPS, rather than juggling degrees minutes and seconds?
Best of luck.
Cheers, SinHof.

Hi Gcause

Thanks for involving our community in your software development project...

Previously working in the software development industry, and currently I am an IT Project Manager, I understand the complexities of what you are trying to undertake.

May I suggest that you publish your requirements document to this forum which should outline what the purpose of the software is? If you want to be successful, you have rightly pointed out that the requirements should not come from the developer who had a light bulb idea... even though you as the developer have "subject matter expertise"... If you are trying to gather requirements from the members here on the forum - you will most likely have a range of requests that are "one offs" meaning they won't be used by many if any users except the guy who requested it!

Computers have been around for a long time in business and home use - a mobile device is very similar to a PC with the added capability of being able to operate it on the move. (Laptops have been able to do this for a while now) What do you see as the point of difference developing a mobile app as opposed to a PC program? You have already highlighted that the device will probably not have internet connectivity in remote locations. Other than GPS capaibilities the humble mobile phone or iPad is actually less capable than a PC. The only upside I can see is the App Store and distirbution channels.

As a user of the "app" - I would also be concerned about what data is actually transferred from mobile device to your server and what you intend to do with that information. If I found the next Welcome Stranger nugget, for example - I am not sure I would want to share the location of where I found it. Will it report back to base with the prospectors movements for example?

Very interesting concept!

Just want to say good luck!
I'll try to think of some ideas.

Paulmarr said:

Hi Gcause

Thanks for involving our community in your software development project...

Previously working in the software development industry, and currently I am an IT Project Manager, I understand the complexities of what you are trying to undertake.

May I suggest that you publish your requirements document to this forum which should outline what the purpose of the software is? If you want to be successful, you have rightly pointed out that the requirements should not come from the developer who had a light bulb idea... even though you as the developer have "subject matter expertise"... If you are trying to gather requirements from the members here on the forum - you will most likely have a range of requests that are "one offs" meaning they won't be used by many if any users except the guy who requested it!

Computers have been around for a long time in business and home use - a mobile device is very similar to a PC with the added capability of being able to operate it on the move. (Laptops have been able to do this for a while now) What do you see as the point of difference developing a mobile app as opposed to a PC program? You have already highlighted that the device will probably not have internet connectivity in remote locations. Other than GPS capaibilities the humble mobile phone or iPad is actually less capable than a PC. The only upside I can see is the App Store and distirbution channels.

As a user of the "app" - I would also be concerned about what data is actually transferred from mobile device to your server and what you intend to do with that information. If I found the next Welcome Stranger nugget, for example - I am not sure I would want to share the location of where I found it. Will it report back to base with the prospectors movements for example?

Very interesting concept!

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Thanks for that. I have over 28 years in the Software industry so am very familiar with all that I am a Project Manager by trade also. The bulk of my projects have been around bespoke (custom) software development.

The main difference I see with the mobile devices is just that, they are mobile and can be carried out into the field easily. They are also now at a point where they are ubiquitous with a great percentage of the population having these devices. True mobile devices have their limits but they now also have a lot of sensors built into them, cameras, GPS, accelerometers, etc making for some interesting possibilities regarding functionality.

To address your last question first. No it wont report back to base. Mate I am a fossicker / prospector too I have the same privacy concerns as everyone else even moreso as a software developer as I must comply with the Australian Privacy Act.

Given the amount of "rare" finds like that do I really want to be recording every junk target out there in the hope that one day someone finds something of value in another state, potentially in another country, that I would have no hope of ever getting to in the vain hope of making my way there in order to make another "rare" find. I think not.

I hope I made it clear when someone mentioned the Cloud that it would store the data locally on the device and only sync back to your own PC so you could load it into your favourite mapping software. I am thinking of the old briefcase model as it used to be called in the software industry. Now known as "sometimes-connected devices".

Cloud based solutions come with their own host of issues not the least of which is cost. Imagine the cost of a whole swag of prospectors out there loading data on their devices into the Cloud on a per transaction cost basis that I would then be liable to pay. You have to be careful with the Cloud providers as to what they class as a "transaction". I could easily use a Cloud provider such as Parse for example but I would need to weigh up the pros / cons of doing so very carefully before I committed to doing that. Right now I cant see a business case for doing so, if I did later then again I would be upfront about it with the members.

If I were ever to get the device to report back to base it would only be for error reporting so I could fix the errors quickly but again that would only be done on an opt in basis.

I hope that addresses everyones concerns regarding privacy.

As to the process I am gathering user requirements at present. I will be applying an "Agile" prototyping technique where I will put out a time limited version of the software for feedback and then supply another on a fortnightly cycle. I prefer to have something more tangible, that is working software rather than wads of documents. I want to ship often and early so I can get as much feedback as possible on the app and its usage while it is still in development.

Appreciate your comments and hope I have addressed everything for you.

Cheers,

Grant

SinHof said:

Hi Gcause,
You certainly have a great idea/concept with this project; Could you include UTM as well as Lat/Long, it's much easier to work in meters when transferring waypoints to and from paper maps and GPS, rather than juggling degrees minutes and seconds?
Best of luck.
Cheers, SinHof.

Click to expand...

Hi SinHof,

Depending on the mapping data sets / layers I can get access to and how they represent their data I will see what I can do about this.

It may be best done as an options setting so people can choose which they want to use by default.

Cheers,

Grant

MJB said:

This is a great idea Grant, good on you for having the determination to go through with it. I do not even have a smart phone or Ipad so it would not benefit me agreat deal but I was thinking maybe a feature could be to detail what type of gold was found in each location eg: alluvial, reef, fine coarse or shotty etc. It might be a stretch but then people may be able to figure out if an area is worth doing their type of prospecting in, detecting or panning?

Good luck with it.
Cheers

Click to expand...

I'll make a note of it and get back to you on this, need to see where best to get this data from.

It might also be good for the operator to note down finds and identify patterns in the areas they prospect.

Good Evening Gcause,
Thanks for the reply, I had a fair bit of exposure to mapping, navigation with lat and long back in my flying days; however working and navigating through the bush, as you would be aware; UTM is much more user friendly.
Currently I'm working with a Garmin Montana 650T and Garmin Basecamp on my PC's and old laptop, what you are proposing sounds like it will advance what I'm working with at the moment to a whole new level; I look forward to watching the AP grow and come to fruition, lets hope all goes well for you.
Cheers, SinHof.

Thanks Grant

With all of your experience I look forward to your new app - good luck!