AEGIS Recorder

The Advisory Unit is an independent organisation offering ICT services and educational software to schools

The Advisory Unit develops and publishes good quality educational software that has been tried and tested in schools over many years including AEGIS 3 - An Educational Geographic Information System.

Project Specification - Adapt and develop existing form design and data collection modules from AditForm so that they would seemlessly integrate with the AEGIS GIS.

Now available as a commercial product - AEGIS Recorder for Pocket PC

AEGIS Recorder enables you to design your own recording form on your PC and then transfer it to your handheld computer for gathering data in the field.


Data from several different users in the field can be brought together on your desktop for reporting, graphing, mapping etc.

Features

AEGIS Recorder offers a wide range of data gathering options including:

• Drop down menus



• Automatic date selection



• Automatic GPS readings



• Linking to a digital camera/microphone



• Linking to image banks



• Multiple choice questionnaires



• Web and email link



• Simple mathematical formulae

Sample data form

This form has 11 fields set up (sample survey of squirrels) and illustrates some of the different ways in which data may be collected:

Caption for field, as shown on form	Data type	Explanation
Location	Current position via GPS or manually	Enables the GPS on the PDA to be accessed and the grid reference is automatically entered into the record. The user can alternatively type in the grid reference manually.
Squirrel	Dropdown list	The user can choose one of several items from a Dropdown List. In this case it is Grey or Red.
Choose Date	Date Selection	The date can be entered via the onscreen calendar.
Sex	Dropdown list	The user can choose one of several items from a Dropdown List. Here it is Male or Female.
Habitat	Multi-select list	A list of tree types has been set up so that more than one can be chosen.
Temperature	Numeric only	Numeric data entry
Wind speed	Numeric only	Numeric data entry
Land use	Dropdown list	Choosing one entry from a list
Picture file	File selection	Take photo and browse for digital photo file name to link to the record.
Web page/display file	URL or file name	To enable user in field to access additional information. In this case, it is identification features for the red and grey squirrel and a page on the project website.
Notes field	Text field	Type text and or numbers relating to this record

General Product Description
It's easy to capture data from the outdoor classroom with the GPS/PDA AEGIS Recorder software. Enter your data, including GPS readings, take photos of the survey sites, then send the data back to the PC.

When in AEGIS display your data and photos instantly to a map in the correct places

The Advisory Unit offers a new piece of software to facilitate data collection in the field using a PDA, if you are already already using the company's mid-range Aegis software.

Aegis Recorder allows the creation of an electronic form which can be transferred by cable, infrared or Bluetooth to a handheld PDA which will also record GPS data (if the device's specification allows).

This will locate any pictures taken on the device's phone, so as to create instant maps and key information as "hotspots".

These can then be transferred back to a PC.

Fieldwork

Alan Kinder, a geography advisory teacher for Barking and Dagenham who has been testing the device, has been impressed with how easy it is to use:
'This is the first program I have used that allows pupils to very simply and quickly design their own data-sheet, take this into the field, record their data and see that data mapped in a GIS package within minutes of returning to the classroom'.

For further information on this project, please see our partner's website - The Advisory Unit

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