This is just one example:
Detector talks to phone, phone uploads data to the internet, I can then access the date from phone/tablet/PC anytime. That data is all simply the conductivity of the metal in the ground and the VDI or TargetID, whatever you want to call it.
Let's take the GPS coordinates of targets for example.
As I'm running my coil over the ground, in a specific area of the park/beach/whatever. I'm getting lots of pull tabs. Lets assign them an ID# of 20.00. As I'm sweeping this area, my coil is detecting, and automatically locating targets and assigning GPS coordinates to go along with the ID#. Now I can notch out ID# 20 while I'm working an area so that I'm not constantly wasting my time digging pull tabs, and focus on higher priority targets. So far nothing new here right?
While I'm detecting, I have passively collected data on this site of every conductive metal that my coil passed over. Later that night I can go back and analyze that data on my Phone/Tablet/PC. I can pull up ID#20 and see everything that pinged in that conductivity range. Let's say there were 30 targets in the area that had ID#20. I can then expand that and look closer.
15 targets had ID# 20.00
12 targets had ID# 20.01
02 targets had ID# 20.02
01 targets had ID# 20.05
Now looking at that data I can decide if it's worth going back and digging the 3 targets that were unique from the other targets in the 20's. ID# 20.00 is obviously a tab in this scenario, as there were 20 other identical signals. ID# 20.01 is probably also another tab from another MFGR. ID# 20.02 and ID# 20.05 might also just be more tabs, maybe they are bent tabs. Or maybe 20.05 is a gold ring that was lost at the party.
Either way, I now have the opportunity to go back to that location and dig targets 20.02 and 20.05. Maybe I just dig 3 more tabs. Maybe it's something special. Maybe it's not. But at least this way I can work a site focusing on the good signals using my eyes and ears at the time I'm there. And then I can use my brain later when I'm at home to further analyze the location to see if it's worth returning too. Maybe my Phone App automatically tracks unique signals once they pass a certain threshold and I get a notification on my phone that out of 200 targets with ID#20 4 of them are unique enough to warrant further investigation before I leave the site and I can go back and dig targets #20.05 and #20.02 before I even leave the site.
I'm just basically expanding on the "software" opportunities that are available when we start collecting and analyzing the data that we ae ALREADY collecting every time we pass our coil over a target. Only currently that data isn't being stored, and it's not being analyzed, so it's a lost opportunity.
How about when you're gold prospecting and you have a GPS coordinate of every gold target you have dug. Wouldn't it be nice to have a GPS map of every crevice that produced gold on a river so each season you could return and detect KNOWN gold bearing crevices for new deposits? Sure you can try to remember those cracks after the flood season re-arranges everything. But the bedrock cracks/GPS coordinates don't change that easily.
I could go on, but there are tons of useful ways to turn the data that we are already producing into ways to more efficiently work an area. It's 2016. Every device we own should be taking advantage of hardware and software apps on our smart phones to make us more efficient in the field. I've only been detecting for a little over a month and I'm already feeling the technology gap in the hobby compared to the technology that I'm USED to using on an everyday basis.
Edit: This doesn't even go into the crowd sourcing opportunities that become possible once thousands of detectors are uploading information on the targets they are scanning in the ground.