When I set up FOD-detection.com in January 2010 the hope was that the site would not only act as a one-stop-shop for all FOD detection news, but also as a portal for my consultancy work. Unfortunately the market for FOD detection systems (and therefore also for my consultancy work) has not taken off in the way many in the industry had expected.

It has now been 2 years since I held the position of Product Manager for the Tarsier FOD detection system, and I no longer feel that I have the up-to-date knowledge required to offer my services as a consultant (although some FOD vendors have been happy to have a consultant working in this area, and have offered demonstrations of their latest systems, the behaviour of other system vendors can only be described as hostile), for this reason the consultancy section of this site has been removed.

Before leaving QinetiQ I had the opportunity to fill a massive feature gap in the Tarsier system i.e. reporting. When I started as Product Manager there was no automated reporting available to Tarsier customers, no historic data, no maps, no images, no database. In order to fill this gap I proposed the Tarsier Toolbox, a SaaS solution built on Google Maps. It was not an easy task to get the Toolbox built, I had a great technical team working with me and they shared the product vision, unfortunately the project had to be justified to management at almost every stage of development (not something that makes for a particularly positive working environment).

The one thing I did learn from my time working on the Toolbox was that I wanted to continue to help build great SaaS solutions, and that is what I am now fortunate enough to be doing. My current employer is dedicated to building a SaaS solution while also offering a great experience to end users.

FOD-detection.com will continue as usual…but now with videos! The Consultancy section has now been replaced by a Videos section, this area will contain a collection of various FOD related videos from YouTube (I’ve done the searching, so you don’t have to). In the future I hope to add further reference sections to the website (map of current installations, FOD company profiles, FOD related patents etc)

I recently noticed a bug in the mobile version of FOD-detection.com. When you first visit FOD-detection.com using a mobile browser you will be prompted to run it in “web app mode” this essentially turns the site into an app which can be launched from your mobile’s home screen. Unfortunately, selecting article titles in this mode was opening the articles in the mobile browser, and not in the app. After some help from the developers I’ve managed to correct the error.

You shouldn’t need to do anything, but if the issue persists please delete the app from your home screen, and simply visit the site again using your mobile browser, you will be prompted to install the app again, this should solve any issues.

The iPad version of the site suffered from the same issue, this should also be fixed now.

Just a short post to let people know that I’m making a small change to the methods readers can use when subscribing to FOD-detection.com.

Previously, the RSS feed, email Newsletter, and Twitter feed have all contained identical items, i.e. a list of published articles. In future, the Twitter feed will contain some extra information, typically links to FOD stories that might not be worthy of an article on the website (for example, they might not be related to detection, but might still be of interest to some).

FOD detection.com has always been Smartphone friendly. If you access the site using a Smartphone you essentially get an App version of the site that is faster to load and easier to navigate. With the release of iOS4.2 today, (enabling multitasking on the iPad) I thought this would be a good day to bring the same experience to Apple’s tablet.

Hello, my name is Mark Evans and I’m the Editor of FOD-detection.com. I’m the former Product Manager for QinetiQ’s Tarsier Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection system (often referred to as “The FOD Radar”). Since leaving QinetiQ in December 2009 I have decided to remain in the industry in which I have worked for the last 5 years, and am now a consultant specializing in the field of FOD detection systems.

The Aim

The aim of FOD-detection.com is simple, to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource on FOD detection related news for those considering purchasing a FOD detection system.

The Structure

The FOD-detection.com Home page is a reverse chronological news page, with the latest news always at the top. The articles will be a mixture of events picked up from the FOD detection industry, such as vendor press releases and details of FOD and wildlife incidents, as well as original articles by myself.  Although the site officially launches today, I have back filled with articles covering the last two years. For those who require more extensive information than is available on the Home page I’d suggest visiting the Consultancy pages.

Being Social

Each news article will have a comments section, and I invite anyone who has an opinion on a particular article to add a comment. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for users to keep up-to-date with the articles, so people can currently subscribe via RSS and Twitter, and an email news letter will be available shortly, please see the Subscribe page for more information. There is also a Share button at the end of each article which enables easy sharing via various networks. I’m aware that many people now require access to news via their smartphones, for this reason FOD-detection.com is also smartphone friendly.

The Future

Over the coming months I shall be adding more original articles, and I plan to expand the site to include details of bird detection systems. I’ll also be inviting a representative from each of the currently available FOD detection systems to record a “FODcast” – a podcast in which we can discuss the FOD detection solution that they offer.

I’ve just updated the FOD-detection.com Home page to be iPhone friendly (actually iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm, Android and Palm Pre friendly).  This should give users of these devices a much improved user experience, including faster load times. Click the images below to view full size.