Wölfisch

How to not implement GPS tracking

woelfisch

2/2/12 12:47 am

Google has a small tool for GPS tracking on Android phones. It shows you some stats of your hike and records a GPS track of it. Unfortunately, what it writes to the SD card (basically) is this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<document>
<name><![CDATA[2011-10-09 13:43]]></name>
<description><![CDATA[Antelope island state park]]></description>
<!-- some style defintions -->

<placemark>
<!-- name and start point of the track -->
</Placemark>

<placemark>
<name><![CDATA[2011-10-09 13:43]]></name>
<description><![CDATA[Antelope island state park]]></description>
<multigeometry>
<linestring><coordinates>
-112.240134,41.02518,1268.0999755859375
-112.24009,41.025108,1270.4000244140625
<!-- etc -->
</coordinates>
</LineString>
</MultiGeometry>
</Placemark>

<placemark>
<name><![CDATA[(End)]]></name>
<description><![CDATA[Erstellt von <a href='http://mytracks.appspot.com'>My Tracks</a> für Android.<p>Gesamtentfernung: 12,57 km (7,8 mi)<br>Gesamtzeit: 2:22:39<br>Zeit in Bewegung: 2:08:25<br>Durchschnittsgeschw.: 5,29 km/h (3,3 mi/h)<br> Durchschnitt in Bew.: 5,87 km/h (3,6 mi/h)<br> Max. Geschwindigkeit: 10,06 km/h (6,3 mi/h)<br>Niedrigste Höhenlage: 1268 m (4160 Fuß)<br>Höchste Höhenlage: 1476 m (4844 Fuß)<br>Höhengewinn: 336 m (1101 Fuß)<br>Maximale Steigung: 0 %<br>Minimale Steigung: 0 %<br>Aufgezeichnet am: So. Okt 09 13:43:04 GMT-06:00 2011<br>Aktivität: White rock trail<br><img border="0" src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?&chs=600x350&cht=lxy&chtt=Höhe&chxt=x,y&chxr=0,0,12,2|1,1200.0,1500.0,25&chco=009A00&chm=B,00AA00,0,0,0&chg=100000,8.333333333333334,1,0&chd=e:," />]]></description>
<styleurl>#sh_red-circle</styleUrl>
<point>
<coordinates>-112.240085,41.025051</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>

</Document>
</kml>

It records the GPS coordinates without any time stamps except for the start time, and all the stats are in localized free-form text. Completely unusable except for drawing the track on Google Maps. No way to geo tag my photos.

Tags: geotagging, gps, hiking, rotten engineering, thanks for nothing, uninstalled

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• ionotter

  2/2/12 01:28 pm (UTC)

  

  They probably don't allow it, because the privacy people would throw a frothing fit. Which in this case, would be inappropriate, since this is a feature you want, not a program that's enabled by default and hidden.

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  • woelfisch

    2/4/12 02:38 pm (UTC)

    

    I don't think it's for privacy reasons, just pure laziness. The app is quite specifically for hiking purposes and not very useful for anything else.
    
    However, I found out that it can also read GPS tracks from the SD card and display them on Google Maps tiles. Thus, currently I'm logging with GPSLogger and import the tracks with MyTracks to find out where exactly I am while hiking.
    
    Well, of course I can live without it. I know how to use a compass and a map. I usually know where I am even without it when I'm hiking. I do not rely on technology, but it makes hiking much more fun. :-)

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