EpiCollect+: linking smartphones to web applications for complex data collection projects

Abstract

Previously, we have described the development of the generic mobile phone data gathering tool, EpiCollect, and an associated web application, providing two-way communication between multiple data gatherers and a project database. This software only allows data collection on the phone using a single questionnaire form that is tailored to the needs of the user (including a single GPS point and photo per entry), whereas many applications require a more complex structure, allowing users to link a series of forms in a linear or branching hierarchy, along with the addition of any number of media types accessible from smartphones and/or tablet devices (e.g., GPS, photos, videos, sound clips and barcode scanning). A much enhanced version of EpiCollect has been developed (EpiCollect+). The individual data collection forms in EpiCollect+ provide more design complexity than the single form used in EpiCollect, and the software allows the generation of complex data collection projects through the ability to link many forms together in a linear (or branching) hierarchy. Furthermore, EpiCollect+ allows the collection of multiple media types as well as standard text fields, increased data validation and form logic. The entire process of setting up a complex mobile phone data collection project to the specification of a user (project and form definitions) can be undertaken at the EpiCollect+ website using a simple ‘drag and drop’ procedure, with visualisation of the data gathered using Google Maps and charts at the project website. EpiCollect+ is suitable for situations where multiple users transmit complex data by mobile phone (or other Android devices) to a single project web database and is already being used for a range of field projects, particularly public health projects in sub-Saharan Africa. However, many uses can be envisaged from education, ecology and epidemiology to citizen science.

Advancing sustainability: Using smartphones to study environmental behavior in a field-experimental setup

“…The free EpiCollect 5 Mobile and Web Application (https://five.epicollect.net), developed by Imperial College London, was used for data collection purposes [1,2]. The platform allows to create projectspecific smartphone applications and then publish these through the EpiCollect 5 mobile phone application, that operates on iOS and Android smartphones.…”

O Uso De Geotecnologias Livres: Qgis E Epicollect No Levantamento De Dados Em Geociências

“…Seguindo nessa linha, o EpiCollect+ Beta foi desenvolvido para fornecer um método simples, intuitivo e livre na coleta de dados, que passa desde a criação de um projeto online do armazenamento à visualização de dados. Através de um simples processo gerado no website do EpiCollect (www.epicollect.net) é possível a transferência dos dados registrados em atividade de campo do formulário específico do projeto com este aplicativo para o seu servidor (Aanensen et al, 2014).…”

“…A grande difusão dos dispositivos móveis -principalmente smartphones e tablets (Cisco, 2016) -permitiu que softwares baseados em tecnologia livre, como é o caso do sistema operacional Android, estivessem presentes em grande parte destes aparelhos de uso pessoal (Aanensen et al, 2014). O aperfeiçoamento dos SIGs de código aberto, enquanto programas de computador na forma de aplicativos para estes novos objetos técnicos, é um incentivo para a extensão do trabalho em meio digital nos estudos de campo.…”

Landfill Hunter: Learning about Waste through Public Participation

“…In this section we analyze already existing platforms World Community Grid (World Community Grid, 2015), Citizen-Grid CitizenGrid, 2015;Simpson et al, 2014), Zooniverse (Zooniverse, 2015;Tinati et al, 2015), Epicollect+ (Epicollect, 2015;Aanensen et al, 2014), and CrowdCrafting (Crowdcrafting, 2014). All platforms are free to use and allow easy project creation.…”