Activities Using Bad Elf GPS

Introduction
The purpose of this activity was to become more familiar with the Bad Elf GPS unit by pairing it with a cell phone application and mapping an area on the UW - Eau Claire campus.  The class was split into groups and set off to walk paths/patterns of choice.  Line features were tracked using the Bad Elf, the paths were stored in the iphone app, and maps were to be created from the results.

This activity also had the purpose of exposing students to some other possible cell phone applications that are useful in collecting data and storing them within a cell phone.  These apps include: Collector, Survey 123, GIS4 Mobile, Theodolite, GAIA GPS, and Galileo Offline Maps.  Some of these were to be used later in the class and some others could be useful tools in other projects or recreational activities.  The use of survey GPS units that can pair with cell phones through Bluetooth is becoming increasingly popular because it is cheaper to use cell phone apps than to create a large screen on the same GPS device with the same level of functionality. 

Study Area
The study area was UW - Eau Claire's lower campus, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The map of UW - Eau Claire's lower campus within the city of Eau Claire.

Methods
The first step was to download the Bad Elf App to the iphone.  Next the Bad Elf was used to record a tracklog of the path walked, which could later be exported as a KML or a GPX file by pairing with the cell phone.  Then a logfile was started, and line features were recorded by walking around various sections of lower campus.  Once those were completed the tracklog was uploaded to the phone. Within the phone app then it was shared as a KML in an email to each group member.   This KML was used to create a map in ArcGIS Earth that shows the tracklog from the activity, as seen in the results.


Results

Figure 2: The tracklog is shown in this map in ArcGIS Earth.  

The map in Figure 2 shows the tracklog taken with the Bad Elf GPS.  It is zoomed out quite far because zooming in closer showed imagery that was not up to date where the path would be crossing through old buildings on campus.  Though this result doesn't quite show high accuracy or direction, it is a good example of a quick tracklog that can be taken and uploaded to ArcGIS Earth. 


Conclusion
This activity gave a chance to work with a basic GPS device that can be paired with a cell phone through Bluetooth to connect to an application where the tracklog can be exported to any destination.  It was a simple method for acquiring a fairly accurate path.