Locating equipment communicatively coupled to or equipped with a mobile/portable device

Abstract

Locating and/or marking equipment, such as a locate transmitter or locate receiver, a marking device, or a combined locate and marking device, may be communicatively coupled to and/or equipped with a mobile/portable device (e.g., a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other portable computing device) that provides processing, electronic storage, electronic display, user interface, communication facilities and/or other functionality (e.g., GPS-enabled functionality) for the equipment. A mobile/portable device may be mechanically and/or electronically coupled to the equipment, and may be programmed so as to log and generate electronic records of various information germane to a locate and/or marking operation (e.g., locate information, marking information, and/or landmark information). Such records may be formatted in various manners, processed and/or analyzed on the mobile/portable device, and/or transmitted to another device (e.g., a remote computer/server) for storage, processing and/or analysis. The mobile/portable device also may provide redundant, shared and/or backup functionality for the equipment to enhance robustness.