Tablets have many benefits but they also have associated drawbacks and risks, particularly in larger utilities where crews experience harsh conditions, bright sunlight and often encounter connectivity issues. The small form factor and the high risk of damage are also key issues. In these instances, pen and paper often remain the primary way of marking up design drawings and record plans.
But with the intersection of the 32nd square of the chess board with Moore’s law, we can begin to imagine an new solution.
What if we had a “paper tablet”? A flexible paper like device that more closely resembled paper and which could display traditional drawings and record plans delivered electronically?
That is exactly what Plastic Logic revealed this year with its Papertab prototype.
Add a sensitive stylus, combine with cloud storage and add the appropriate workflows and we begin to see the seamless transition from paper based drawing markup to and an electronic workflow in a form factor that users are accustomed to.
Written by Lance Maidlow, P. Eng., M. Eng., President, ChasmTech
About the Author
Lance's experience spans 30 years with firms including Autodesk (Local Government Industry Manager), Open Spatial USA (Director), Kanotech Information Systems (President) and Associated Engineering (Dept Head Water Resources). As an early Autodesk developer Kanotech was years ahead of the industry in developing spatial databases with products like GeoSQL. Portions of this technology were licensed to Autodesk and incorporated into AutoCAD Map. Over the course of his career, Lance has delivered his consulting expertise in the areas of utilities (water, sewer, electric, and cable), oil and gas, transportation and public safety.
Most recently, he provided advice and hands on support in the integration of the customer information system, work order management system, lab system with spatial information store in Oracle to provide a horizontal view of a major utilities enterprise data. The design allowed for desktop, mobile and ulitmately digital pen technology into the architecture.
Contact Lance at: lmaidlow@chasmtech.com
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