External hardware

The Survey123 field app can integrate with external hardware to improve the quality and speed of data capture.

External hardware can use the following technologies for data capture:

• Global navigation satellite system receivers (GNSS) communicate with satellites and land-based position sources to produce high-accuracy location information.
• Laser measurement instruments use light to measure distances (rangefinders), point cloud locations (lidar), or temperatures (environmental sensors).
• Radio frequency identification sensors (includes RFID and NFC) can read and write preprogrammed values from and to tagged items.

The most common external hardware used with the Survey123 field app are GNSS receivers. Connected by cable or Bluetooth, these receivers can provide Survey123 with more precise and more accurate location measurements than are typically available from location sensors built into the device on which the app is running. To learn more, see the following:

• Prepare for high-accuracy data collection
• Use a high-accuracy receiver

Desirable external hardware are laser measurement instruments. Survey123 currently supports two types of laser measurement instruments: Spike and rangefinder. To learn more, see the following:

• Spike images
• Measure objects using Spike
• Prepare for rangefinder data collection
• Use a rangefinder

The Berntsen InfraMarker RFID Reader can be used with Survey123 to read and write InfraMarker tags. Install the InfraMarker RFID app from the App Store or Google Play to be able to read and write tags in Survey123. InfraMarker community templates are available in Survey123 Connect for common workflows. To author a survey to read and write InfraMarker tags, see InfraMarker text. To learn more, see the InfraMarker documentation.