New Geo-tracker is a mobile application that supports large-scale research initiatives including censuses, polls, and market research.
Behind the mobile application sits a powerful backend server converting the raw geographical data (shape files) into a database. At the database level geographical data is enriched with contextual attributes like supervisor or interviewer before it is sliced into logical subsets called work areas. The work areas can be edited in a pre-publishing area before they are released to the respective interviewers, analogous to a content management system
Once published, the data is distributed to the handheld devices via an internet connection or SD card and interview data is sent back to the server periodically via the same mechanism. The data accumulated on the server can be used to run built-in statistics or transferred to more sophisticated statistical analysis software.
Pre-Publishing
We support various types of data transformations in order to make data suitable for mobile use. Feature data like polygons, lines and points are all accepted in the form of standard shape files. Shape files are simply uploaded via a web browser into our server software, which automatically intersects all geo points and lines with polygons. Each polygon represents a work area or ‘parcel’. In other words, each geo point and line is aware of which polygon or which parcel it belongs to.
Following this, parcels can be further enriched with territorial information such as region or province. At this stage, a responsible person ‘supervisor’ and an agent ‘interviewer’ can be assigned if already known. We recommend assigning a supervisor, so that this appointed person will be able to assign or re-assign an agent to any parcel that they are responsible for.
Data in the pre-publishing area is visible only to people with the corresponding authorizations. Once all pre-publishing actions are completed the data can be released into the published area where it can be distributed to mobile devices.
Publishing
Published data can further be edited by reassigning supervisors or agents, in order to correct mistakes in terms of geographical attributes.
Mobile devices will always be synchronized with the published database via the internet or SD card.
Android App
The Android app has been implemented with consideration of cost and is compatible with Android 4.1 Jellybean. These devices can be procured for a low cost, while remaining powerful enough to run the application. Of course, any newer device will improve the user experience. We have successfully tested our app with devices ranging from Android 4.1 up to the very recent 6.0.
The app holds all data in a local SQL database, map data is also stored offline and can be updated when required, ensuring that there are no dependencies during the data collection process.
Cloud or On-Premise
The Geo-tracker can be deployed On-Premise or in the Cloud depending on customer needs. However, we recommend our customers to use the Cloud model in order to minimize total cost of ownership.