RW, Alinendinger et Jounal of Srctaal Geog 102 (2017) 96-112 Ps ‘was recently dampened somewhat by Novakova and Pavlis (2017) as well as earlier studies (eg.. Hama ef al, 2014; Mookerjee etal, 2015) that demonstrate considerable variation in quality of device sensors and accuracy of recorded observation. Most conclude that the least reliable sensors the device magnetometer which likewise ‘accords with our experience. However, comparisons in previous studies tend to be incomplete or misleading in assessment of ac- ‘curacy because: only one operating system (Le, Android or 10S) is tested, multiple devices are not used in testing, the details of the algorithms used in the apps are seldom well described, the error in the dip is assessed separately from the error in the strike (rather than using poles to planes; see section S1 in the Supplementary “Material, single measurements from analog compasses are regar- ‘ded as canonical rather than comparing multiple analog compass ‘measurements to multiple smart phone apps, and there is no ‘assessment of accuracy that does not rely on the magnetic fel. Here, our purpose is three fold: (1) introduce a new. free iOS app, Stereanet Mobile, written by the senior author” and document the basics of its functioning; (2) compare Stereonet Mobile and a popular smart phone app, Feldmove Clino, to each other and to analog compass measurements on a datum by datum and group by ‘group basis; and (3) document the accuracy of app measurements independent of analog compass measurements by using a database ‘of >3700 measurements of surface crack measurements and ‘comparing those measurements with the same cracks visible on Google Earth imagery. ‘Our study, using only Apple® iPhones (iOS operating system), stands in contrast fo Novakova and Pavls (2017) who used only ‘Android devices. Together, these two studies tend to suggest that the four different iPhones devices used here are significantly su- perior in accuracy and relability compared to the two tested ‘Android devices. This conclusion has also been reached by Midland Valley, the publisher of Fildmove Clino who state, “We have ‘observed much larger variations in the measured data recorded using Android devices which we suspect is largely down to the quality of the hardware components inside the device” (Midland Valley, 2017). Our data are also consistent with the recent work of (Cawood et al, 2017) who compared remotely sensed surface data (LIDAR, Structure from Motion) to both digital and analog compass readings. However, anyone collecting ireplaceable field data with any electronic device will want to conduct their own tests and ‘continue to carry an analog compass in the field with them. Even ‘where a device is not reliable for data collection, many apps allow ‘manual data entry, giving the user some ofthe benefits of the smart phone (eg, automatic recording of location, time, and date) ‘without the uncertainty In accuracy. 2. Stereonet mobile 21, Device sensors ‘Smart phones have a vast array of sensors to determine device orientation including GPS receivers, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and even barometers. From these sensors, it is possible to determine device orientation, position, velocity, and linear and rotational acceleration (Allan, 2011; Section $2 of the Supplementary Materia). The 10S operating system provides the programmer with this derived information through its CoreMtion routines that handle the translation ofthe raw sensor data into the needed structural orientations. Foremost among these is magne- tometer calibration that attempts to cancel out the effects of local 7 Beau Stronet Mobile is aval free fom the 105 AppStore, the senor author at ne finan cen interest, ‘magnetic fields, especially from other components within the de- vice such as the power supply, etc, so that the orientation with respect to magnetic north can be determined. Dip measurements collected with smart phones are generally much more accurate than strikes because the magnetometer is much more sensitive to, and local perturbations more common in, the local magnetic field than in the local gravity field, The dip of the device can be deter- ‘mined from the three components of the acceleration due to ‘gravity alone and does not have to depend on the magnetometer at al. ‘Sensors in the iPhone, sampled by the Sensor Kinetics Pro app at about 30 Hz, appear to be very stable (Fig. 1) especially in com- parison tothe Android devices tested by Novakova and Pavlis (2017, their Fig. 2). Nonetheless, the iPhone magnetometer is easily per turbed by passing even small metal objects within several centi- meters of the device (Fig. 1b). This behavior has considerable implications for best practices in the field when using phones as data collection devices. 22. Device coordinate system and determining orientation ‘The iOS device coordinate system and the rotations about the three axes are shown in Fig. 2. One “reads” the face of the device like a right-handed map coordinate system: the first axis, X'y, is parallel fo and in the short, or side-to-side, direction of the face With positive tothe right. The second axis, X',is parallel to the face and the long axis of the device with postive toward the top ofthe phone, and Xs, the third axis, is perpendicular to the face and positive towards the user, The change In orientations of the device {s determined by the rotation of this coordinate system with sespect toa reference coordinate system. The 105 operating system provides the programmer with four different potential reference frames, Stereonet Mobile uses the “CMAKtitudeReferenceFrameX- ‘TrueNorth2Vertica” reference frame. That is the rotation matrix is equal tothe identity matrix when the phone face is horizontal with the short axis (X',) aligned NS. To determine true north, the oper- ating system must know the device position on the globe in order to calculate magnetic declination, Thus, reading an orientation ‘must aso turn on the device GPS receiver. ‘The change in orientation is supplied to the programmer by 105 in several different ways. Pethaps most common is using the Euler angles (Fig. 2), the pitch, roll, and yaw (sometimes known as the ‘Tait-Bryan angles), which are familiar to anyone in aviation ot boating. Determining device orientation using these angles, though, can be subject to an artifact known as gimbal lock where ‘one degree of freedom is lost in certain orientations. Thus, iOS also provides orientation information via a rotation matrix or via qua- ternions, Steeonet Mobile uses the rotation matrix to calculate the orientation ofthe device relative to the reference frame, The rota- tion matrix, rin terms ofthe pitch roll and yaw, for iS is given as: ‘cos(rollcas(yaw) - sin(roll)sin(pitch)sin(yaw) cos(yaw)sin(roll)sin(pitch) + cos(rol)sin(yaw) 113 =—sin(roljcos(piteh) 1 = ~cos(pich)singyaw) faa = cosipitch)cos(yaw) rag = sigpiteh) cos(rol)sin(pitch)sin(yaw) + cos(yaw)sin(roll) 133 = sin{yaw)sin(rol) — cos(rol)cos(yaw)sin(pitch) 33 = cos(rol)c0s(pitch) ‘The basic form of these equations will look familiar to anyone Who has studied how rotations are accomplished in stereonet programs (eg. Allmendinger etal, 2012) because they represent a single rotation accomplished by performing, in order, the threeRW, Aimentiger ea) 8, = 08") 4X2 \ Kg = 8,, = 008" (2) ral E (X) NOG) 045 #805 (rs) D0%) Fg 2. Theos eee corinste te XXX) an ierelataneip a pe ‘tact goigy Now Est Don ky Ky 3) conde ylem Deve aes Is determine by unstcming the unt vets pa af the wate geographic Coordinate sytem Sleed rection cosines of the tansfrmaton mat ae sown tain ut Os aso pods the programe wih aces tothe olin ae and rotations about the three axes (ie, three matrix multiplications. “The matrix, x, is an orthogonal transformation matrix between the device coordinate system and the North-East-Down (NED) co- ‘ordinate system familiar to structural geologists (because dips and plunges are measured with positive downwards). To translate de- vice orientation to geological orientation, we simply calculate the ‘orientation of a unit vector parallel to X's (i.e, the pole to the de- vice) for planes and another unit vector parallel to X, the long axis ‘of the devce, for lines (Fg. 2). In terms of direction cosines in aNED ‘coordinate system, the pole to the phone and the geological surface ‘against which itis held is given by: pole north = r5, pole east = —rz pole down = ry Likewise, a lineation’s direction cosines a lineation.north = ry lineation east = —r22 lineation.down = —ray Because Stereonet Mobile uses the pole to the device, the user ‘can place the back ofthe phone flush on the bedding surface in any ‘orientation to measure the surface of interest. We have not noted ‘any significant variation in accuracy when the phone is held in different positions, including upside-down. To measure a line, the long axis or edge ofthe phone must be parallel to the lineation on the rock but the back of the phone need not be flush against the rock. Stereonet Mobile can simultaneously measure the orientation ‘of a plane and a line it contains by placing the back of the phone flush on the rock withthe long axis parallel tothe lineation in the Plane (Fig 3). In cases where one would not want, or cannot, place the phone ‘on the surface to be measured, Stereonet Mobile is also capable of ‘measuring a plane's orientation by sighting through the device Seat Geslgy 12 (2017) 86-112 vo ‘camera (Fig. 3b). When making a sighting measurement with the plane viewed edge-on, the pole to the device is assumed to be parallel to the strike direction and the long axis ofthe device par- allel to the true dip direction, For sighting measurements made ‘down-dip, the trend and plunge ofthe pole tothe phone is assumed to be equal to the dip azimuth and dip ofthe plane. ‘Stereonet Mobile offers the user three planes formats to display planes data: strike and dip (using right-hand rule), dip azimuth and dip, or as poles. Nonetheless, internally it keeps track of all planes ‘measurements in the first ofthe three formats 23. Redundant sampling Novakova and Pavlis (2017) demonstrated that, for Android devices, transients in the sensor data — brief marked excursions from the long term average value of the sensor — are 2 serious issue. While transients appear to be much less of an isu for 105 devices, Stereonet Mobile nonetheless uses oversampling to avoid any such problems. Before starting sampling, however, the device ‘must be stable. Stereonet Mobile determines device stability using the acceleration and rotation rate data provided by the device. ‘Absolute stability isnot necessarily desirable as Stereonet Mobile permits the determination of orientation by sighting and, when ever the phone isnot held against the rock, small motions are inevitable. Thus, stability in Stereonet Mobil Is defined as user ac- celeration rates of <0.04 mis? and rotation rates of <0.09 radians, values that were picked by trial and error, tally constraints help to avoid inadvertent recording of data while the device is moving ‘Once the user holds the device stably for 1's, Stereonet Mobile determines the orientation every 100 ms and displays the mean and standard deviation of all measurements for as long as stability is maintained. For example, if the user holds the phone on a Dede ura for the entation and ero splayed (3) and recorded will reflect the average of 40 measurements (Ss rai ine) 10 samples). the ero nse or dip exceeds oF the device is moved above the stability threshold, the values are deleted and averaging begins anew. The same standards ae used for lineation measurements and for measurements of planes by sighting with the device camera. ‘This sampling procedures useful for eliminating random errors including sensor transients, but it does not eliminate systematic errors suchas those that arise from the nearby environment. the ‘magnetic field is continuously perturbed by the presence of a nearby metal object, data redundancy will not Bx the problem. The Standard way to attempt to reduce such problems is by magne- tometer calibration For iOS devices, this is achieved by waving the phone ina figure-8 pattern or tilting and rotating the phone. In iOS 1O and with recent Apple® devices, one almost never sees the calibration seren, reflecting the increasing sophistication of the CoreMotion routines and services provided to the programmer. Nonetheless, in our experience, moving the phone in a fgure-8 before starting measurements at a new outcrop of after making several measurements sil seems to give better results than just assuming the operating system is giving the best posible 3. Comparison to analog compass readings Inthis section, we compare both Stereonet Mobile and Fieldmove line to measurements made by traditional analog compasses. An iPhone 6s and an Phone 7, both running i0S 103 were used for the dligital measurements. Two traditional Brunton compasses, each a few decades old, were used to measure the strike ofa plane and then the dip as’ separate measurements. A newer Brunton Geo ‘compass was also used to measure dip azimuth and dip of planes in