Where was I?

Lokate is now being repositioned as a SAR (Search & Rescue) application in support for K9 search teams.

Lokate is an iOS application that serves as a companion to Intellecy’s K9 Sensor Platform, a tracking system for canines. The application may also be used on its own whereby it aims to focus on a K9 team’s needs as opposed to more general tracking applications in the use of SAR such as SARTopo.

All SAR teams have a pretty intense job, though K9 teams are perhaps the most intense. Not only does each individual member search for the missing person(s), they (the handler in particular) need to keep an eye out for safety and what the K9 is telling them. Subtle body movements and the “head pop” may show the dog is on scent or in the vicinty of “something interesting”. To bring the K9 into the scent cone in the most practical and efficient manner is a hard job and requires constant evaluation of terrain and environment conditions. Distractions, particularly those from phones, should be kept to a minimum.

Lokate aims to be that minimalistic yet powerful set of functions needed by a K9 team. It does not replace more sophisticated means of track by e.g. SARTopo but can augment it and support import/export data with it. In addition, Lokate serves as a connection point for data harvested from the K9 Sensor Platform - a device that not only support high resolution GPS coordinates of the K9 but has onboard environment sensors such as temperature, barometric pressure and many more.

This system (Lokate + K9 Sensor Platform) intents to deliver insights for training as well as capture relevant details during missions. Lokate, the application is freely available at the AppStore for the time being. Here is more info and a link to the app.