Stephen Witherden’s Website :: Technology :: GPS Tracking

Ok, first thing I have done you may not have noticed: I have added subscription functionality to my blog. So now you can receive an email every time I make an update.

Cornelia: I have subscribed you already, because you were complaining before that I don’t tell you what’s going on. You have no excuses now, since you’ll receive an email every time I write anything :p

Another thing I have been working on is my Geographical Positioning Systems. I bought a GPS receiver (the last one on that site) which I have been playing with for a while now. I am quite impressed. It was cheap, only about AU $130, but it comes with all the trimmings: car charger, wall charger, USB charger.

I also discovered to my chagrin that GPS devices don’t acquire indoors, meaning that my indoor tests were not really fair tests. Once outside the GPS works perfectly. I have downloaded an application called GPS trackmaker. It’s free and it’s really pretty.

It allows me to see my exact location, heading, speed and altitude overlayed onto a map, better yet, it synchronises with Google Earth in real time. The image above is my first “test drive” using Google Earth. As the image suggests, Google Earth is just a wee bit off with the images, but I forgive them because it’s so pretty.

All I need now is the ability to synchronise my phone with the GPS device. For that I will need to upgrade to the Sony Ericsson K750i. I hope to have one by the end of next week . Once I have that, then it will be possible to transmit my location to the web in real-time, meaning you all can know exactly where I am, whenever you like. Here’s hoping it works!