Maj. Gregory Motes, Capt. Christopher Braunstein, and Capt. Stacey Osborn of the Army Signal Center at Fort Gordon, GA, worked as a team to develop four applications for the contest. Their Physical Training Program app for the iPhone helps soldiers develop their own training regimen based on the Army's new Physical Readiness Training program. "We took a look at the new training manual and we sat down as a group and started to break it apart —we didn't want to put a wall of words, a PDF, into an application," Motes said.
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computing resources). This model served companies well for decades and insured a consistent user experience.
Below are just a few examples of how the iPhone and iPad are used by the U.S. military:
The iPhone was a game changer—and the introduction of the iPad accelerated things even further. It’s not uncommon to go to meetings where the customary pad of paper or laptop PC has been replaced by a tablet. Due to the beauty of digitization, notes can now be entered into the iPad once and copied or saved for later use. This eliminates the need for transcription of written notes and the inherent errors that come into play when one is retyping information. Besides the now-pedestrian use of the iPad for taking notes, people all over the Beltway are finding new, interesting, and compelling uses for the technology.
apps for the army
According to Michael T. McCarthy, Director of Operations and Program Manager for the Army’s Brigade Modernization Command, “The Army recognized the value of using tablet devices early in our examination of smartphones and devices for the Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications project. In a classroom or training environment, the fullsized devices have proven to be an exceptional tool for the student soldiers. In an operational environment, size, weight, and power are critical elements for any device. Soldiers tell us that they need a smaller tablet. As a consequence of their recommendations, we are really looking forward to putting the iPad mini into their hands and giving it a realistic workout.”
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The U.S. Army’s “Apps for the Army” program kicked off as an app-development contest open to soldiers and Army Civilians. The Army asked developers to come up with interesting and useful software applications for Apple and Android devices in certain categories related to their daily work, including morale, welfare, and recreation; Army mission; information access; and location awareness and training. The idea is that by developing their own apps, the Army can speed up the appdevelopment process and therefore save money. According to the Army, about 140 individuals or teams signed up to participate in the program, which created a first round of about 53 applications. Of the 53 submitted, 25 got through the certification process. "We say that we are looking for an application to do XYZ, and we give them 30 days to come back and show us what they have," says former Army CIO Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson. “We give them 60 more days to develop it, and in 90 days we have an app," Sorenson said.
The final product was an app that creates a training regimen for individual soldiers, using videos and still images to fully demonstrate how various exercises should be done. "We saw this as a new way that training manuals could be in the future," Motes said. "Some people learn better by reading words and looking at pictures, and some people appreciate the videos." From the 53 applications submitted to the Apps for the Army challenge, 15 winners were chosen—a first, second, and third-place winner in each of five categories. Additionally, 10 "honorable mentions" were named. Winning applications included: The Physical Training Program, developed by Maj. Gregory Motes, Capt. Christopher Braunstein, and Capt. Stacey Osborn of the Army Signal Center, Ft. Gordon, GA; Telehealth Mood Tracker, developed by Robert Kayl, Scott Swim, and Robert Van Gorkom of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA; The Disaster Relief app, developed by Andrew Jenkins and Alex Ly of the Engineer Research and Development Center, Alexandria, VA; The Movement Projection app, developed by Luke Catania of the Engineer Research and Development Center, Alexandria, VA; and The New Recruit app, developed by Thomas Maroulis of Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. Note: These apps are not intended for consumer use. Soldiers wishing to see the apps developed in the Apps for the Army challenge can do so through this URL: storefront.mil/army.