![US Marines have used the military mapping technology developed by Takor Group.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170621111401/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/v/w/8/6/9/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gwv7ug.png/1498014577512.jpg)
Not many readers will ever be caught in this position, but what if you were a soldier in the field, unable to reliably locate where the rest of your platoon were moving? What if one part of your unit had found a suspected IED, and tried to warn you of its location?
It was such everyday gaps in spatial awareness that saw Perth geospatial mapping company, Takor Group, develop a mapping application that could run on a soldier's smartphone and radically enhance a unit's awareness of each other's location.
Originally called Mappt, the app combined a lot of clever technologies such as mapping, camera, geofencing and GPS geo-tagging.
"We originally developed it for the mining and resources sector," says CEO Amir Farhand.
Farhand says mining contractors use Mappt – on smartphone and laptop – to map locations and terrain and build their own pictures of their mining leases and deposits. Mappt allows hybrids of maps and the user's own photographs, and then supports placing coordinate marks and arrows on the resulting maps that are created. The maps can be shared in a closed network, allowing other team members to travel straight to the indicated place.
"Two and a half years ago we were at an expo in the United States, and these two consultants stopped at our booth," says Farhand, 37. "One of them said, 'we love your software, man', and I asked how he knew our app.
"It turned out they were military consultants and they told us a lot of US Marines were using Mappt. They were downloading it straight from Google Play.
"We approached the American military and they were interested and supportive. They could see why their personnel would use our app."
Put through ringer
That triggered a one-year vetting program in which Takor was put through the ringer, Pentagon-style. It involved security clearances, allocation of encryption codes – since all US Defence communications have to have an encryption option – and checking for "backdoors" in the Mappt code.
"The US military can't use technology that allows unauthorised people to eavesdrop."
After an exhaustive year, Takor was accepted onto a closed app platform that can only be used by US military personnel. The app – Mappt Military – during the same time was heavily reworked and produced in a format that combines game-design, social media work-flows, industrial psychology and some powerful technologies.
"We realised we had a massive opportunity with this app, so we researched it and made sure it was optimised for the typical American soldier."
It turned out the person most likely to use Mappt Military was a Millennial, so Farhand engaged designers to rethink the interface.
"It looks like a war-game screen," says Farhand. "But whereas in a game you can see representations of the baddies in the bottom right of your screen, in our app you see goodies – your own people."
He also engaged psychologists to ensure the app communicated in the right way. And it was loaded up with extra technologies: for instance, it connects into the closed military communication systems enabled by military SIM cards, satellite and Ground Antenna Transmit and Receive (GATR) and includes in its database military tactical mapping.
Farhand can not discuss how many of the apps have been downloaded but he says the applications available to US soldiers include geotagging of photographs (useful for IED discoveries), "gridding'' of areas, when people have to be deployed into zones where there are few natural features, and the "piloting" feature that is used by scouts to show the best way through dangerous terrain.
'Like military SnapChat
"The idea is to leverage widely available, consumer devices, and use them to collect, view and share tactical data in a community," says Farhand. "We put it together on one platform which looks like social media – one feedback we got is that it's like military SnapChat. We don't access or retain any of the data – it's a closed platform."
He says the Mappt Military apps have been used by American soldiers to stream live imagery into Predator drones and the current upgrades to the app will include a live video capability where an operator can draw a circle around where the enemy is located, and share the video with the rest of their unit.
"So everyone else can see the place on the video where you think they're hiding."
Takor is now locked into a defence focus on its technology even though Farhand considers himself a peace-lover. To honour that, Takor is supporting an anti-poaching NGO called Pantera to help game park rangers protect lions and rhinos against poaching in Africa. His company is also working on a Mappt version devoted to humanitarian operators.