Every ship a news channel: AIS, ship tracking and value-added data

What you can get of ship info on an iPhone is astonishing, but you could get so much more...

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

I was showing a friend one of those nifty ship tracking programmes on my iPhone, where you can see (almost) real-time ship positions, and query the ship's name, destination, type, speed, course and more. Heck, there's even pictures.

My friend asked, "does it show what make of engines they've got?"

I looked at him crossly. "What?! Ain't this cool enough for ya?" But, he was right. Why isn't that information there?

As far as I know, if you have just the name of a ship, you can find out quite a bit online. Many ships have some machinery data at DNV Exchange, for example. But that's not the same as calling it up right there on the iPhone.

In fact, every ship's signature could not only give fundamental position, speed, course and ship type data, it could also provide a full list of the equipment on board, what make, what model, what have you.  Better yet, shippers could also provide information about the owner, charterer, insurer, the works. And all of these, equipment supplier, owner and everyone else, could include a news feed, for the latest on the companies involved and their products/services.

Then, I feel certain, my friend would be truly satisfied.

Comments

[velu]

Well, the fact is that a typical owner would like none of that to be available on the public domain. As a ships master, I don't even want my ship to pop up on those nasty websites.

So the only info that is there is the info that has to be fed into the AIS. I believe that is too much in itself.

Cheers,
Velu

[Ryan]

I sympathize, Velu. Can you imagine a scenario in which you or the ship's owner would actually want to share this kind of information?

[John]

Ryan,

In addition to blogging I am also the developer of one of those fancy AIS apps for the iPhone (not the one you did a screen shot of though ;)

The information you would like to have is easy to integrate into the platform but eh question is, who would supply this information to us developers? If you have a source, I would be very interested in taking with them.

gTrax - AIS for the iPhone : http://itunes.apple.com/kr/app/gtrax/id329054062?mt=8 .

[velu]

Hey Ryan. i doubt I as a ship owner or as a master would like to share any information with a guy named Joe sitting in his mothers basement. There are people I want to share information with, and means are there to share the info already.

I wanted to write a long reply here, but instead wrote a blog post myself. Do check it out at me blog.

Cheers,
Velu

[Ryan]

Velu,
Great points. We on land need to be aware of the privacy issues AIS touches on. We're all facing privacy issues with new technology. I let my iPhone track me, for better and worse.
Here's Velu's post:
http://anujvelu.blogspot.com/2010/01/ais-right-information-in-wrong-hands.html
Thanks for the perspective, Velu!
Ryan

[Noa]

I have use gTrax, Shipfinder and Ship Tracking.

Shipfinder has the best coverage, next is Ship Tracking and last gTrax.

Design of gTrax and Ship Tracking is amazing but ship finder is really crap design!

Ship Tracking has a lot of data with recent tracks , speed history, port history, you can search for a specific ship and much more

Ship Tracking is the most complete iPhone App at this time and if they grow their coverage it will be the best for sure. www.shiptracking.eu

gTrax comes second with pretty good design but the coverage is not good and it needs work in the data that we can see. www.gcaptain.com

Shipfinder i dont like at all but it has custom feeds and you can use your own! www.shipfinder.com

The applications has allready a lot of informations and i think there are very usaful for iPhone

Regards
Noa

[motion tracking systems]

Are they attached to the hull beneath the waterline, or hidden somewhere on board?