Discovering Ancient Pompeii with iPad

[Thomas Goskar]

And following on from the inevitability of Leif's last email about
Google Street View at Pompeii, here's the next one:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/pompeii/

What do people think about the iPad and the tools mentioned?

Cheers,

Tom

[Tom Goskar]

Of course, I meant Street View of Rome. I blame the Steve Jobs reality
distortion field :-)

[Tom Brughmans]

I discussed this with some friends of mine, active in Belgian commercial archaeology units. It seems to make a lot of sense. The iPad is compact, yet large enough to write and draw decently on. Unlike laptops it does not have any opening where rain could seep through, a simple plastic case should be enough to continue working even in the Belgian rain. Many data management apps are already available (databases, spreadsheets, drawing, word processing) and archaeology-specific apps can be developed. It's a popular product so it has a large community of users and support should be easy. With MobileMe data can be sent and retrieved from the cloud and on coming home the results of a day's excavating can be synced with the unit's main data storage or all archaeologists devices. AND it's waaaaay cheaper than those sturdy field computers.
The only thing I would be worried about is that it (and most Apple products) does not allow for much flexibility in data handling. But then again, that could be a plus for many field archaeologists who just need an intuitively understandable interface.

Please share ideas,

Tom

 

PhD Student
Archaeological Computing Research Group
University of Southampton
+32 497699455
7 Merton Road
SO17 3RB Southampton UK
http://archaeologicalnetworks.wordpress.com/

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From: Thomas Goskar <t...@goskar.com>
To: anti...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 12:24:18 PM
Subject: [Antiquist] Discovering Ancient Pompeii with iPad

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[Leif Isaksen]

Hmm - not sure about the quote: "to destroy it is to understand it"!

I agree with Tom that the increase in size could be a major plus over
previous DPA-type experiments although I'm somewhat more dubious of
its robustness. It's also interesting to see that they only seem to be
using off-the-shelf software although that could be just a bias of the
advertisement. I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who's had
practical experience with it tho.

L.

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[Sebastian Rahtz]

>
> The only thing I would be worried about is that it (and most Apple products) does not allow for much flexibility in data handling. But then again, that could be a plus for many field archaeologists who just need an intuitively understandable interface.
>

It could work equally well to use the iPad as a data entry device using web apps, and to have it always online sending data back to the site office. Having a wireless router on site which the iPads could connect to would be cheap and easy.

I am less sure about the interface for drawing. we dont' have good styli for iPad that I can see, and the finger is crude. Still, well worth a try.

I've had an iPad since day 1 and rate it very highly, a really nice device.

Worth noting that the Android equivalents are coming with cameras, which will surely be nice in the archaeological context.
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[Anthony Beck]

<snip>

It could work equally well to use the iPad as a data entry device using web apps, and to have it always online sending data back to the site office.

<\snip>
I'm equally interested in the reverse. Excavators can interpret and contextualise features whilst in receipt of the "full" site archive.The described system does not seem bi-directional.

Whatever the upshot I'd be more interested in the Android devices. And as part of my on-going evangelism for the platform they could also use epi-collect which will soon have a full relational model + the potential of other things including ontologies

A

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[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 24 Sep 2010, at 13:01, Anthony Beck wrote:

>
> I'm equally interested in the reverse. Excavators can interpret and contextualise features whilst in receipt of the "full" site archive.

agree. the possibilities are excellent for instant feedback.

>
> Whatever the upshot I'd be more interested in the Android devices. And as part of my on-going evangelism for the platform they could also use epi-collect which will soon have a full relational model + the potential of other things including ontologies

why would EpiCollect be platform specific? it has an iPhone version, so the iPad would be easy, I assume.

[Anthony Beck]

Your right. sentence inversion. It should have read:

And as part of my on-going evangelism for the platform they could also use epi-collect which will soon have a full relational model + the potential of other things including ontologies. Whatever the upshot I'd be more interested in the Android devices.

Ant

[geoff carver]

Ideally we’d have reflexive systems, with give & take, continuous update, feedback, comparison with material from/in other archives (datamining)…

[Tom Frankland]

I can definitely see a lot of potential in using an iPad, especially
as it provides a simplistic interface which I imagine would be
attractive to the majority of archaeologists compared to a more
specialised solution. In terms of the practicalities of using an iPad
in the field, some companies such as Otterbox have products which make
them a lot more durable: http://www.otterbox.com/ipad-cases/ipad-defender-series-case/,
although this reviewer suggests that waterproofing is possibly still
an issue: http://notebooks.com/2010/08/30/review-otterbox-defender-ipad/.

[Lee Drake]

In Chaco Canyon, we used the iPad to upload old points from surveys in the 1970's, then used the GPS capabilities in the 3G model to target our surveys. It helped speed up the discovery of a few sites (provided that the old data was accurate). 

Also, it held up against dust very well, not one scratch after a week's worth of fieldwork. 

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[geoff carver]

Maybe we shouldn’t all jump on the bandwagon quite yet: Blackberry launches Playbook rival to iPad:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11416190

[Chris Puttick]

Not sure anyone should jump on a bandwagon with such limitations...
but the Android tablets are coming, and in particular ones that will
happily run other operating systems on request, cost less and be more
designed for functionality. I'm waiting for the Adam :)

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[Vitruvius]

Being a Belgian archaeologist working in typical Belgian wether and
now in the possession of an iPad (next to my iPhone and MacBook, using
both of them in function of my archaeological work, and of course
outside my work) I am currently field testing this device, and so far
this is my experience:

- the iPad I use is the cheapest (16GB Wifi only) If only apple would
allow Bluetooth tethering with my iPhone... (I know it can be don if
jailbroken, but I won't do that, period.), so the 3G version would be
better as almost all the data is also on my iDisk (synced).

- protection for the iPad: rubber case (from griffin), screen
protector, and a large enough plastic minigrip bag (wrapping and
taping the spare plastic to fit exactly around the iPad). The iPad is
now more shockproof and as waterproof as the minigrip bag.
It is still usable without taking it out of the bag, even with my
gloves on (conducts enough electricity apparently).
The iPad fits perfectly in the hip bag of my pair of Snickers
worktrousers, so easy to carry around.

- additional software: Numbers, iDraw and Filemaker Go (all for a
"whooping" €47)

- pro: No more entering paper data into the computer, No more wet
paper. No more "ran out of paper forms" situations. No more bad
handwriting (including my own). Battery lasts for 2 day's if Wifi is
off. All data is on it. "let's quickly make a form or spreadsheet for
this or that" is possible. Fast. ...

- con: only one iPad, two teams need an iPad each or one team has an
iPad and the rest has paper. Data can be changed without leaving a
trace (sometimes the erased data is correct of at least useful), not
every program I use is available on the iPad (Qgis, automater scrips),
so I'm still carrying around the MacBook. A camera is not on it (yet).
The odd sketch next to the form is no longer possible (a work around
is an iDraw save and an import form the other app's). Screen not
usable in direct sunlight, so I have to turn or change my position to
see the screen clear enough.

In short: very, very useful. A field notebook is no match for it.
€550 well spend.

[Tom Brughmans]

Following on from this discussion: some more news about using the iPad for archaeology, using an application for Harris matrices. This is getting quite popular!
http://archaeologeek.palaios.eg2.fr/2010/10/19/stratigraphie-sur-ipad/
http://bernews.com/2010/10/bermudian-invention-featured-on-ipad-app/

Tom

[Paul Cripps]

Quote:" It could work equally well to use the iPad as a data entry device using web apps, and to have it always online sending data back to the site office. Having a wireless router on site which the iPads could connect to would be cheap and easy."
Hear hear. This is the approach I'm pushing for. Web apps are the way forward. Hopefully coming to a WA site near you sometime soon ;-)
Local database apps on iPad (or any mobile device) are not great. And using such devices as overblown notepads (ie unstructured data, equivalent to a digital back of fag packet) is a horrendous idea, especially for the kinds of recording systems/structures we currently employ for site recording.
Combine the single database + web apps on mobile devices with some different views of the data again in a mobile browser eg via dynamic Harris Matrices (bit of graph viewer type application needed there), using GIS, etc and we're *really* getting somewhere. Draw using a virtual planning frame approach straight into the mobile GIS view. Grouping via a spatial interface (that that and that make up this...) and we can come off site with a pretty amazing digital record.
Most of this has been done or the principals demonstrated in some fashion or other (virtual planning frame drawing, graph viewers for strat, browser based recording interfaces, grouping via spatial interface). With big screen hardware becoming more accessible, this could actually become reality and the norm for commercial units.
Getting back to the main point, web apps allow us to detach data from application and importantly all share data on site (there can be only one... database that is). Also makes building GIS and other apps against this data much easier and more effective. Also removes complex sync routines (although the onsite server does need to punt stuff off to the cloud or office for backup and analysis and augmentation).
As Ant says, no reason why the (nightly) field to office backup can't pull data back down also. Make eg finds assessments available as they happen or enviro data accessible. Close that feedback loop as much as possible.
As for platform, I'm agnostic. I really don't care as long as it has a standards complaint web browser, comms, good quality big touchscreen and can put up with rain and mud. iPad sounds great, android and other tablets fine. Whatever does the job best.

Sorry to come to this a bit late, just catching up whilst a process runs... very... slowly...

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