OpenBmap

[Onen]

Hi Risto,

Risto H. Kurppa wrote:
> 
> - Collecting cell id's is MUCH more easier than contributing to
> openstreetmap.org: all you need to do is start the openbmap app, make
> sure it has 3d fix,

You don't need to. If you start logging, it will log data *only* if GPS 
has 3d fix, and GSM data is available. You don't have to think about it. 
If you lose the fix, you don't have to care about it.

press the 'generate' -button (that'll be renamed
> to 'start' or 'log' or something soon :) and off you go.

Done in git tree. It now is "Start".

  It records
> all the cells it sees. When you go inside, press 'quit' or 'stop'.

As explained before, if you go inside, you may let the app running, it 
will log later, when it gets the GPS fix back, when you get out of the 
building.

Precision: pressing "exit", first stops nicely the logger. No need to 
press "stop" and then "exit".

> When you get connected to Internet, press 'Upload'. That's it. (ok,
> before uploading you need to register at openbmap.org) -> no need to
> go and analyze the saved data afterwards.
> 
> - I already discussed with Onen (#openmoko-cdevel) some issues in the
> client app (= I have no idea what all the numbers mean and OTOH it'd
> be nice to have it work as a daemon eating as little resources as
> possible, OTOH it'd be nice to have the possibility to see a
> visualization of the data collected)
> 

Yep. Some work has been done on the gui. Please have a look and let me 
know if this goes in the right direction:
http://myposition.wiki.sourceforge.net/page/edit/GUI_thoughts

Also I start thinking two views could be useful. One all details view. 
And one new view, with little info, but in bigger size, etc...

> - about the website www.openbmap.org - it's nice to see the servers
> up&running again!

It actually is not. Nick did a run to test if everything is working as 
it should.

I was surprised to get over 700 cells collected by
> just driving a car for 250km and taking a train back and taking a bus
> for 30 minutes in the city. Hard to believe I'd have seen 700 cells
> but if they tell I did.. http://realtimeblog.free.fr/logins_stats.php
> 

If you had a different way with the train as with the car, and the same 
length of travel, this number makes sense.

> - Maps - this is the 'visualization' part of the project and I think
...

Agreed. We already talked about this. The maps visualisation of the 
website is completely unfriendly to use (and I never use it, I use G. 
earth). Of course we don't want to let it this way.

> 
>   -> I think the country should be selected by the map: it should give
> the central coordinates and size to be used in the database search
> that then returns the information of cells. Different operators could
> be visualized by different colour. And then when I zoom in, at some
> stage it'd start showing the coverage if individual cells. And then
> clicking on a cell coverage area could give me the numbers: country
> id, operator, location area core, cell ID etc.. The current way
> expects people to want to know the coverage on one operator on one
> location area, and single cell instead of finding the cells in one
> area - which I really believe is the approach people would use more.
> 

Indeed. Go somewhere on the map and see what cells are there. (possibly 
with some filters (per operator, etc.).

  It'd be great
> to have it somewhere in low levels so that GPS apps could maybe work
> on this: some daemon just provides to location information, no matter
> if it's a random guess, based on GPS, GSM cells or WLAN base stations.

As stated in a previous email, I have a working prototype for getting 
your position out of GSM cell, locally on your phone. I hope someone 
jumps in with a nice application to make use of this. I don't publish 
it, because it is all very basic, but enough for someone wanting to use 
it. Please contact me if interested.

We already had some thinking with Jan and Daniel. How to build something 
in the way you describe.

> 
> ps. is it possible to download the whole data as a single file?
> 

Nick is working on proposing raw data (the log files my app creates) for 
download on the Website.

We do have sql files, representing the cells positions and radius. This 
is generated from the raw data. I use this file to build a sqlite file 
on the phone, to be used by my prototype D-bus service, to get my position.

Onen