The Convergence of Augmented Reality and GIS

Today is GIS Day, a day started in 1999 to showcase the many uses of geographical information systems (GIS). Earlier blog posts by Locus Technologies for GIS day have shown how GIS supports cutting-edge visualization of objects in space and over time. This year’s post explains how GIS supports augmented reality.

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that enhances how we experience the real world by overlaying your surroundings with computer-generated objects. It differs from virtual reality (VR) because in VR, everything you see is computer generated, but in AR, the majority of what you see is real – your experience of reality is enhanced (augmented) but not totally replaced.

You are probably familiar with one AR application already if you watch American football. The ‘virtual’ first down line that appears on field before each play is projected there by computer and is not really painted on the field. If you follow soccer (or football to the rest of the world), AR is used by a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to objectively determine tight offsides decisions. Digital lines are drawn across the field to show whether or not attackers are illegally past the last defender or not. Another AR example is the popular game Pokémon Go that shows cute virtual creatures in your living room or your front yard.

To experience AR, you need something to project the non-real objects onto your view of the world. Many AR applications use mobile phones or other devices. An AR application uses the camera view to show you the world around you and then overlays virtual objects onto the view. Other devices such as head mounted displays, ‘smart glasses’, or even ‘bionic contact lenses’ can use AR, but have not been as popular as phones or other mobile devices. In contrast to AR, VR cannot be fully supported with just a mobile device and usually requires headsets to immerse you in a virtual world. Because of this need, AR is much less intrusive than VR is.

Countless other examples of AR already exist in many fields. A few selected applications include:

  • Online shoppers at some e-commerce sites can use smart devices to project furniture into their home to see how the pieces look before making a purchase.
  • Some clothing stores can project clothing onto shoppers’ bodies to check appearance without having to change clothes. These applications require the user to be in a special dressing booth with full body scanning capabilities.
  • Urban planners use AR to display how planned buildings, cell towers, wind turbines, and other structures would look in the existing space. Planners can walk the streets and view how proposed projects would alter the existing cityscape.
  • AR is used in manufacturing to display operation and safety instructions in a worker’s field of vision using head mounted displays, which circumvents the need to refer to bulky paper manuals.
  • Utility managers can see underground pipelines, water lines, sewer pipes, electrical lines, and other infrastructure projected below their feet.

So how does GIS relate to AR? There are three main uses of GIS in AR:

  • Location: Any AR application must know where the user is and where to place virtual objects. In most cases, full GIS capabilities are not needed; instead, the application accesses a GPS (global positioning system) to find locations. Consider the Pokémon Go application mentioned before. The game knows where the various Pokémon need to appear. When a user plays the game, it uses GPS to find the user, and then shows any Pokémon that are near the user based on their locations.
  • Layers: An AR application may need to show features that are not visible to the user, such as underground electrical lines, earthquake fault lines, property lines, or planned buildings. All these features can be stored as GIS map layers in the cloud and then displayed in the AR application as virtual overlays projected on the real world. Furthermore, a user could select a displayed item and view related attribute information in the GIS layer. For example, a user could view the condition, age, and repair status of a selected water pipeline.
  • Navigation: An AR application may also need to help a user get from point A to point B, for example in a crowded airport or in a large warehouse. Such navigation could be facilitated by showing virtual route markers and arrows on the real world.

Locus has been exploring environmental uses of AR and GIS by adding AR to Locus Mobile, which is the Locus app for collecting field data, completing EHS audits, tracking waste containers, and completing other tasks requiring users to gather data out of the office. Locus Mobile now features an AR mode to assist users when taking field samples. When the user activates AR mode, the app uses the camera to show the user’s immediate area. The app then puts multiple virtual markers on the display corresponding to sampling points located in that direction. As the user moves or rotates the phone to change the viewing area, the markers change to reflect the locations in the user’s line of sight. Clicking a marker provides more information including the location name and the distance from the user.

Locus Mobile uses all three ways to combine GIS with AR:

  • By using GPS to find the user’s location and the locations of nearby sampling points.
  • By using GIS to display the layer of sampling points.
  • By using GIS to assist with navigation to sampling points by showing distance and direction.

Here is a sample image from Locus Mobile showing three nearby sampling locations along with information about past events or measurements at the locations. The three blue banners are the augmented reality displayed on top of the view of the nearby surroundings.

Locus Augmented Reality

By using GIS and AR to assist users in finding sampling points, Locus Mobile makes field personnel more productive. Samplers can find field locations quickly and can easily pull up related information. Locus continues to explore using AR to expand the functionality of its environmental applications.

Interested in Locus’ GIS solutions?

Locus GIS+ features all of the functionality you love in EIM’s classic Google Maps GIS for environmental management—integrated with the powerful cartography, interoperability, & smart-mapping features of Esri’s ArcGIS platform!

[sc_button link=”https://www.locustec.com/applications/gis-mapping/” text=”Learn more about Locus’ GIS solutions” link_target=”_self” color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#52a6ea” centered=”1″]

[sc_image width=”150″ height=”150″ src=”16303″ style=”11″ position=”centered” disable_lightbox=”1″ alt=”Dr. Todd Pierce”]

About the Author—Dr. Todd Pierce, Locus Technologies

Dr. Pierce manages a team of programmers tasked with development and implementation of Locus’ EIM application, which lets users manage their environmental data in the cloud using Software-as-a-Service technology. Dr. Pierce is also directly responsible for research and development of Locus’ GIS (geographic information systems) and visualization tools for mapping analytical and subsurface data. Dr. Pierce earned his GIS Professional (GISP) certification in 2010.

The Horrors of Excel for Data Management

Locus has been preaching on the pitfalls of Excel for a long time. It’s no surprise that one of the worst imaginable errors in Excel that could’ve happened, did. Almost 16,000 COVID-19 cases in England went unreported because Public Health England hit the maximum row count in their version of Excel.

This is not the only example of Excel being misused or being the wrong tool entirely for the job. Excel is not in any way a data management system for complex or vital data. When it comes to sustainability reporting and environmental data management, the evils of the grid are a force to be reckoned with. We have highlighted a few examples that will have you shivering.

Excel Horrors - Evils of Autofill

Case 1: The Evils of Autofill

Take a look at this harmless-looking chart. It shows monthly electricity consumption for a facility set to report:

Month  Monthly Electricity Consumption (MWh) 
January 2019  133,500 
February 2019  122,400 
March 2019  138,900 
April 2019  141,600 
May 2019  141,601 
June 2019  141,602 
July 2019  141,603 
August 2019  141,604 
September 2019  141,605 
October 2019  141,606 
November 2019  141,607 
December 2019  141,608 

During review, the auditor notices a distinct trend from April to December, indicating false data overwritten by a stray double-click. Eventually, the auditor required re-entering all invoice data for dozens of facilities to correct the issue. Where the original data went and how autofill went astray remains a mystery.

 

Excel Horrors - Phantom File Editor

Case 2: The Phantom File Editor

Imagine using a massive spreadsheet with lots of linked calculations for your annual sustainability report. One of the team engineers works on the file to input more data and get it ready for presentation. But in the final steps, they accidentally delete one of the formulas that sum up the indicators. The annual total looks great for the presentation since you’ve effectively removed a portion of your resource consumption, but afterwards you discover the conclusions were incorrectly calculated.  How did that error get introduced?  The spreadsheet has no auditing capabilities on the individual values, so you may never know.

Excel supports multiple users editing one document simultaneously, but not well.  Multiple records are saved, edits are lost, and vital data vanishes, or at best is very hard to recover. The Track Changes feature is not infallible, and over reliance on it will cause hardship.

Excel Horrors - Date of the Dead

Case 3: Date of the Dead

Excel has a frustrating insistence of changing CAS numbers into dates, even if they are something like “7440-09-7″ turning into September 7, 7400. If you’re not explicit in your cell formatting, Excel isn’t happy leaving values as they are.

 

Excel Horrors - Imposter Numbers

Case 4: Imposter Numerical Values

You meant to type 1.5, but you typed “1..5” or “.1.5”. Does Excel reject these imposter numbers or let you know of a potential error? No, it’s stored in Text format. This can throw off any averages or sums you may be tracking. This minor identity theft can cause a real headache.

 

 

Other Significant Cases:

Other data quality issues with using Excel include, but are not limited to:

  • Locations with multiple variations of the same ID/name (e.g., MW-1, MW-01, MW 1, MW1, etc.)
  • Use of multiple codes for the same entity (e.g., SW and SURFW for surface water samples)
  • Loss of significant figures for numeric data
  • Special characters (such as commas) that may cause cells to break unintentionally over rows when moving data into another application
  • Bogus dates like “November 31” in columns that do not have date formats applied to them
  • Loss of leading zeros associated with cost codes and projects numbers (e.g., “005241”) that have only numbers in them but must be stored as text fields
  • The inability to enforce uniqueness, leading to duplicate entries
  • Null values in key fields (because entries cannot be marked as required)
  • Hidden rows and/or columns that can cause data to be shifted unintentionally or modified erroneously
  • Inconsistent use of lab qualifiers— in some cases, these appear concatenated in the same Excel column (e.g., “10U, <5”) while in other cases they appear in separate columns

As you can see, the horrors of Excel are common, and terrifying. Without a proper system of record, auditing features, and the ability for data to vanish into the ephemera, Excel offers little in the way of data security and quality for organizations managing vital environmental and compliance data. Many are learning firsthand the superiority of database management systems over spreadsheets when it comes to managing data. Now is the time to examine the specific shortcomings of your current system and consider your options.

Contact us today to learn how Locus makes complex data management a little less spooky!

    Name

    Company Email

    Phone

    Tell us about your company's needs

    Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

    7 Useful Visualization Tools for Environmental Management

    The ability to visualize your field and analytical data across maps, logs, and charts is a crucial part of managing environmental information. Locus makes it easy to visually display and export data for sharing in reports and presentations. We’ve compiled 7 of the most useful visualization tools in our environmental information management software.

    Data Callouts

    View your data in easy-to-read text boxes right on your maps. These are location-specific crosstab reports listing analytical, groundwater, or field readings. A user first creates a data callout template using a drag-and-drop interface in the EIM enhanced formatted reports module. The template can include rules to control data formatting (for example, action limit exceedances can be shown in red text). When the user runs the template for a specific set of locations, EIM displays the callouts in the GIS+ as a set of draggable boxes. The user can finalize the callouts in the GIS+ print view and then send the resulting map to a printer or export the map to a PDF file.

    Locus GIS Data Callouts

    Graduated Symbols

    Locus GIS features high-quality and industry specific graduated symbols so that you can compare relative quantitative data on customizable maps. Choose graduated symbol intervals, sizes, and colors from a large selection of color ramps and create multiple layers for data analysis. It also features a location clustering option, ideal for large sites, a historical challenge for mapping.

    Intellus GIS+ maps

    Charting

    Multiple charts can be created in EIM at one time. Charts can then be formatted using the Format tab. Formatting can include the ability to add milestone lines and shaded date ranges for specific dates on the x axis. The user can also change font, legend location, line colors, marker sizes and types, date formats, legend text, axis labels, grid line intervals or background colors. In addition, users can choose to display lab qualifiers next to non-detects, show non-detects as white filled points, show results next to data points, add footnotes, change the y-axis to log scale, and more. All of the format options can be saved as a chart style set and applied to sets of charts when they are created.

    Screenshots of EIM chemistry plots menu with two sample plots

    Time Sliders

    Locus has adopted animation in its GIS+ solution, which lets a user use a “time slider” to animate chemical concentrations over time. When a user displays EIM data on the GIS+ map, the user can decide to create “time slices” based on a selected date field. The slices can be by century, decade, year, month, week or day, and show the maximum concentration over that time period. Once the slices are created, the user can step through them manually or run them in movie mode.

    GIS+ time slider in action

    Augmented Reality

    Locate and identify inspection and/or monitoring locations on your mobile device. View real-time and historical environmental data to quickly find areas of interest for your chemical and subsurface data. Use your camera to get precise geotagged information for spills, safety incidents, historical chemical sources, subsurface utilities, or any other type of EHS data.

    Locus Augmented Reality

    Boring Logs

    Create and display clickable boring logs of your sample data—using custom style formats and cross-sections. Show depth ranges, lithology patterns, aquifer information, and detailed descriptions for your samples.

    Locus GIS+ boring logs on groundwater contour lines

    Contours

    Create and visualize custom contours using multiple algorithms. Because visualizations let you chunk items together, you can look at the ‘big picture” and not get lost in tables of data results. Your working memory stays within its capacity, your analysis of the information becomes more efficient, and you can gain new insights into your data.

    Contour map for groundwater in Locus GIS+

     

    Contact us to see more

    Send us your contact information and a Locus representative will be in touch to discuss your organization’s environmental data management needs and provide an estimate, or set up a free demo of our enterprise environmental software solutions.

      Name

      Company Email

      Phone

      Tell us about your company's needs

      Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

      6 Ways To Get Data Into Your EHS System

      Locus provides multiple methods to populate EHS, ESG, or any environmental data, including the following:

      6 Ways to Input Data

       

      Integrations

      Locus provides a full suite of REST API’s, and SDK that can be used to populate data from external data sources. Typical uses include utility data, CEMS, meter data and IoT data.

       

      Surveys

      Locus Survey tool enables you to issue survey questionnaires to people outside your organization, and enables them to securely and seamlessly respond directly into the survey form. Typical uses include supplier surveys, audits and customer questionnaires.

       

      Mobile

      User input forms can be optimized for input on a phone or tablet, which allows quick uploads of photos and also geotags your data so you can ensure it was collected at the right location.

       

      Excel and Text Files

      Locus provides a full suite of Excel upload tools that allow you to import data directly from Excel or CSV files. This option also allows you to work offline and re-sync your data later. Typical uses include laboratory data, periodic monitoring data and data migrations.

       

      Manual Data

      Like any system, Locus provides tools for users to directly enter data into the system. These include Locus sophisticated data validation tools which employs machine learning techniques to identify data entries which may be invalid, with visual indications of the expect range or ranges.

       

      Email

      Locus can be configured to directly read email input (as text) and place it into the system. Typical uses include instances where external users initiate a conversation, which then may be responded to from within the system, such as an inquiry, issue, or an incident report.

      Contact us to learn more

      Send us your contact information and a Locus representative will be in touch to discuss your organization’s environmental data management needs and provide an estimate, or set up a free demo of our enterprise environmental software solutions.

        Name

        Company Email

        Phone

        Tell us about your company's needs

        Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

        Automate Your Vapor Intrusion Management

        The Vapor Intrusion tools in Locus’ Environmental Information Management (EIM) software solve the problem of time-consuming monitoring, reporting, and mitigation by automating data assembly, calculations, and reporting.

        Locus Vapor Intrusion Solutions

        Quickly and easily generate validated reports in approved formats, with all of the calculations completed according to your specific regulatory requirements. Companies can set up EIM for its investigation sites and realize immediate cost and time savings during each reporting period.

        Locus EIM Devices

        Contact us to see the Vapor Intrusion tool in action

        Send us your contact information and a Locus representative will be in touch to discuss your organization’s environmental data management needs and provide an estimate, or set up a free demo of our enterprise environmental software solutions.

          Name

          Company Email

          Phone

          Tell us about your company's needs

          Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

          PFAS Drinking Water Regulations by State

          Are stricter PFAS standards coming your way?

          PFAS chemicals were first invented in the 1930s and have since been used in several applications from non-stick coatings to waterproof fabrics to firefighting foams. In recent years, PFAS studies and research funding have increased remarkably, but as of right now the EPA has yet to implement regulations on the chemicals. Many states have leapfrogged the EPA by implementing regulations on PFAS use, safe PFAS levels in drinking water, and by suing manufacturers of PFAS chemicals. This creates a complex set of regulatory requirements, depending on where you operate.

          Updated August 30, 2021

          PFAS Lawsuits and Drinking Water Limits in US

          Locus offers software solutions for PFAS management and tracking. Our EHS software features tools to manage multiple evolving regulatory standards, as well as sample planning, analysis, validation, and regulatory reporting—with mobile and GIS mapping functionality. Simplify tracking and management of PFAS chemicals while improving data quality and quality assurance. With future PFAS regulations being an inevitability, the time is right to adopt a software that can track and manage these and other chemicals.

          Contact us to see Locus’ PFAS management solution

            Name

            Company Email

            Phone

            Tell us about your company's needs

            Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

            Environmental Reports Tailored to Your Needs

            Companies across a wide array of industries utilize Locus Environmental Information Management (EIM) software. Some examples include petroleum companies with over 6,000 sites, fracking companies with 3,000 plus sites, leading chemical corporations, engineering firms, private and public water utilities, DOE facilities, Native American tribes, aerospace companies, representatives of the electronics industry, and more. There is not a single report that these companies share in common, and as such, our approach to reporting recognizes our customers’ diversity.

            DMR builder and report in EIM

            Instead of focusing on canned reports, we provide users with the tools to build their own custom reports—enabling them to design exactly what they need, either independently or along with our stellar support team. To make the transition to Locus EIM as easy as possible, we ask our customers about their top reporting priorities. Then, we build reports to match their specifications during the implementation process to be up and running from day one. Not only does this facilitate the transition to our system, but it also gives our customers examples of how to build their custom reports.

             

            Grid Reports

            Before we delve into EIM’s formatted reports module, keep in mind that many of our customers’ reporting needs are met by EIM’s grids. For example, here is a sample grid populated with analytical results that match some previously chosen selection criteria:

            Locus EIM Grids

            One-click and this becomes an Excel spreadsheet (or any of a range of file formats) to which you can add a title, edit the column headers as needed, and if required, engage in further formatting.

            Locus EIM Grid Report

             

            Formatted Reports

            Let’s now move on to EIM’s formatted reports module. Templates provide EIM with instructions concerning report layouts, content, and formatting. They do not address which records stored in EIM are to appear in the report. Template creation requires more in-depth knowledge of EIM and needs to be done only once for any given report format. Running a report is a more straightforward task. The same report can be re-run any number of times using different selection criteria. For example, it is not uncommon for a customer to print a monthly, quarterly, or even annual report using the same template. All that changes from one reporting period to the next is the selected sampling or measurement date range. Upon saving your entries, the report is ready to be used by others, unless designated as private.

            To run a formatted report in EIM, all you need to know is what filters should be chosen to display only the relevant set of data. Aside from date ranges, what are examples of selection criteria available to you when executing a formatted report? For example, you can select individual locations or named location groups; individual or named groups of parameters; one or more sample types, sample purposes, samples, sampling programs, sampling events, or sample delivery groups; a range of sample depths; only filtered or unfiltered samples; only leached or not leached analyses; one or more EDDs; and one or more work order numbers to name a few.

            Locus Formatted Reports

             

            Expert SQL Query Reports

            The expert query tool allows the user to retrieve records from many EIM data tables with a flexible interface, where join and column definitions are customized. The expert query output can be scheduled as an attachment to an email or run as needed, private or public, or saved on the dashboard for ultimate access by all user levels.

            The EIM Expert Query Tool (EQT) lets users create their database queries using a drag-and-drop table interface. Users can also directly write T-SQL language requests to pull data from EIM. This powerful tool empowers the super users to take full advantage of the data managed in EIM and creates “custom reports” without the need for a developer.

            Locus Expert SQL Query

             

            Additional Reports

            Additional reports include DMR reports (formatted and NetDMR); Self-monitoring; Regulatory formatted exports (various EPA regions); Consumer Confidence Reports; Data Validation (in association with the Data Validation Module); Coliform reports (Water configuration); custom DMR reports and custom MSGP reports; and a wide range of metric reports for usage statistics, records, sites, and management reports including holding table metrics, SDG turnaround times, reporting tool metrics, and LocusDocs metrics.

             

            Contact us for a demo of Locus EIM

              Name

              Company Email

              Phone

              Tell us about your company's needs

              Locus is committed to preserving your privacy.

              Emerging Technology and the Environmental Industry

              Locus Founder and CEO, Neno Duplan recently sat down with Grant Ferrier of the Environmental Business International to discuss a myriad of topics relating to technology in the environmental industry such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Multi-tenancy, IoT, and much more.

              Read more

              Water Quality in the Cloud with Neno Duplan

              Locus Technologies founder and CEO Neno Duplan provides a wealth of experience on water quality in the cloud. Neno began cloud-based data work before any of us knew what the cloud even was. He does a great job explaining the steps needed to undertake and the significant benefits of a cloud-based digital transformation, and much more!

              Adapting to New ESG Roles and Responsibilities

              A growth in commitment from proactive organizations towards heightened ESG standards means that many professionals have seen their duties not only increase, but they have been made more diverse than before.

              Read more