The high level plan is to have the application record the Where, Why, What, When, Who, and How.
The program can easily figure out the Where with the built-in GPS. For the older iPhones I'll probably build in a mechanism that allows the user to
narrow down where they were inside the triangulated diameter. So for example the person could pinch the Google Maps area to scroll in and then click
on the spot where they believe they had the sighting.
The What can be answered by checking the accelerometer to find angle of inclination. Based off that and the GPS data I can get a basic fix of where
the object would be relative to the viewer. Then cross referencing that with a secondary or tertiary pictures from different locations I can
triangulate rough azimuthal position (assuming the person includes some form of fore-ground object), angular size and elevation. Based off that data I
could then cross-reference flight record, astronomical, and meteorological databases to automatically rule out obvious / common sightings like Venus /
Jupiter, etc.
When receiving numerous corroborating pictures from different locations it would set an administrative flag notifying someone internal to the project
to call the local airfields to request radar data.
Each report would then be stored in the database with temperature, dew point, relative humidity, surface and upper level winds, (if possible) released
weather balloons, etc.
The When is also easy. Immediately when the person takes the picture it will record and encode location / time. Also when the message is pushed to the
database it will encode the time from that as well.
The Who aspect is a little more sensitive. Not everyone wants to supply all their personally identifiable data. The goal is to get this in as many
hands as possible. So I'm going to be lenient about how much information a person needs to supply. What I will require is that the person at least
have their iPhone number included with their submission. The number will not be exposed to anyone unless the person who sent it authorizes its
release. If the person chooses to include additional details it'll help to improve the general trustworthiness of the persons submission.
The Why / How will simply be a text / voice description of the context / circumstances leading up to the picture. The person viewing the object might
say / type, "I was driving down interstate 405 and I saw the object fly over the highway and then suck up a cow from the pasture on old McDuffy's
farm!" That text description would then be sent with the picture, location, time, and contact details (if the person chooses to release that
information) to all other users in the area. This "Why / How" description would allow other users receiving the notification to determine if it's
worth their time and effort to travel to the location of the sighting.
[edit on 5-7-2008 by Xtraeme]
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If I were going to involve an outside source for documentation I would likely turn to someone I trust and respect. BUT it all really depends on the
situation.
If it was a case were the contact was becoming regular, and predictable, or reliable then I would definately contact people from ATS and others that I
repect and find to be intelligient and unbiased., I would contact people in numbers because the more that know the better. The problem is.. you
usually do not know when they are coming they just show up. I am not really in a place yet that I feel 100% comfortable in inviting them to visit. I
have very little trust in anything or anyone because there are too many uncertainties.
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I came across this thread in another post and I cant remember how. Anyways this is a great idea! I have an iphone and I would love something like this
in the APP store or heck even through cydia the jailbreak program on the iphone. Nice idea!
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