I was out with a buddy who is buying a a piece of property that includes a golf course among other things. I had done a survey of this property a few years back and prior to going out with the guy to recon his purchase I loaded up the DXF image of the survey i had done prior.

While we were riding around the site i was able to navigate to within a very few feet of quite a few property corners and wells and other items of interest just by following the cursor on the screen. He was really impressed!

He asked about the method for putting the dxf map into the gps and then pulled a Meridian gold and a Meridian Color out of the glove box of his Hummer. He said he wanted to get the background map into his own units. I told him i didn't think it was possible and we discussed the possibilities for such technology if it was.

I do mostly large boundaries in my practice. Anything from 5 to 500 acres, big for Florida anyway. Lots of horse ranches, lots of cattle ranches, fewer and fewer citrus groves, bunches of golf courses, stuff like that. The golf course thing was the biggie in our conversation.

His premise was that a survey would be way more usable if I could put the background mapping into a meridian for the owner to be able to use it to locate items of interest on his own unit. We then got into the possibilty of mapping golf courses and having the entire course available on the screen for each player. Add a little bit of scoring and statistical programming and, wow, what a market!

I can see many commercial uses for custom background maps that could be downloaded into meridians. You could actually find your way from Space Mountain to the Cirque De Solei without lots of wrong turns and needless extra travel for instance.

In the case of a Golf course, the user would stop at the pro shop and for a few bucks, drop his meridian into a cradle and download the background maps and todays waypoints for each hole location. The software would record each player's ball position and score each shot on each hole as well as give the yardage to the hole from your position on the course.

At the end of the round you go back to the pro shop and download your round. Then you go to the 19th hole and the waiter brings out color printouts of your game complete with lots of statistics including your updated handicapp.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this will speed up the playing time and keep them in the bar longer looking over the reports and discussing the amazing shot on the 14th or the that 300 yard tee shot from the 8th tee.

Aside from selling a whole bunch of meridians it would also sell some MMs to the course managers to use for locating the hole positions each morning as well as other greenskeeper chores.

During the course inspection in the morning the greenskeeper takes his MM and defines an area on a fairway that needs some extra fertilization or weed control. In the office he can easily calculate the exact area and prepare his crew orders to apply the calculated amount of the apprprite chemicals to that area. the spray crew then just navigates to it using the meridian and appies accordingly.

Additionally, as use of this system continues he will be able to see historic trends in certain areas and schedule further, more intense rehab of problem areas as time goes on.

In other cases it may be as simple as giving the rancher a file showing all his hose bibs so he can crack them open before a night with a hard freeze. Maybe a guy that owns a huge swampy area may just want his duck blinds and tree stands located for his sports to use in their hunts. Fishing boat renters could have all the private "hot spots" located for a semi-guided day trip.

the possible uses seem endless to me. So here's my question. Is there any chance of Thales giving us surveyors and mappers the ability to create mapping data that will integrate wi

Some great ideas are already in play.

http://www.skygolfgps.com/
http://mightygps.com/atomicclocks.htm
http://www.golfps.com/
http://www.uplinkgolf.com/product/SpecSheets/Marshal%20Caddy.htm

Modified By Scott Partridge on 2/6/2005 at 1:59 PM

since i posted. It's all very nice but I want to do it with the Thales stuff and maybe invent some new uses too.

but the option to download stuff to a meridian is still a good idea with some serious opportunities in other areas.

C'mon, how bout it Thales. Please!

Why not just incorporate the realism of an RTK rover into a golfball? Then have the golf ball send its WAAS corrected position via satellite back to your competitors and the TV in the bar at the 19th hole. Never mind the "holes" are based on NAD 83, it'll be "close enough". Imagine the possibilites.

You hit an errant shot in the woods. Your ball position is continuously showing up and then fading out on the "game viewer" circuitry. But then all of a sudden, in real time, well, at least after you have navigated your golf cart off course to find the ball, your ball position starts mysteriously moving forward towards the hole very slowly.

Mulligan, multipath or cycle slip? YOU be the judge!

Can you imagine the golf ball producers lobbyist efforts in Washington against this whole idea??

Dangerous Dave

I believe there is serious change to be made if we could offer this kind of service after we do a survey.

John,

I tried to email but it didn't work. Email me so I can reply. I'd like to discuss this further with you.

jsb

shawnbillings@cablelynx.com

Send me a phone number and i'll call you on my cell.

chk ur emal