PES. Personal Eye System. User's Guide

Transcription

1 PES Personal Eye System User's Guide

2 Index Contents Index... 2 Introduction... 3 Purpose... 3 Concept of operation... 3 Functionality... 4 Own Position... 5 Map Selection... 6 Grid converter... 7 Compass... 7 Tracking... 8 Navigation Common Operational Picture Settings Identification Units Display Maps Tracking & Navigation COP Sharing About Creating Offline Maps GDAL2TILES Using MapTiler to render PES maps PES Tips & Tricks Power saving Data traffic optimization... 20

3 Introduction Purpose Personal Eye System is a personal tracking, navigation and data sharing application aimed at soldiers, police, security forces, emergency services and others that need topographic navigation, tracking, blue force tracking, and common operational picture sharing. PES was designed by the active soldiers, as a substitute for a traditional GPS receiver, paper map and a mobile phone. Concept of operation It is designed to operate on an Android platform and uses global positioning system, and other device sensors for acquiring own position. This position is then displayed on raster map. PES uses raster maps, are which for topographic navigation. It does not offer turn by turn navigation per se, such as Garmin or other navigation devices that rely on a road network data. PES can use online public maps (Yahoo, Google, Open Street Maps etc.), Online WMS maps (usually provided by internal GIS departments), offline maps stored on the device in TMS (tiled format), or offline cached maps stored while browsing online maps. Ability to use offline or cached offline maps comes very handy in areas with no 3G coverage or when cost of data transfer is a limiting factor. PES can share POI (point of interest), own position, routes, targets, reference points etc. with other PES devices connected to the Mobile Network. This data can be shared over the 3G network, or SMS messaging, when 3G service is not available.

4 Functionality PES screen is divided into 5 areas: Top status line, Bottom Status line, left hand menu, right hand menu, and the moving map. TOP STATUS LINE ZOOM BUTTONS MAP CURSOR CONTENT MENU BOTTOM STATUS LINE Map can be panned and zoomed in a traditional Android way, by dragging and pinching. In addition to that two translucent ZOOM IN and ZOOM OUT buttons are available on the left of the screen. Right hand content menu can be opened or closed by pushing on the menu tab on the right of the screen. Additional PES functionality and settings are available by pressing Android device OPTIONS button.

5 Own Position PES uses GPS receiver to acquire own position. Speed and quality greatly depends on the device PES is installed on. Without the GPS lock, PES will try to guess the location based on the Network data. PES can display GPS fix data in a separate satellite view window, in order to check the satellite coverage or signal strength. If digital compass is available PES will use it to display view direction. Movement direction is derived from the GPS data, because digital compass data reliability is low. As movement direction is calculated from the GPS data stream it is only available when user is moving and GPS signal is available. Own position is always displayed on top of the screen, in selected default system (DMS, UTMS or MGRS), along with altitude, speed, horizontal error (HDOP in meters) and position provider information (GPS or NET). Pressing the top status line, will open own position window, with own position displayed in all supported coordinate systems, along with military (ZULU) time-date group and heading in degrees and MILs. Default coordinate system used by PES, can be selected via radio buttons on the right. Pressing the center of the bottom status line, will cause PES to center map to the current position. Cursor position is displayed left of the center button (default selected coordinate system). Right from the center button is cursor position displayed in the POLAR coordinate system. (only available with own position fix)

6 Map Selection PES can use variety of available online or user provided offline maps. Map can be selected via Map Manager accessed from device options menu. Maps are divided into: Public maps, WMS server provided maps, Private (user loaded maps on device) and Offline (automatically cached) maps. Online maps (public and WMS) can be accessed on as needed basis, or can be pre-loaded on the device for offline use. Long press on selected map will bring up a content menu, giving user an option to delete map from the device or to download a map on device, by selecting map zoom levels to download. Pressing on zoom level description will bring up the small map preview window, displaying a graphic representation. Private maps can be created using MapTiler tool or GDAL as a Google maps compatible tiled map. Resulting map must be placed into a MILSys/maps directory on the android device. Offline cached maps are stored in the same directory and can be shared among devices.

7 Grid converter Grid converter is a very handy calculator used to convert coordinates from one coordinate system to the others. DMS (Latitude/Longitude), UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator), MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) and POLAR (Azimuth, distance) are supported. Multiple DMS notations are supported by the grid converter, and coordinates entered into the calculator can be then displayed on the map, as cursor is moved on the grid position with the Goto grid button. (This functionality is very similar to Garmin s Project waypoint ). Compass Compass rose can be displayed over the map, for direction reference and navigation. Activating route navigation will automatically activate compass, as Next Waypoint, Previous Waypoint directions and distances are displayed on the compass. Compass can be quickly flicked on/off with the button accessible from the device options button. Next (active) waypoint is shown in red, and previous (last) waypoint is shown in gray.

8 Tracking PES can record a track of travel, and display it on the map. Many tracks can be recorded, and displayed, but only one track can be active at any given time. Track functionality is accessed with TRACK button from the right hand content menu. Hint: For quick marking of an event on the track, Event can be added with a single press, from a top level right hand menu. It will automatically open event edit panel, but coordinates will be recorded right away. New Track Will start recording a new track. If a track is currently recording, existing track will be closed, and new track will be created. New track is named automatically but can be changed later. Start Track Will start paused track. If track is active, this button will be shown as Pause track. Add Event Will add an event to a track record. Track events can be classified by the drop down menu. Description and a photograph can be attached to the track event. All track events are included in the Track (Patrol) report, when track is exported into PDF. List tracks Will list all the tracks in the system, along with the start/end timestamps, length and duration. Tracks can be deleted, exported or edited by the long press on a track name in the list. Long press Track list options Activate track Will make any track active. Start track will continue recording active track. Edit track Opens Track properties, such as track name, comment, thickness and colour. List track Events Will list all track events in selected track. Track events can be edited with a long press on an event name. Export track to PDF Will create patrol report on a device SD card in MILSys/export/<current date> directory. Report is created according to the report template in MILSys/config/PdfTemplate.xml file.

9 Delete track Will delete selected track.

10 Navigation PES can navigate along the route entered into the system through use of waypoints. Navigation functionality is accessed with the NAV button from the right hand content menu. Start nav Will start navigation along the active route. If compass is not visible on screen it will be brought up automatically to display waypoint information. Quick nav Will create a new waypoint at the cursor position, and immediately start navigation towards it. QROUTE route will be placed on top of the routes list. New Route Will create new empty route, and activate Add/Delete waypoints buttons. Routes are named automatically, but can be changed later. Add WP Will add a waypoint at the end of an active route. Waypoint is placed at the cursor position. Delete WP Will delete last waypoint from the route. List routes Will list all the routes in the system, along with the creation date and length. Routes can be deleted, shared or edited by the long press on a track name in the list. Long press Route list options Start navigate Same as Start nav button. Will start the navigation along this route. Edit route Opens Route properties, such as Route name, comment, thickness and colour. List waypoints Will list all the waypoints in the selected route. Waypoints can be edited with a long press on a waypoint name. Delete route Will delete selected route from the list.

11 Common Operational Picture Point of interest (POIs), reference points, targets and units can be placed on a map, and/or shared with other PES users. This functionality is accessed with the COP button from the right hand content menu. All COP objects are divided into: Reference points (Ref and POI), Targets, and units. (friendly, neutral, unknown and enemy). Hint: For a quick marking of a spot on the map, POI can be placed on the map with a single press, from a top level right hand menu. It is automatically named and can be edited at later time. New ref Add new reference (POI) point on map, and opens a POI edit window. New target Place new target symbol to the map. Target is automatically named, but can be edited at later time. New unit Open unit symbol selection box, and places selected unit on map. Unit is named automatically but can edit at later time. Cop list Open a list of all COP objects. List is divided into Reference points (Ref and POI), Targets, and units. (friendly, neutral, unknown and enemy).

12 Settings Behavior and look and feel of PES is controlled by the pre-set defaults that can be changed from the settings menu. Some parameters, which are not meant to be changed by the user, are configurable in the configuration files placed in MILSys/config directory on a SD card. Settings menu in PES: Identification --- PERSONAL INFO --- This is PES user personal data / identification. Data is used to identify the unit/user on the map Personal Name (name of PES user, useful for identifying multiple PES users in the same unit) Personal Rank (military rank the user holds) Personal Serial Number (Serial Number, hint: civilian users can input phone number) --- OWN UNIT INFO --- This is UNIT name / identification. Unit name will be shown along the symbol on the map Own Unit name (Unit name, to be shown on the map alongside the symbol) Own Unit ID (optional ID, if PES is used in conjunction with other C4I systems) Own unit SIDC (Unit 2525B symbol ID. This will define unit icon on the map) Units --- UNITS --- Default speed, distance and heading units used by PES Default Position unit DMS format Default Speed unit Default Heading unit Default Distance unit Display Pinch zoom on center Control the zoom behavior on screen pinch. By default PES will zoom on cursor position, but can be set to zoom on pinch position. (useful for tablets) Default setting is: (on)/off Menu auto close Auto close setting for on screen panels and menus. Default setting is: (on)/off

13 Keep screen on Map display screen will stay on, even if there is no user interaction. This is useful for dashboard navigation or HQ usage. Default setting is: (on)/off Show scale bar Controls display of on screen scale bar (ruler). Default setting is: (on)/off --- POSITION SYMBOL --- Show position symbol Switches own symbol on the map on or off. Default setting is: (on)/off Own position symbol Defines the image used for own symbol. Default setting is: (Land Option 1) Show viewing direction PES will show direction of travel based on GPS data. Digital compass data can be used for showing viewing direction arrow on own symbol. Default setting is: (on)/off --- COMPASS SETTINGS --- Draw compass Whether compass wind rose will be displayed over the map. Default setting is: (on)/off Draw compass background Controls if compass is solid or just TO and FROM headings are highlighted. Default setting is: (on)/off Compass opacity Opacity of compass background in %. Default setting is: (40) Maps Path to map files Path to MAP directory. Default is in MILsys directory. Tracking & Navigation --- TRACK SETTINGS --- Default track color Default setting is: blue Default track width Default setting is: 0-10 (5) px

14 Track recording interval Time interval between position recording to track file. Longer intervals will increase the battery life. Default setting is: (10) sec --- ROUTE SETTINGS --- Default route color Default setting is: red Default route width Default setting is: 0-10 (5) px Enable Auto navigate With this option enabled, PES navigation will automatically switch to the next waypoint, when current waypoint is reached. Default setting is: (on)/off Auto switch radius Range under which, PES navigation will consider waypoint as reached. Default setting is: (50) m COP Sharing --- BLUE FORCE TRACKING --- PES Server Address Internet address of a PES server. PES Server PIN Server login PIN, usually provided by the server account owner. Position reporting interval Time interval between individual position reports are sent to server, and common picture is updated on the PES device. Shorter interval will result in shorter battery life. Default setting is: 0-60 (10) min Position precision threshold Maximum HDOP error allowed for own position reporting. If HDOP error is greater than this number, own position will not be sent to the server. Default setting is: (30) m It is a good rule of thumb to set the precision threshold to at least twice the value of an average GPS HDOP error.

15 Override Flight mode With this enabled, PES will disable flight mode, send position update to the server and reenable flight mode, if device flight mode is enabled for battery saving. Default setting is: on/(off) About About Personal Eye System Will display version and license information of PES client Online Help

16 Creating Offline Maps PES supports maps in TMS (Tile Map Service) format. These maps can be created by the users using GDAL or more user friendly MapTiler (GDAL frontend) tool. GDAL and MapTiler tools are free, and can be found on the web: MapTiler is very simple to use, but we recommend to invest some extra time into GDAL2TILES tool as it MapTiler GUI does not support all the features of the GDAL2TILES. GDAL2TILES Your raster file (like TIFF/GeoTIFF, MrSID, ECW, JPEG2000, JPEG, PNG) is converted into a directory structure of small tiles (TMS compatible), which you can just copy to the webserver. Simple webpages with viewers based on Google Maps and OpenLayers are generated as well - so anybody can comfortably explore your maps on-line and you do not need to install or configure any special software (like map server) and the map displays very fast in the web browser. GDAL2Tiles generates also necessary metadata for Google Earth (KML SuperOverlay), in case the supplied map uses EPSG:4326 projection. World files and embeded georeference is used during tile generation, but you can publish a picture without proper georeference too. Using MapTiler to render PES maps 1. Prepare a MAP source Raster topographical maps are usually found in form of geo referenced map images. This will usually be geotiff (*.tiff), MrSID, ECW, JPG2000, JPG or similar file format. Please note, that OziExplorer (desktop) does use maps in.jpg format, but with separate.map files for geo referencing, where in geotiff for example geo reference data is stored in the TIFF file itself.

17 2. Download MapTiler MapTiler can be downloaded free from the WEB, and supports MAC OS X, Linux or Windows. Installation is pretty much dead simple. 3. Run MapTiler Leave everything default (selected Google Maps Compatible) 4. Select single source map file. Unfortunately MapTiler free does not support merging more raster map files into a single map. To merge more map files together, you can use GDAL2Tiles, MapTiler Cluster version (expensive), or render multiple single map files into same target directory (questionable results). 5. Select Spatial Reference System (SRS) In most cases, default will be fine, as MapTiler will try to determine SRS from the map file.

18 6. Select zoom levels to generate from a map file Defaults are usually fine again, but it depends on the map file and device resolution a little bit. If your map will look to fine or too grainy on the device, you can adjust the zoom levels a bit. Leave file format at PNG with transparency. 7. Select the output directory 8. Select viewers (irrelevant for PES application) 9. Enter details about the map (irrelevant for PES) 10. Render a map 11. Copy resulting map (directory to the Android device). Map will be named after the directory name it is stored in.

19 PES Tips & Tricks Power saving Using some of the PES features can have a significant impact on the battery use. Luckily power usage can be optimized. Flight Mode When Android phone with PES is used as a navigation device, switch to flight mode. Phone and a built in GPRS modem consumes a lot of power, especially in the areas with poor coverage. Switch off the flight mode, when you are in the area covered with a GSM signal, or when you need to communicate. PES has a special setting Override Flight Mode, allowing PES to turn on the GPRS and Phone, when need to Synchronize Common Operational Picture with the server. After sync, PES will switch back to flight mode to conserve power. COP Update frequency PES will automatically synchronize COP data, and send it s own position to the server. Setting Position reporting interval to a low value (high reporting frequency) will result in higher battery usage. Good rule of thumb values are: Mobile use, PES mounted in vehicle, and connected to external power: 1 min reporting interval. Patrolling, PES used as a handheld GPS device: 10 min reporting interval or more. COP can be synchronized manually at any time using Options->More->Sync COP picture Track recording Record track only when needed. (you plan to share track afterwards with others, you wish to record track events/incidents or need to make a patrol report) Track recording will spawn another PES process, which will remain active when device is on standby, or other applications are used. This means that CPU will be running more, and GPS will stay powered. The higher the track update frequency is, the higher the power usage will be. Good rule of thumb values are: Mobile use, PES mounted in vehicle, and connected to external power: 1 s recording interval. Patrolling, PES used as a handheld GPS device: 10 s reporting interval or more. It also makes sense to set the distance interval to a higher values, when moving fast, and over a greater distances.

20 Data traffic optimization PES has ability to use public online maps, or WMS online maps, relying on GSM or 3G data connectivity. Heavy PES usage can result in quite a hefty data services bill. (depends on user s mobile use schema) Cache online maps Whenever possible, prepare for the trip (mission) and cache online maps if you plan to plan to use them. Go to Options->Map manager and select the online map you plan to use. Zoom the map, so entire AO (area of operation) is on screen, then go back to map manager and use long press on the online map name you wish to use. Select Download current view and tick off the zoom levels you need. Current zoom level will be marked for your reference in the list. You can also preview the map zoom level by taping on the zoom level text in the list. (close the preview window by taping anywhere else on the screen). Once you downloaded the map, you can tell PES to use only cached map by selecting it in the Offline tab in the Map Manager. Use private maps Maps can be created on desktop and copied to the Android device. Please see Creating offline maps chapter of the manual for more information. Use private maps by selecting a map in the Private tab of the Map manager. Minimize COP sharing COP sharing does a great job in optimizing the amount of data shared over the air. Lowering the COP sync interval will result in even lover data usage, but savings will be small compared to the online map usage. Do not share large objects PES can share track data and patrol reports over the air, using . Track and Patrol Report can be quite large. Sending these over the 3G will result in higher data usage. Try to share these over the Wi-Fi whenever possible.