PDA or handheld computers for ID in the field ?

[Stinger Guala]

I use a PDA (iPAQ) in the field for ID and collections. I have interactive
keys, checklists, reference photos and some other goodies that make it really
worth carrying. The two things that really make my current PDA a big
improvement over my previous ones is that it takes both CF and SD cards which
helps because other gadgets that I have use SD and because CF is still very
cheap in comparison to other memory (I just bought a 2.2 GB microdrive for
$79) and that the battery just pops out a little door in the back of the unit
so you can have a spare and pop it in in the field. My last PDA required
sending it back to the factory for that.

There are a lot of things to consider with the PDA issue. I recently wrote a
brief prospectus for the ultimate plant identification PDA "The Integrated
Plant Identification,Collection, and Analysis System (TIPICAS)for the NEON
project (See Appendix C in

http://www.neoninc.org/documents/RIC_Boston_Report.pdf).
 You'll see the
general idea referred to as the "Biodiversity Tricorder" in earlier reports
but this was just meant to be a version of what we can do now off-the-shelf.


The primary question to answer would be what software you want to run on it. I

only know of a few viable options for PDA field identification. Of course I
would recommend SLIKS (www.stingersplace.com/SLIKS) for all of the reasons
that you can read about there, but there is also JFile based thing that Cam
Webb has been working on for some time on PALM-Pilots
(
http://www.phylodiversity.net/cam/software/jfilekey.html)
 and Pkey by Kevin
Nixon - I don't think that he distributes it anymore but I'm not sure. Pkey
ran on Pocket PC PDAs and Cam Webb's application runs only on PALMs. I have
run SLIKSPDA on both but due to the odd proprietary nature of the PALM
browser, it doesn't run on all PALM OS machines and I wouldn't recommend it
for them. I have also run Navikey on a PDA but Java is just not really
reliable on PDAs without a lot of hassle and the screens in Navikey are not
visible all at once so it is hard to use anyway. In brief, and to be
completely self serving, I would have to recommend SLIKSPDA because you just
copy it to your PDA (or memory card) and it runs. In BC, you'll be interested
that Chris Meacham has converted more than a hundred genera treatments for
more than a thousand species in the Jepson Flora to SLIKS
(
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/keys/sliks/).


Of course if you want to run one of the many programs that run on full blown
PCs (SLIKS, LucID, Intkey, Navikey, the ID version of WinClada etc.) then you
might look at a full blown hand held computer like the Sony U50,U70, U750 or
U71, OQO or an Antelope for example. I don't own one - I'm trying to own a
Sony U71 right now but USDA hasn't gotten back to me on it - but I've tried
the Sony U71 and an OQO. I'm not very dexterous and had a hard time using the
little OQO keyboard. I think that you would need to use it like a blackberry -

with your thumbs. They are both expensive (ca. US$2K with the extras that you
need) and the screens are much better than a PDA but they are still not really

good enough to use very high res photos as proxies for a handlens on a
specimen (like you can on a good monitor).

Cheers,
Stinger Guala



> Date:    Mon, 2 May 2005 13:49:43 -0700
> From:    Adolf Ceska
> Subject: PDA or handheld computers for ID in the field ?
>
> I am sorry, I found that I ask this list questions that may look quite
> stupid. I have to say that in spite of this I have always found a really
> good answer to my "stupid" questions from the TAXACOM list subscribers.=20
>
> I would like to use a small PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) alias a
> handheld (or palm) computer for identifications in the field. Is there
> anyone on this list who would give me any hints what to get or any =
> warnings
> what not to buy? I would really appreciate your help. I am a botanist, =
> but I
> would not toss out any useful information from the zoological fields.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Adolf
>
> Adolf Ceska, Victoria, BC, Canada
>

>
>