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Starting on my GPS project July 20, 2005

Posted by vinnyt in : General, Programming , trackback

So,
I’ve had this idea now for a couple of years. I have been trying to build a real time tracking system for myself similar to Tracker watches. Early on I built a version that used Microsoft Roads & Trips, but this required a fairly heft connection to the Internet, as it generated a picture on the computer I was carrying with me and then uploaded that to my website. Frankly the feature set that I was able to create using this technology was less than desirable. So with that attempt working. I knew that what I wanted to create was possible, and it would just require me to dig a little deeper. A couple of years passed, and I bought a GPS and really began exploring the technology. I can now identify pretty much every NMEA sentence, and can almost convert the numbers in my head. Up until google maps came out I had been exploring how to use mapquest and the like. They have a simple interface, but every attempt I made at trying to figure out how their maps worked ended up in failure. So then Google maps was released, and within a couple of months I along with so many others figured out a way to lojack my way onto the map. The early incarnations of this software worked great, excerpt for the fact that every time Google improved their maps I ended up having to hack my code to get it working again. So luckly for all of us out there Google did us mappers a tremendous favor and produced an API so we wouldn’t have to fight every time they made a change. So my hat is off to Google for that. In creating this I now have all the tools I need to build my application. As it stands now you can play back journey’s I have been on by clicking on the “Where’s Vinny” link. What I have done thus far is simply carry my lap top and my garmin with me and using Hyper Term recorded the NMEA sentences, and then uploaded those to a data base when I had internet connectivity. Over they next couple of weeks I’m going to start spending more time with this application so that I can finally realize my goal of real-time tracking.

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