> On a cursory look the programs appeared to myself to be more GIS based
>rather than GPS (any thoughts out there???) and, in fact, the software
Well, GPS generally means the coordinate system itself, the Global
Positioning System, which to me means just plain old coordinates.
Differential GPS (dGPS) is one of the more accurate ways to get your
coordinates as you are using more satellites, hmm.. you also need a
differential correction input and I've not looked into adding that to the
system I'm thinking of making... anyway that gets you to 2m (50%) or so
with the LassenLP......but I'm going to have to read more about getting the
differential corrections into the Lassen LP unit I mentioned last post-
this could end up being more than a 2-component system.... anyway
fieldworker just shows you the GPS coordinates.
GIS is more about putting those raw coordinates in a useful context, IMO,
so you have the Geographic Information System name, and you are looking at
more geo-spatial information than just grabbing coordinates. GIS software
for the desktop is where you usually map your research area boundaries
carefully, then you have a nice map that you can fill with accurate
vegetation plots and terrain info etc- it's a layering and overlaying of
GPS coordinates that you took for different reasons (one set of GPS data
for houses, one set of data for streets, one set of data for trees- then
you use a GIS application to layer them all and get some meaningful info
out of the numbers).
The crop of low-precision handheld street-map-displaying units are kinda a
combination of the 2- even though common use just calls them GPS handhelds,
IMO a true GPS handheld is about $6,000 US, just displays cryptic
coordinates, and is used mostly by wildlife science nerds with a big
bankroll....
B
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