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GPS systems (PDAs software and

applications)
By allankliu
Created 09/10/2008 - 04:26

Technology gps gps software gps systems gps tracking pdas

GPS tracking is entering most of the popular mobile platforms, including mobile phones, PDAs,
media players, and game consoles. The attached figure is a PSP with new released GPS
module. It is a good reason that kids can use to convince parents to buy a PSP for them.
It is difficult to mention all of the amazing GPS applications in the world. Here we summary the
hottest GPS applications in the following list. And we try to offer some open source projects so
anyone can use them as starting point.
A lot of applications in our daily life have already used GPS technology for years. Some
applications operate independently, such as navigation, geo-tagging and passive track logger.
The other applications connect to the complementary web servers for map tiles access, local
search services, landmarks sharing and routes planning. GPS is entering most of the popular
mobile platforms, including mobile phones, PDAs, media players, and game consoles. The
attached figure shows a PSP with new released GPS module. It is a good reason for kids to
convince parents to buy a PSP for them.

It is difficult to involve all of the amazing GPS applications. Here I summary the popular GPS
applications in a list. And I try to offer some open source projects so anyone can use them as
starting point.

1. Automotive Navigation: It is a typical application for GPS. Now it integrates more features
including MP3/MP4 playback, DVB receiver, parking radar, and FM transmitter for voice
guidance.
2. Personal Navigation: The personal navigation is available on the mobile phones and
PDAs. It is a highly competitive market.
3. Tracking: It is yet another commercial application for tracking anyone and anything. The
tracking services are used in seniors and children caring, pet tracking, fleet management,
express delivery service and emergency positioning.
4. Traffic Management: Traffic management is a good idea to guide the drivers on the road
to avoid traffic jams and accidents.
5. Location Based Services: It is the favorite word of mobile network operators. Actually
LBS is a general terminology of mobile phone oriented value-added geographic services
including navigation, local search and advertisement. LBS includes GPS and many other
mobile networking based positioning technologies, such as GPSone, A-GPS, PHS
positioning and Cell-ID positioning.

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6. Mobile Social Network: It is a mobile version of the popular social network with location
services. You can use it to check if your friends happen to cross in your road and check the
upcoming events nearby. Check Loopt (Live Virtual Earth based) for Android and GyPSii
(Google Map based) for iPhone. These networks are growing so fast and many VCs are
trying to find such startup companies.
7. Geo-tagging: More and more pictures and videos are geo-tagged and shared on the web.
Some new cameras have embedded GPS module to meet the requirement. It is interesting
that these GPS enabled cameras also offer entry level personal navigation for the
consumers. See, too many players are fighting for the same market.
8. Clock Synchronization: It used to be very expensive to keep the accuracy of a clock.
Thanks to GPS’ clock system, the applications require clock synchronization can get the
accurate clock signal from a low cost GPS receiver.
9. Location Intelligence for government and business organizations: A lot of organizations
are using GPS for government operations and commercial intelligence investigation. For
example, a supermarket company can use it for analysis of competition, customer
purchase capability, rush hours, and resident favorite routes before launch a real
supermarket there.

Navigation

Openmoko is the open source mobile phone

project. This project is sponsored by FIC, a
Taiwan based PC main board supplier.
Openmoko’s latest model is NEO
FreeRunner, which is an A-GPS mobile
phone offers personal navigation.

It claims as the first 100% open source mobile

phone, including the GSM stack. A powerful
mobile Linux distribution is running on a
400MHz S3C2440 ARM920T CPU from
Samsung. It features 2D/3D graphic, USB2.0,
mini SD, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi and A-GPS
module.

It is a real hackers’ favorite toy. There is a

hacker package available, including a NEO
FreeRunner and a debug board. It should be
the first candidate on your purchasing list if
you are looking for a good GPS development
platform. Everything is open for you.

The popular Dash Express is the first derivate

project of Openmoko. This amazing device is a connected GPS, which allows the car drivers to
share the real time traffic information and avoid traffic jams and accidents. Dash Express is the
front-end of the whole aggressive project. This project uses web servers to collect the
information of coordinates and velocity anonymously and broadcasts the road trend and traffic
update to the drivers.

There is also a personal navigation program available in the Openmoko. The navigation software
uses the map tiles from OpenStreetMap servers. It is much easier to access the map tiles from
other free web geographic servers like Google, Live and Yahoo. However it may be forbidden in

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the terms and conditions. So the designer must check the legal terms of the map servers. Some
projects already have big troubles of abuse the map servers. I have no idea about the capability
of the web browser in Openmoko. If the web browser is JavaScript capable, the users can
access Google Map for navigation.

Passive Tracking

The passive tracking is an off-line tracking technology

by recording the coordinates during the whole trip.
Passive tracking is commonly used in tracking services
when real-time communication is not available or
required. A wife may use it on her husband to check if
he is cheating on her. The boss may use it to check
the compliance of his delivery team. The scientists may
track the birds for bird flu with a tiny track logger.

There are many

open source
projects for
tracking purposes.
Mr. Dana Peter has developed a web project online tracking
service at Qcontinuum. The whole project is made up of a
Bluetooth GPS module, a J2ME enabled mobile phone, and
a web server. The source code of J2ME client software is
opened for the public. And the JavaScript code in the web
can be reused as well. However the back-end web pages
involve user registration, mail, uploading, and format
conversion have to be completed by an experienced web
developer. I have ported Dana’s project to my own site at
Ennovation. I reorganized the project to meet the
requirement for Chinese people. And the Java code can be
rebuilt on NetBeans IDE with slightly modification.

Since Google’s KML becomes the standard for geographic information exchange, many web
sites and geographic software start to support track viewing with KML. The users can download
the KML file from the GPS terminals and check it in Google Earth, OziExplorer, and World Wind
of NASA. As alternative solution, the users can also upload to Google Map and Live Virtual Earth
and view the tracks in the KML files online.

Real Time Tracking

The real-time track is a profitable market segment for the traditional GPS suppliers. A lot of
organizations and individuals require real-time track services for tracking their assets in real-time.
These organizations are express services, banks, security companies, car rental companies and
car user clubs. The real-time tracking is the passive tracking plus the extra communication
capability.

After 911, every mobile phone sold in US should have positioning capability. That creates anther
market for personal tracking. Of course it brings up some arguments about privacy. After the
massacre in Virginia Tech University, all of the college students especially the female graduates
are told to carry the GPS phones, switch on the real time tracking and push the alarm key when
necessary.

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There are also some tailor-made terminals for the elder people and children, which are tracked
by their families. Of course, more and more private cars are installed GPS based AVL
(Automatic Vehicle Locator) anti-theft systems.

Although all of above real time tracking devices maybe have different names and outlooks, they
share the same concept and system structure. An AVL is quite simple, one microcontroller with
two serial ports, which connect to a communication module (GSM/GPRS/CDMA) and a GPS
receiver module. The system controller will read the NMEA from the GPS and transmit via the
communication module. The GPRS mode is preferred in a long time tracking project, rather than
the SMS mode. An open source project called Open GPS Tracker uses a low-cost MOTO C168
mobile phone, Tyco A1035D GPS module and an AVR microcontroller to build an AVL. The total
BOM cost is about 50USD.

Wavecom in France is a professional wireless communication

module supplier, who offers various modules for
GSM/GPRS/CDMA on different band. This company also
deliveries combined modules with GPS inside. It is handy to
develop and download your own code into the module via its
Open-AT development tools. You can also purchase wireless
communication modules from Cinterion (Benq-Siemens),
Motorola, SIMCOM and Huawei. Wireless communication module has another popular name as
M2M (Machine to Machine).

The Google Earth is powerful and popular. In general, it does not support track viewing with
either local GPS over serial port or remote GPS over IP. Because its free version does not
support communication with a GPS terminal. However, recently I realized that Google Earth is
possible to check the web generated KML file regularly. In another word, the real-time tracking is
possible on Google Earth, without any plug-in. I am planning to use this feature to build a
real-time tracking service on my web server.

Traffic Management

Traffic management is the headache for the

civil transportation management authorities.
People are struggling with the traffic jam
everyday. Up to now, at least in Shanghai, the
traffic programs in FM radio are still the
preferred source for the traffic update. It has a
great value to allow the drivers on the go to
have the overview insight for the traffic status
ahead. TMC (Traffic Message Channel) is
invented for this purpose. New delivery
channels are emerging that could carry TMC
services, including RDS/RDBS, digital radio
(DAB), mobile Internet, paging and
GSM/GPRS mobile phone networks.

The Dash Express GPS is a promising

alternative solution for traffic management. Let
us see it in this way. The TMC is a top-down
and centralized traffic management approach,
and the Dash Express is a flat and distributed

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traffic management approach. It is for sure

that the similar projects will launch if Dash
Express is successful.

Both TMC and Dash Express require powerful servers to collect the data of speed and vehicle
densities on the road, and send the information back to the drivers via broadcast channels or IP
networks.

Mobile Social Network

The social networks are invading mobile

market. Since the biggest social networks have
not consolidate their share in mobile world. A
lot of startup companies announced mobile
social networks because the concept is straight
forward and easy to implement. GyPSii, a
Dutch company is very successful in mobile
social network on iPhone platform. We can
expect that more similar applications will be
available on Windows Mobile, Google Android.
With Google’s expertise in Google Map and
Google Earth and GPL, Android is the most
promising platform. Let us pray Android phone
can be released in 2008. In fact, Google's
Android is a Java application environment.
Google offers a complete API suite for it.
However, Google forbids any other Java based
applications to direct access its map tiles
servers. Neither does MSN/Live and Yahoo.

Geo-tagging

The Flickr, Panoramio, and Google Picasa are popular because of the
geo-tagging pictures. Some new cameras have embedded the GPS
modules to meet the consumer requirement. The coordinates are usually
written into the metadata area (EXIF) of each digital picture. So the
consumers can upload the pictures and share with their friends seamlessly.
The geo-tagging is a kind of passive tracking.

Geo-tagging brings revolution to the consumer electronics. The camera

phones and digital cameras have GPS geo-tagging feature now. There are different solutions at
this moment. One approach is connecting an external GPS logger to the shutter or flash light.
The other approach is internal GPS, which offers coordinate to the application processor.
Besides, I found some GPS suppliers are promoting some manual GPS loggers to record the
coordinate for pictures. It is a less impressive and transitional idea, because everyone wants to
carry less electronics during the journey.

Clock Synchronization

Even fairly accurate computer clocks are likely to vary due to

manufacturing defects, changes in temperature, electric and

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magnetic interference, the age of the quartz crystal, or even system

load. Additionally, even the smallest errors in keeping time can
significantly add up over a long period.

The GPS system includes 24 satellites each with three or four on board atomic clocks. The US
Naval Observatory monitors the satellite’s clocks and sends control signals to minimize the
differences between their atomic clocks and a master atomic clock for accuracy and traceable to
national and international standards (known as UTC).

For time synchronizing a clock, the GPS signal is received and distributed by a master clock,
time server, or primary reference source to a device, system, or network so the local clocks are
synchronized to UTC. Typical accuracies range from better than 500 nanoseconds to 1
millisecond anywhere on earth. The GPS clock synchronization eliminates the need for manual
clock setting (an error-prone process). The benefits are numerous and include: legally validated
time stamps, regulatory compliance, secure networking, and operational efficiency.

A freeware called GPS Time and Test is a PC clock synchronization program. It uses NMEA
protocol. $GPZDA, $ZQZDA or $GPRMC protocol sentences are explored as time source.

Legal Terms and Regulations

In general, GPS is a free service for the ordinary consumers. There is no legal issue here.
However if a system is made up of map data, there is some legal issues involves copyright and
regulations. The major concerns are the source and abuse of the map data, copyright, country
border argument, accuracy, and military facilities. Here I listed some challenges that a system
designer may meet.

1. Google only allows users to access its map data and map tiles via AJAX API or Android
API. Although the map tiles' addresses are quite simple to access, it is forbidden. Google
also use some cookies to track the satellite map tiles. The famous 3rd party MGmap has to
give up caching the Google's map tiles because of this issue. Now MGmap has to use
different maps from Yahoo and Live.
2. Google forbids any commercial application with its free map API. The Google map based
services have to be open and free. The commercial applications have to purchase the
commercial services.
3. Google forbids any application for any vehicle navigation with its API.
4. Live virtual earth forbids any applications for real-time tracking with its API.
5. In some countries like China, all the web map services have to shift on purpose for security
reasons. That means the GPS coordinate is not as identical as the Chinese map
coordinate.
6. In China, online custom map is not allowed. Although this is not a law or a regulation, many
map suppliers including Google has disable such service. But it is legal and encouraged in
other countries.
7. More explicit and implicit rules...

So, take care, never step on a mine.

Reference

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At present QtGPS is the only software available is in Linux based

on the Qt toolkit. This provides for simple logging of a journey,
replay of a logged journey, a real-time moving map display and the
ability to add and edit your own maps and features.

gpsd — a GPS service daemon.

gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPSes

attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports, making all
data on the location/course/velocity of the sensors available to be
queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer. With gpsd, multiple
GPS client applications (such as navigational and wardriving
software) can share access to GPSes without contention or loss of
data. Also, gpsd responds to queries with a format that is
substantially easier to parse than the NMEA 0183 emitted by most
GPSes. The gpsd distribution includes a linkable C service library, a C++ wrapper class, and a
Python module that developers of gpsd-aware applications can use to encapsulate all
communication with gpsd.

Openmoko has begun shipping its Linux-based, open source Neo

FreeRunner phone to five newly announced distributors, in
Germany, France, and India, says the company. The Neo
FreeRunner features an open hardware design, and a Linux-based
operating system that users are free to modify.

Bangalore, India —Mistral Software, Inc. has introduced its

next-generation Navigation Reference Design (NRD) that
incorporates SiRF Technology Holdings Inc.'s latest SiRFstar III
GPS chipset. It is designed to provide product developers with a
quick start build for their next generation GPS devices with
enhanced wireless capabilities.

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Geotag Your Photos with Freeware. This page explains how to

record the geographic information into your EXIF metadata in the
JPEG.

The Open GPS Tracker is a small device which plugs into a $20
prepaid mobile phone to make a GPS tracker. The Tracker
responds to text message commands, detects motion, and sends
you its exact position, ready for Google Maps or your mapping
software. The Tracker firmware is open source and
user-customizable. The firmware is written in assembly for AVR
Tiny microcontroller.

The Siemens wireless module business has a new name as

Cinterion. Cinterion Wireless Modules produces both modules and
terminals, and offers comprehensive integration and sales support
services as well as complete one-stop machine-to-machine
solutions – the latter directed by our business model M2M One.

Wavecom is a leading provider of embedded wireless technology

for M2M (machine-to-machine) communication. We provide a range
of GSM/GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and 3G Wireless CPUs;
programmable processors which also act as wireless modules or
wireless modems. These are backed by a C and Lua-based cellular
wireless software suite which includes a real-time operating system
(RTOS), a software development environment based on Eclipse™,
and several Plug-Ins (GPS, TCP/IP, security, Bluetooth™, Lua
script and more). We also offer a wide range of professional and
operated services.

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OpenDMTP is a commercial quality Open Source protocol and

framework designed for the transmission of location based
information over high-latency/low-bandwidth networks. Using the
OpenDMTP C client reference implementation, we'll describe how
to build your own GPS tracking system, and explore the various
options that are possible once you have the system up and running.
OpenDMTP also features fully open source accompany project
OpenGTS as the web service for viewing the tracking.

Here is an open source GPS project listing. Some of these projects

are written in C, so it can be ported to your favorite platforms.

Trademarks

Source URL: http://dev.emcelettronica.com/gps-systems-pdas-software-and-applications

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