Kory Kekewich

Borden Nav

From laminated maps to a digital response tool.

An offline map-and-reference app I built for the fire hall, later combined with the base team's navigation system.

Field pilot

Borden Nav tablet map overview with the sidebar open, showing map layers and reference tools.

At a glance

The need

Replace laminated paper maps with searchable building information on base.

What I built

Offline image maps, searchable pins, building records, and grid-reference tools.

My role

Original app, data, and internal pitch. Later collaborated with base developers on the combined product.

Built with

Flutter: Offline Android tablet interface
Dart: Application development
Custom rendering: CustomPainter and InteractiveViewer over PNG maps
Offline-first: Bundled JSON and shared_preferences for added records
Geospatial: Control points and bilinear interpolation
PDF + data tooling: flutter_pdfview, file export, and Dart/PowerShell data scripts

Product preview

Borden Nav phone search displaying matching building codes and addresses.

The selected building highlighted by a red pin on the phone map.

Search and locate

Search by building code or address, then see its location on the offline map.

Building details on a phone, with sections for fire protection, access, utilities, and response information.

Building information

Open the building record for access notes, fire protection systems, and response information.

More product views

Building information

Open the building record for access notes, fire protection systems, and response information.

Borden Nav tablet showing a searched six-figure grid reference and its orange location pin on the topographic map.

Grid-reference tools

Locate a six-figure grid reference or select a point on the map to read its reference.

Screens from my original map-and-reference app. The combined product's navigation was supplied by the base development team.

Engineering decisions

Making a picture searchableI linked records to pixel coordinates and used custom rendering and view transforms to locate and select pins.

Challenge: The original maps were images, not a navigation service with searchable locations.
Outcome: A typed building search opens its location and information without a network connection.

Connecting pixels to grid referencesI used measured control points and bilinear interpolation to translate between grid references and map pixels.

Challenge: Map positions and six-figure grid references needed to work in both directions.
Outcome: The separate Dart reference implementation passed checks across 222 control points. These checks do not establish field accuracy of the app.

Bringing two systems togetherI prepared data and handoff tools that normalize identifiers and produce reconciliation worklists for review.

Challenge: My image-based app and the base team's navigation system used different records and identifiers.
Outcome: My data and workflows contributed to the combined product; base developers supplied navigation and adapted the implementation.

My contribution

I built the original Borden Nav application after seeing the operational gap firsthand and pitched it to the fire department. I subsequently collaborated with developers at CFB Borden to combine my application with their navigation application for fire-department use. The combined product is now being tested at the fire hall.

Where it stands

Being tested at the fire hall.

The combined product is on a truck tablet. Crew feedback will guide wider deployment.

Target: December 2026

Next step

Refine the product from crew feedback and prepare the wider tablet deployment.

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