iPhone News Updated

Chasing a balloon? There’s an app for that

Chasing a balloon? There’s an app for that

Tracking your favorite hot-air-balloon in real-time during Balloon Fiesta with your cell phone may soon be possible.

This year, some balloon crews are testing out new iPhone software that will make it easier for chase crews and people on the ground to find a balloon.

With 550 balloons up in the air this Balloon Fiesta, how would you like to easily pick yours out of the big crowd using your iPhone? Thanks to Anthony Cardinale of Albuquerque, that may soon be possible.

He’s the brains behind a new iPhone app called “Balloon Crew.”

For now, it’s just for chase crews and balloon pilots. They’ll be testing it out during fiesta.

Crews on the ground with iPhones will be able to find their balloon as it floats above Albuquerque.

The software will automatically map a route for chase crews to get to a landing point.

Cardinale said, “It shows the speed, bearing and location of the balloon, real-time, overlayed on a Google map, and then allows all the crew vehicles to be shown on the map as well.”

That will put everyone literally on the same page.

“Everybody is on the same page, and this is helpful to crews that come in from out of town because they just don’t know the roads,” Cardinale said.

If the software works well, down the line Cardinale hopes to offer a free version for anyone to download so they can track their favorite balloon—just so long as that balloon is using the software.

“At some point, every pilot could be using this, and we are going to have a free version that allows people to come to the Balloon Fiesta and load it up to see where all the balloons are in real time,” Cardinale said.

The software is being tested by five different balloonists and their chase crews.

[Thanks: http://www.kob.com]

Comments are closed.