I'm a retired Earth Scientist and I now work with amateur geologists and OU students trying to get them going on things like geological mapping. The way professionals, like the British Geological Survey, work in the field these days is using ruggedized tablet computers and commercial software. Unfortunately that lot costs around £20,000. A year or so ago MIT? Had a project to make a low cost instrument and got the cost down to ca. £1000. So I have it in mind to try to use the RPi to make a really low cost version, say £100, which would be open source hardware and software and could be built at home.
This is quite a big project but it breaks down into a number of smaller ones which would be of much wider interest to the RPi community. A few of the hardware bits are:
interface RPi with a GPS;
interface RPi with a digital compass;
interface RPi with an accelerometer;
bluetooth data transfer to PC; and,
interface RPi with a small LCD? Screen.
On the software side:
drivers (if necessary);
database for storing field measurements;
GIS front end; and,
data entry screens for section logging etc.
There is already an Android port of the gvSig GIS software to mobile phones (Java source) so it should not be too difficult to port it to the RPi. Similarly most of the hardware steps have already been done for Arduino boards so there is a good starting point there too. I think I will probably start with the Gert board to experiment with the interfacing and software parts but eventually I will have to think about reducing the size so that it is contained in a single hand held waterproof package. That will need quite a bit of engineering input but its a long way off.
I have done a good deal of electronics and programming in the past but I'm now very rusty. I'm just starting to try to learn python which I think is a good easy to read language. My overall aim is to produce a tool that students can use in the field but can also understand how it works and hopefully extend its capabilities. It may also be of value to people in the 3rd World.
I have an RPi on order from Farnell who tell me I will have it by the end of April. Well, I'll believe that when it happens, and since I will be away in Scotland leading a field trip they have some slack before I start looking for it! My skills and resources are limited so I would welcome suggestions, help and collaborations of any sort.