Augmented Reality Airports

CT4ME

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
1,321
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Display Name

Display name:
CT4ME
This really looks cool, but I haven't tried it yet. It requires an iPad (with camera) or an iPhone. My iPad1 doesn't have a camera (and the wife has the iPhone).
Imagine this: you're flying...point your iPhone out the window and see this on the screen:
arport.jpg


This is a new App from Paul Mace. You might remember him from the old computer days... "the Mace Utilities". Paul is a long-time pilot techno geek, who has been playing around with technology and applying it to aviation. ( www.symbolicflight.com )

Here's the description of the program:
ARPort uses your iPhone or iPad camera and the magic of Augmented Reality to let you see all the airports around you anywhere in the USA or its territories.

ARPort marks the closest 20 Airports in the USA within 25 nautical miles of your position. As you scan with the camera you see the airport tagged and identified where it actually is in the landscape outside.

Aim the target box just below an airport's tag to see its distance and bearing.

Tap the tag, or tap the target box, to see an airport's full name, field elevation and length of its longest runway.
=-=-=-=-=-=- Anybody tried it yet? =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=
More info
 
Last edited:
Ugh. Someone needs to teach him how to hyperlink to the App Store.

"Search for XYZ on the app store..."

It's 2012... sheesh.
 
And searching by the App name doesn't work. Have to search for Paul Mace.

$9.99

Doesn't say if he caches the airport data or if the app requires a live Internet connection. (In other words, may not be usable in-flight.)
 
'Pretty sure Paul wouldn't design such a product that needed a live Internet connection... check out his other stuff at www.symbolicflight.com . He's been way ahead of the pack when it comes to syn/viz and augmented reality. I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of thing built into the other moving map products.
 
Yes, it is. I was referring to his (bad) instructions to search for it by App Name, which doesn't work.

I'd post a screenshot but Tapatalk's image server is apparently down.

Point being, if you took the time to build a website to attempt to sell something, adding a hyperlink tag to the Image tag of the product that takes buyers directly to the product, is probably more advisable than just being lazy and saying, "Search for me on the App Store, you'll find it."

That much laziness in the website usually warns people that the Application itself may also be sloppy.

I'll wait for reviews before plunking down $10 on it, considering the sloppy website work.
 
Nate; better is to provide you with a trial copy for you to use, critique, provide suggestions for, and eventually (if you like it), encourage the rest of us to put down our $10.00
 
'links are correct now... apparently, I posted the info before they officially launched the App and had all their ducks in a row... sorry.
 
Haha. You gotta love "go live" day. Sigh.

I just had a box in the telco farm up and disappear. Glad there are 9 more at that datacenter.

My money is on a failed power supply taking out the second one. You gotta love pizza box PCs and their crappy engineering.

Even gladder the System Architect lives up near that data center and volunteered to stop and look on his way home, since it's exactly the worst time of day to go from my house to the north data center.

;)
 
OK. It's real. Bought it and installed on the wife's iPhone. Installation took 30 seconds and the application takes several seconds to "load airport data" when firing it up. (no Internet connection required after installation)
'Went out into the back yard and walked in a circle. Dang, it worked!. All the local airports showed up right where you'd expect them to be. Then I took it on a drive... the accuracy is much better/smoother when you are moving. Next step... Flight test (coming soon)!
If it turns out to be accurate, the wife is going to really like this... she's Co-Pilot and chief navigator. She keeps us "situationally aware", following the map/gps and constantly saying "out that way should be a little 'strip called XXX". This seems to have all the airports, plus the little, private, airstrips.

** edit... Developer emailed me about a bug they found, it didn't affect me, but they've already submitted the update to Apple.
We flew with it, all was fine, but where we tested it, there were so many airstrips (15 in a few square miles), the screen got pretty full. :)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top