Page 1 of 1

Fully Featured Marine Leisure App

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:38 pm
by johnd
I received this email today looking for input from seafaring folk like ourselves. Post your replies below. I will send a link to this post to the sender, Alex.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have just been contracted by the Dept of the Marine and INFOMAR specifically to produce a brief for a new marine electronics product, app, pc program, or whatever transpires. My first inclination is to go the simple route and produce a brief for a smartphone app. Like most boaters I have a love/hate relationship with the Navionics app and the ISA SafeTRX app.

What INFOMAR is looking for is a Marine Leisure product/service that will provide navigation charting with weather, wind, wave (swell), tide, current, safety, etc. overlays (and forecasting) or detail pop-ups for specific user defined locations. They also would like users to be able to upload private and/or public images, geotagged features or items of interest, geotagged dangers, etc.
These lists are subject to your feedback.

My role is to investigate user/stakeholder requirements, available data resources, data infrastructure that could reasonably be added/developed, and to recommend a way this could be accomplished. My timeline is very short for this initial study. They want it in-hand before year end.

As both a user and a stakeholder, your input would be very much appreciated.
• What features would you like to see in such an app? - both useful and essential; both output/display and user input.
• What platform(s) do you think this should run on? smartphone, tablet, pc, MFD, etc.

Thank you very much for your help & feedback

Best regards

Alex

Re: Fully Featured Marine Leisure App

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:22 pm
by fionatrahe
Here's one thing which would be useful, though would need more than just app development as the full data is not readily available.

I had this idea as a result of the meet I organised for ISKA in Co Clare. We paddled around the islands of the Fergus estuary, a beautiful though not well-known part of our coastline.
Though it's potentially easier paddling than off the Atlantic coast as more sheltered from the elements and swell, it's much more challenging from a navigational perspective, i.e. you could easily get marooned on a mud-bank. Or carried out with the tide!
There are strong tidal flows, many areas dry out at LW and the river flow adds to the complexity. So people don't venture out there unless they have a lot of local knowledge. No different to many estuaries or tidal inlets I expect.

So I was wondering if an app could be developed that would predict water depth at any time at any location? And flow direction and strength.If this could be done reliably this would enable a lot more people to access the water safely for kayaking, fishing, visiting the islands, etc.

It should be possible to derive this from tidal charts showing underwater contours and tide tables. However I don't think that would give accurate enough data, and the granularity would probably not be good enough.
e.g. contour lines would need to show a 20cm differential, not a meter.
Using satellite images over a full cycle at a spring tide might be a way to refine the contour chart.
Also sensors collecting data re river height and river flow might also help.
There would ideally be some feedback loop to validate predictions and improve the accuracy over time.

If a good algorithm could be worked out the app could be used to map estuaries all over the world!

Re: Fully Featured Marine Leisure App

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:08 pm
by john.ruston
Theres ref. to multi function kayaking App at this Guide Book thread.
https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/for ... 5&t=128138.
Navionics already harvest end user sonar feedback to update their products.
Hope thats of interest
Is encouraging mass particpation desirable?.
Who would take responsibility for ensuring the folk who built such an application would not be liable for mishaps to users. Sounds a risky undertaking.