Developer Spotlight Series: PredictWind Offshore Iridium GO!® mobile application Enabled
Being able to communicate while at sea is imperative to every segment of the maritime community, whether it’s for safety, navigation or simply to call home. Now, with the integration of PredictWind’s Offshore application with Iridium GO!, end users will be able to stay in touch with those on shore, plan their routes and download important GRIB files and weather data, all to their “smart” devices.
One unique feature this application provides is weather routing. For example, yacht cruisers can input their destination and receive important weather and performance data to gain insight into the weather conditions they might encounter. This weather routing information shows the sailor the safest and most comfortable route for their trip. Likewise, yacht racers can use this application to see what the forecasted weather conditions are for their course, and make the necessary changes to their plan to ensure they take the fastest, and safest, route to the finish line.
The PredictWind application pulls data from the world’s top four weather models to arm users with the most accurate and largest breadth of information in order to ensure a safe voyage and enable efficient trip planning. Additionally, the application can deliver downloadable weather routes as small as 1.5 kilobytes, making it quick to download with the Iridium GO! device, and easy to read on the PredictWind Offshore App available for Mac/PC. The iOS/Android version is slated for release later this year. With access to the Iridium® network and being integrated with Iridium GO!, users are able to communicate anywhere on the globe, even in remote waters.
Lastly, this application provides reliable and near-to-real-time GPS tracking updates for friends back on land. Whether it’s loved ones, co-workers or teammates, those on shore are able to track a trip’s progress at sea to see if the boat is on course and making progress to its destination. They can also access weather data and can ultimately determine if help is needed and notify emergency support.
For more information about the PredictWind Offshore application, please visit http://www.predictwind.com/grib-files/
For more information about the PredictWind Offshore application for Iridium GO!, please visit http://www.predictwind.com/iridium-go/
In recent years we have seen a massive increase in the illegal wildlife trade. In the past 40 years 95% of the world’s rhinos were killed. More than 100,000 African elephants have been poached in the last three years and 97% of the world’s wild tigers have been lost in the last 100 years.*
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), a near 200-year old charity dedicated to conservation science, is trying to find solutions to this complex issue. An objective of ZSL’s work is to protect endangered species from threats such as poaching, illegal extraction and habitat loss. Monitoring and protecting species can be challenging as ZSL often works in very vast, remote and difficult to reach locations.
To overcome this challenge, ZSL – using its lead technology developer Cambridge Consultants – has developed a system that can capture data remotely and transmit it in near real time from any part of the world. It is called Instant Detect and is enabled by the global Iridium® network. Through this technology data can be gathered on a very large scale to complement scientists’ manual data collection to monitor rare species and help anti-poaching.
Photo credit: Olivia Needham
The system concept was developed by ZSL, architected and designed by Cambridge Consultants, and involved Seven Technologies Group, Wireless Innovation Ltd, and Iridium. It is used for both wildlife monitoring and protecting animals from poaching. It includes a network of camera traps that send images; and magnetic and ground sensors detecting human presence, that transmit alerts to a specific central satellite node via radio waves. When images and alerts are received by the central satellite node, a computer sends the data via the Iridium satellite network to rangers or approved users located anywhere in the world.
The Instant Detect system was successfully deployed in Antarctica to monitor Adelie penguins and help tackle rhino poaching in Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park.
Photo credit: Olivia Needham
Olivia Needham, ZSL’s Instant Detect project manager, says: “The reliability of signal and transmission from the Iridium system has been astonishing. The whole Instant Detect project was based on the idea that we can transmit data from anywhere and without Iridium that would not have been possible.”
ZSL is dedicated to tackling the illegal wildlife trade and the Instant Detect system, enabled by the global Iridium network, can be an important part of that effort.
*Numbers are taken from a presentation of the Zoological Society of London at the Iridium Partner Conference in Feb 2015