November’s DeLorme Professional Newsletter included a list of the major functional enhancements in the newly released XMap 7 suite. If you read the entire article, towards the bottom of the list under the subheading, Other XMap Enhancements, you may have noticed “Improved GPS Radar Search”—a reference to a lesser known but, nonetheless, powerful component of the XMap toolkit.
A recurring theme in the various descriptions of XMap is that it represents the perfect integration of GPS and GIS technology. DeLorme mapping software has included GPS functionality since its earliest days, when DeLorme was one of the first companies to introduce a GPS receiver for consumer use. It is no surprise, therefore, that when XMap was developed, it inherited a powerful set of GPS tools for tracking, navigation, data collection, and, as seen in the GPS radar functionality, proximity searching.
The idea behind the GPS Radar is very simple: if your GPS receiver is able to discern your precise location and the map on which your position is being displayed includes points of interest or other significant data layers, it is very easy to generate a list of these points that are within a defined distance and to update this list as you move. Originally, this functionality was incorporated into DeLorme software titles to help the traveler find particular businesses and services such as restaurants, hotels, and gas stations. However, it soon became clear that there could be many other applications for this tool.
One such example emerged during a meeting between members of DeLorme’s XMap team and a representative from a state law enforcement agency. The officer, citing studies indicating that most criminal activity is carried out by individuals who have been previously convicted, suggested that if each patrol vehicle were equipped with a system that would alert the officer when they came close to the address of a known offender, many crimes could be prevented. This discussion and other similar meetings, led to the development of a GIS-optimized version of the GPS Radar search function.
GPS Radar is a subtab of the Find tab in XMap and the set-up process involves a few simple steps:
- Create or import the GIS layer containing the points that you want to search for. If you are working with a database or a spreadsheet of addresses, XMap’s GIS import function will automatically geocode or assign each record the correct point on the map.
- Make sure you have a GPS receiver connected to your computer. If a device is not detected by XMap, the search will originate at the current map center.
- Click the Find tab and click the GPS Radar button.
From the Find drop-down list, select either All GIS Points, which will return results from all active GIS point layers, or Custom, which provides a text box within which the name of a specific layer can be typed.- Before beginning the search process, click the Options button to customize the behavior of the search:
- Select the distance within which the search will be conducted.
- Set the time between updates to the search results.
- If required, choose the wording of the verbal prompt that is played when a result is found.
- Click the Search button to initiate the GPS Radar search. The results will be displayed in list form with the closest at the top of the list. After the previously determined time interval, a new list of results will be generated. Directions to the closest or selected object will be indicated by a thin green line on the map.
GPS Radar can be employed for a wide variety of applications; however, much of the new functionality was developed to address the specific needs of the mobile law enforcement community.
