Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Mend, I can haz a idea... The "Party System".
Once your exported your coordinates data file onto your PC, how about a feature that lets you combine your file with someone else's data? So if you go out taking photos with a few friends that also have your software, you can use positional interferometry to actually increase the accuracy of the overall data.
The way it works is thus, see the drawing below...
Mend (M) and Zaza (Z) are standing a few meters apart. Zaza's GPS gives him a reasonably accurate 3D fix, but Mend's GPS is having trouble tracking satellites and his accuracy is way off.
If Mend and Zaza can combine their GPS data, then it is possible to do some "simple" math and derive a much better average location for both guys. Note that in the diagram the green dots are the "reported" GPS positions and the letters represent the real positions of our two heroes. In this instance, Zaza's fix becomes slightly less accurate but Mend's becomes much better, so the party's combined GPS fix is better than simply adding up and dividing by two!
There is no limit to the number of GPS receivers you could add to this system. Another benefit is that if one guy loses GPS coverage altogether, then the system can fall back to use the other ones to compensate. The more devices, the greater the accuracy, naturally.
What you'd actually end up with is not 1 combined stream of data, but two streams that have been improved. Both streams are still unique to the person that recorded them (because the distance between them will vary over the day), but at times when Mend and Zaza were in close proximity (eg. holding hands and skipping like they tend to do), accuracy would be probably within 15 feet much of the time.
ANOTHER IDEA:
How about importing NMEA (text) data from proper GPS devices (like my Garmin eTrex) and add that to the "Party" data pool? Not everyone has an expensive WinMo phone, but some do have Garmins.
Anyway I like the project as it stands, if you need any code done, let me know. Also are there any free WinMo emulators for Windows 2000?
Last edited by wossname; May 23rd, 2009 at 04:50 AM.
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Hey,
Tried to have a play with the new version of the code (building it from source, than rather using the CAB installer) and for some reason I was getting lots of unhandled exceptions. Not sure what's going on, I will try again with the CAB and see how I get on.
On another note, I was telling a colleague of mine about it, and pointed him at the CodePlex site. He noticed a typo in the word satelites, it is spelt with two t's rather than one. Is that intentional? If so, what is the joke
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
If you're getting unhandled exceptions, then check the configuration dialog to see what's being deployed to your phone. Might be some assemblies missing.
The satellite thing is a... er... mistake. Got a few more people working on some parts of it, so he may have spelled it wrong. It's fixed in the code now, it'll be released... some day
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Right now, we're working on
* saving more battery life
* new 'main' page with simple info (just lat long, you can go to the logging screen from there)
* see if we can add directional heading
* new skin if possible
* refactoring of code (that's always on the list )
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
I have two friends that are going traveling around the world in a couple of months, and i was wondering if this software could be installed on one of their phones (assuming it's compatible) to regularly update a map on a site so that you could see where they are/where they've been in the world and what route they have taken.
That's from my trip to the Lake District (UK) and I sent these updates regularly using the GPSTracka app.
The reason it's not public yet is because I need to figure out how to add users, make the interface not-crap, that sort of thing. However, if you want, I can make a 'special build' just for them and give you the map software to host on your own ASP.NET server.
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Well, I'm glad it's working for you finally. I have no idea why it's working all of a sudden. Nothing fundamental has changed, although I did do a lot of refactoring.
@WythyRed - Htc Tytn II. It's the one that looks and weighs like a brick.
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
That's going to be the next sub-project for this. Here's what I envision, tell me what you think.
I place the web code at track.mendhak.com. So you could potentially have
track.mendhak.com/gep13
User will need to 'sign up' the URL they want and for that, they request it from the application which sends "gep13" to the web app. Web app checks if available, stores the name against a GUID and the GUID is sent back to the GPSTracka app which then gets written to the config file. As long as you have the GUID, gep13 is yours.
Now when a request is made to update a location on track.mendhak.com with some text, it gets sent along with the GUID, and I update the URL against it for that user so that each user is kept separate, but the URL is unique.
So everyone has
track.mendhak.com/blah
or
track.mendhak.com/blah.aspx
Of course, I get to keep where.mendhak.com for myself. :P
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Hey,
Ah, so you are planning on hosting the tracking application on your own server, and then providing people access to it? Is that right?
Will you be charging for this service?
What if people don't want to upload tracking data onto your server, are you also thinking about providing the code for them to run there own tracking software on their own server?
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
No charge!! I want to keep it free as long as I can.
But yeah, it'll all be on my server and I was thinking of what you said too - make the web code available so that someone can host it themselves (which means that the URL needs to be in the config file too).
Do you do C#? If this appeals and you have the time you could help out. No obligation, etc etc.
Re: GPSTracka - GPS Logging Application for Windows Mobile
Yip, C# is where it's at
Time permitting, I would be happy to help out.
The only slight caveat is that the web server that I run is using Mono for my ASP.Net applications, so code would have to be Mono compliant, i.e. read .Net Framework 2.0, although some of the 3.5 stuff is starting to be supported.
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Originally Posted by mendhak
