I am a plant ecologist working with wild and planted populations of endangered plant species. I've got an idea I'm considering implementing in my PhD research, but I'm not sure exactly how to implement it. Basically, for my research, I have to measure plants multiple times a year through several years to track their growth, survival, reproduction etc. I also have a lot of characteristics I need to input either on a hard copy data sheet (which I have been doing so far then adding to excel) or on my field computer (an old Pansonic tough book that runs windows XP) directly into excel or google sheets.
I'm wondering if its feasible and how hard it would be to tag my plants with barcodes on the tags so that I can scan them with an iOS app or with my field computer, then input data into a form. It would be great if when I scan the plant some information about that individual plant I've already collected. I'd like to add in the data (and perhaps location coordinates from my phone) I'm collecting to a form and possibly take a photo that will be associated with that barcode/individual plant. I will have several things to measure each time and input- several measures of size, reproduction, etc.
Does anyone have any suggestions of apps in iOS or another form filling workflow I might consider? My field computer has a built in barcode reader I could use as well. Whatever I use, I need to be able to use it without cell reception.
I don't have any app development experience but I'd be willing to figure something out if making something myself is the best option. Even if its a fair bit of work, it would probably save me time in the long run.
I'm wondering if its feasible and how hard it would be to tag my plants with barcodes on the tags so that I can scan them with an iOS app or with my field computer, then input data into a form. It would be great if when I scan the plant some information about that individual plant I've already collected. I'd like to add in the data (and perhaps location coordinates from my phone) I'm collecting to a form and possibly take a photo that will be associated with that barcode/individual plant. I will have several things to measure each time and input- several measures of size, reproduction, etc.
Does anyone have any suggestions of apps in iOS or another form filling workflow I might consider? My field computer has a built in barcode reader I could use as well. Whatever I use, I need to be able to use it without cell reception.
I don't have any app development experience but I'd be willing to figure something out if making something myself is the best option. Even if its a fair bit of work, it would probably save me time in the long run.