Tap and Map is a prototype Android application, used in participatory projects to map local resources. The Tap and Map prototype is consisted of (a) a series of NFC cards, each with an icon representing a point of interest to be mapped; and (b) a smartphone application. Each card is equipped with a NFC tag and acts as a tangible user interface. The application reacts when one of the ‘control’ cards is touched on the device. When, for example, a participant wants to record a point of interest, such as a medicinal tree, he or she could: (a) select the appropriate card from a stack of cards i.e. the medicinal card; (b) touch the card to the phone while standing as close as possible to the site to be mapped. That simple pairing would trigger then the device to read the user’s location from the GPS sensor and store it along with other necessary metadata (such as the selected card, device id, time, etc.).
This software is developed as part of an ERC funded project called ECSAnVis by the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group at University College London. Our aim is to enable people with no or limited literacy – in the strict and broader technological sense – to use smartphones and tablets to collect, share, and analyse (spatial) data. Tap and Map is a prototype planned to be used in a variety of projects related to environmental monitoring. It enables communities, regardless of social and geographical background, to map their environment and any threats it faces. Find out more about our research projects here.
If you want to get involved, chat about the project or have any other queries, please do get in touch via Michalis Vitos at michalis.vitos@ucl.ac.uk
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.