COMPARISON BETWEEN GEOLOGICAL COMPASS WITH

DIGITAL GEOLOGICAL COMPASS

Kusumah, Epo P., Rinaldi, Stephen.

Geology Study Program, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology,
Bandung Institute of Technology
Jalan Ganesha no. 10, Bandung 40312

ABSTRACT
Demand of geological field working is never ends, because demand of earth resources
is always increasing over time. Most of the time field geologist uses geological compass to
measure strikes and dips, and also they often bring GPS and map to help their navigation. The
appearance of Android device that equipped with motion sensors (Gyroscope and
Accelometer) that can measure strikes and dips is phenomenal among field geologist, but
the question is rising, how accurate is this new Digital Geological Compass, so we conduct
a test to compare the measurement between a standard geological compass with two Digital
Geological Compasses.
There are two kinds of sensors, they are Gyroscope and Accelometer, most of the
Android devices equipped with Accelometer, but only the latest high-end Android device
which equipped with both Gyroscope and Accelometer. We conduct a measurement by using
3 devices (2 android devices (Motorola DEFY and LG Optimus Black) and a geological
compass) on an adjustable stable plane, and record each dip readings into a table.
Device that equipped with Accelometer and Gyroscope shows an constant error in dip
measurement, it seems that this error can be delineate by calibrate this device, but the device
that only equipped by only Accelometer shows an increasing trend of error, this trend shows
that the error is increasing exponentially, and end with conclude that this sensor is less
sensitive in steep slope measuring.
INTRODUCTION
Geological compass as we know is the tool that geologist use to measure strike and
dip of a horizon, it have survey level accuracy and can work in almost every condition.
Development of technology is growing vast, human needs are increasing from time to time,
everything is going mobile and more efficient including geological tools, in this term is
geological compass. The differencebetween a geological compass and an usual compass is
the geological compass has a feature which is called dip meter used to measure slope of a
plane. It is also equipped with mirror sight device which is used to measure azimuth of object
that seen by us.

Nowadays the development of geological compass is growing vast. It is become

more mobile and efficient with new technology. Android is an operating system for mobile
device which more like a computer, because they have can do more than a normal mobile
devices. Mobile device which equipped with android, mostly equipped with sensors like
accelometer or gyroscope or both of them and also digital compass sensor. These sensors
enable mobile devices to detect movement and tilt condition of this mobile device.The device
can also be installed by software which can activate these sensors and show the measurement
in real time.
The purposeof this study is to compare between a standard geological compass
with this new technology called digital geological compass using a statistical method for
each strike and dip measurement. We use two mobile device with one which equipped with
only accelometer and the other one which equipped with accelometer and gyroscope.
Aspects will we assess in this discussion are how big the measurement difference
between geological compass with Digital geological compass in both strike (orientation)
measurement and dip(tilt) measurement and also the features of these two device, the
weakness and the advantage of these two devices.
Result of Device 1 (Motorola DEFY)
This device produced by Motorola Mobile named Motorola Defy, launched at
December 2010 as the first tough smart mobile phone. It has rubber body, shakeproof and
waterproof. This device optimized for outdoor uses,table 1 shows the technical specification
of this device.
Result of Device 2 (LG Optimus Black)
This device produced by LG named Optimus Black, this device equipped by
accelometer and gyroscope sensors. The writers hope these sensors will be beneficial in
geological measuring.Technical specification shown in table 2.
Software
The software used in this method is RockLogger ver 1.2 made by Rockgecko,
Published in 2011. This software offer many features such as measuring strike and dip of a
plane and categorized it into bedding plane, fractures, joint etc., this software also integrate
built-in GPS that installed in the device and show it as a traverse map, and in paid version we
can generatestereonet analysis.
Methods
Tilt
We measure the same plane with 3 different devices (Brunton Geological compass
and both of the smart phones (Figure 1)). The measurement of each device enlisted in a table
which shows the absolute diference between measurements of smartphones with the
measurement of geological compass and the real dip (using protactor).
The apparatus we use follow a simple trigonometry equation. X = T x Cos(Tetha).
Tetha is adjustable by the fixed length of T and adjustable length of X (Figure 2 and Figure
3). We measure for every one degree increment by 3 devices, and write it in the table.
2

Orientation
We measure the same plane several times and set the mean value of the plane strike
direction. We compare each of these compasses, with geological compasses as the reference.
RESULT
This study shows vary result of the test, the parameter we use in this result is how
much the measurement difference between geological compass, Motorola DEFY and LG
Optimus Black, the features and user interface.
Figure 4 shows the results of the tilt measurements. This table shows that LG
Optimus black is showing a stable trend, it shows constant difference with angle measured
with protractor, it means this device needs to be calibrated, after calibrated this device
suppose to work properly and shows no much different with geological compass. In Figure 4,
Motorola DEFY shows a relatively constant increasing value of different with geological
compass. This constant increasing value shows that this device is less sensitive in steep dip.
Figure 5 shows the difference value between every sequential dips in each tools used.
Both of them have similar trend line, although it also shows inconsistent data
distribution.LG Optimus Blackrelatively has greater accuracyand remain constant each
degree (sequential dips) than the others. The difference value of each sequential dips might
be caused by the horizontal length between each dip that obviously greater in steeper dip
whichreducing the error rate.
Measuring the orientation of a plane using these devices shows a little difference with
the geological compass, with difference vary between 1 0.5o. This shows that this two
device can work properly to measure strike (Table 3).
The beneficial of using Android smartphone is that most of these devices equipped
with built in camera and GPS, and relatively cheap for things that can measure strike and dip,
take pictures and acquiring position. Some Apps offer a complete all-in-one geological tools
in Android which can measure strike and dip of a bedding or fracture, take pictures and
acquire GPS position, and for some device is waterproof, shockproof and dustproof, these
features would be very helpful for a field geologist. But this device is very energy dependent,
the battery life for about 6 hr using these Apps.
CONCLUSSION and SUGESTION

Android device with Gyroscope and Accelometer sensor(ie. LG Optimus Black) can
replace geological compasses if only have longer battery life.

Calibrations of 0o horizon and declination corrention are needed before use to avoid
constant error.

The outdoor specs (such as waterproof, dustproof and shockproof) would be helpful
for a geologist which works outdoor.

REFERENCE
http://www.lg.com/in/mobile-phones/all-phones/LG-smart-phones-P970.jsp, 2011

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/MobilePhones/ci.MOTOROLA-DEFY-XW-EN.alt, 2011
http://rockgecko.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/rocklogger-updated-to-v1-2/, 2011

Attachment
Table 1. Technical Specification of Motorola (R) DEFY (Motorola.com).

Network

Sensor
Display
Memory

Data service
Camera
Operating System
CPU
GPS
Battery

2G (GSM 850/900/1800/1900)
3G
HSDPA
(900/2100/1700/2100)
Accelomoter
480 x 854px, 3.7inches.
Gorilla Display Glass
2GB
(Internal),
512mb
(RAM), external memory up to
32gb.
GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN,
Bluetooth, USB
5MP,
2592
x
1994px,
autofocus, LED flash
Android V. 2.1 (clair)
800MHz Cortex-A8 processor,
TI OMAP3610 chipset

Yes, (A-GPS support)

Standby time : 238h
Talk time : 6h 48min
Table 2. Technical Specification of LG (R) Optimus Black (lg.com).

Network

Sensor
Display
Memory

Data service
Camera
Operating System
CPU
GPS
Battery

2G (GSM 850/900/1800/1900)
3G
HSDPA
(900/2100/1700/2100)
Accelomoter, Gyroscope
480 x 800px, 4inches.
Gorilla Display Glass
2GB
(Internal),
512mb
(RAM), external memory up to
32gb.
GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN,
Bluetooth, USB
5MP,
2592
x
1994px,
autofocus, LED flash
Android V. 2.2 (Froyo)
1 GHz Cortex-A8 processor,
PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI
OMAP 3630 chipset

Yes, (A-GPS support)

Standby time : 375h
Talk time : 6h

Figure 1. Photograph of 3 different devices, Left to Tight : Geological Compass, LG Optimus Black,
Motorola DEFY.

Figure 2.This figure represent the function of X = T x Cos(Tetha), we can know Tetha by adjusting length
of X.

Figure 3. This is the simple apparatus, where T (wood plank) length is constant, and X (Floor between
wall and wood pland) is adjustable.

Difference between real angle with device measurements

()Deegree.

5
4.5
4

3.5

Motorola DEFY

2.5

LG Optimus Black
Geological Compass

Expon. (Motorola DEFY)

1.5

Expon. (LG Optimus Black)

0.5
0
0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Dip (Deegree )
Figure 4. This is Result of tilt measurement, the LG Optimus blacks trend show relatively constant difference respect to Geological Compass.

Table 3. This table shows measurement of orientation using 3 different devices.

Lg
Motorola Geological
Optimus
DEFY
Compass

Mean

103.3

101.8

104.5

104.1

103.5

103.5

104.5

103.9

105

103.2

104.6

105

103.2

104.1

103.5

103.8

103.4

104

103.5

104.1

105.5

105.6

102.2

104

104.5

103.3

105.5

105.8

102.4

105

105.6

106

105

104.1

105

104.5

104.7

107

105

104.3

103.9462

104.6154

difference value between each sequential dip (deegree)

3.5

2.5
Geological Compass
LG Optimus Black

Motorola DEFY
Linear (Geological Compass)

1.5

Linear (LG Optimus Black)

Linear (Motorola DEFY)

0.5

0
0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Dips (Deegree )
Figure 5.The graphic shows similar trend lines between each tools used, fewer errors obtained in measurement at steeper dip.