Safe Dining – Florida Edition.
Available on:
Web
“
Being an independent developer without much of a budget, finding Texas A&M GeoServices made this app possible. Without it,
I would not have been able to afford to implement geocoding for the app.”
”
— Christopher Morris, developer of
Safe Dining- Florida Edition
Promoting Public Awareness Concerning Food Safety
Safe Dining- Florida Edition is an application offered to iPhone and iPad users that allows them to check previous state health
inspections on all restaurants in Florida.
This application gives both residents and tourists to Florida immediate information regarding inspections on any state-wide restaurant they wish to visit. Whether a
Florida resident is keeping tabs on their favorite places to eat, or a tourist is using the app to discover restaurants in a particular area, this app is a useful tool
in consumer's decision making process. The application has two views in which the customer can choose to search for information- list and mapping. With the list view,
the user can filter their search by name within the state. While using the map view, pins indicate restaurant’s location, and color coordination allows users to see if
there are particular problems they may experience while visiting a restaurant.
This application is beneficial in promoting food safety. Rather than search through many websites in order to find bias or inconsistent reviews or ratings of a
restaurant’s health inspections, Safe Dining offers the ability to quickly and conveniently receive reliable and formal health ratings for all restaurants within
the Florida state. It is open to the public by downloading it through the apple store, and user-friendly.
Mapping and Safe Dining
A vital component of the Safe Dining- Florida Edition application is the map view in which users can see their current location, look at restaurants in the nearby
vicinity that appear as pinpoints on the map, and calculate the distance from the restaurants to where the user is. Knowing where you are located and what is in the
surrounding region can really aid in helping narrow down restaurants to try or collect more information on. Having your locational information also allows for searching
for a restaurant in any particular area.
Geocoding in Action
So what is the underlying processes involving the mapping and locational services provided in important and valuable applications such as Safe Dining- Florida Edition?
Geocoding. Geocoding is the process that converts postal data and addresses into latitude and longitude coordinates in order to be put on an interactive map, such as
the one utilized in Safe Dining, and Texas
