Over the summer of 2011 I partnered with aXelerate Solutions, inc. to implement a simple proof of concept application for the iPad (iOS 4.3) to demonstrate it’s ability and usability for on-the-field applications. Specifically I wrote a POC for a local county’s department of property assessment; every county throughout our country has a group of assessors dedicated to keeping tax records and estimated property values over time. Though the current system is functional, it doesn’t allow data entry on the spot nor does it allow assessors to pull up important information (i.e. history of the property, terrain information, official zonings, etc..) at the location; most estimations are later done once the assessor is back in the office. In this video, I explain in more detail what this application does, what I have proven to be possible, as well as how the application deals with issues of connectivity (this county, like any other county, doesn’t have perfect cellular coverage).

I did forget a critical feature that wasn’t shown in the video: this application is able to load and render on-screen cartography layers. When assessing a property, as mentioned in the video, certain map data can be helpful. This application is able to render such details as well as allows users to combine several layers together.