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The next stage of this GPS project since the hardware as far as interfacing a working remote system worked successfully in our testing, I will try to outlay the next steps.
For the Helicopter work that is done with the remote the trigger will not be left up to human sampling but be an automatic trigger that is installed onboard the Helicopter. This unit will not have to modify any of existing wiring of the Helicopter but is a clamp that just clips over the existing control wire for the hook that is already installed. It is no additional current drain for the Helicopters power supply as it can also use the battery onboard the portable GPS. Also if concern is placed on accuracy at this point the human trigger can still be used and compared to the data at the point this trigger is tripped. The reason why I say this is say the Helicopter has two loads to take to an area, but you are really only concerned about one exact position. With the automatic trigger you will get two positions recorded. If you sample with the automatic one, each position is accurate but one is redundant, so if you also use the human trigger to mark the one that matters, well because of his delay time, his is not the most accurate either. But with both automatic and human, you can see were the human triggered the mark, then compare it to the automatic one at the closest time and figure which automatic one is the real one.
Now if you wanted to totally due away with any human intervention, there are several solutions available to help with this decision process, but I feel that it is not cost effective, nor would it really increase any of the accuracies of this system to do this. The main reason why is because a human can with his trigger be recording any additional data that he deems necessary audibly at this point also, which is being recorded as part of the data base. The only concern here is the accuracy at the point the object is dropped for position which is taken care of by the automatic trigger, therefore excluding any reaction time, or delays from the human. Even if the human forgot to mark it the data is still intact, but if he forgets the mark for even a minute, it is not critical because he is just confirming which object was dropped.
This is a fail safe system.
The next piece that would finalize this stage, is to complete this remote control process by developing our own processing software. One piece of software that is designed around a simple operating environment, that is capable of doing all the functions we need will be next.
What this software will be capable of doing is utilizing the DSP on sound cards that are common in all PC's, be able to record voice activated any audio that it receives, with the time stamp right off the GPS data that is already being logged to it for a more accurate time/date reference. It will
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