SurveyLab
Development
SurveyLab engineer, Jeremy Gold talks about some of SurveyLab's products
While similar survey devices have been available for some time, they are expensive and are difficult to learn how to use properly. With the much cheaper IKE, a survey can be as simple as pointing the device to the target, looking through the image on the device's screen, aiming the laser finder and pressing a button. The device's computer collects information from GPS, and, based on information from the laser-finder and supplementary information from a built-in inclinometer, calculate the precise location of the target. This is linked to the digital image recorded at the same time.
It was the problem of linking data with a digital image that was the genesis of the device, Leon says. He first recognised the need when he worked as an engineer in Kenya, troubleshooting communication sites for the Kenyan Police. The job involved identifying sites, collecting data about them and photographing them. After accumulating a mountain of photographs that all looked the same, he began to wonder if there wasn't a simpler and neater way of going about things. Surely, he figured, there had to be some way of linking the data about a site to its photograph electronically?
The idea wasn't a new one, but nobody had ever made it work. In 2002, after returning home, Leon raised some capital from Wellington businessman Rex Nicols, and founded SurveyLab to solve the problem and bring a product to market. The venture was privately funded Blue Sky research in its purest form.
The challenge was finding the right hardware and figuring out a way to getting it all to work together. Initially, Leon envisioned a tripod-mounted device, it was only later that the idea of making a handheld device was suggested. This involved additional challenges. The first commercial model was released in 2003.
