cellhunter - openbmap - opencellid revisited... (was Re: CellHunter is moving to a new server)

[Risto H. Kurppa]

On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Thomas
Landspurg<t.landspurg at 8motions.com> wrote:
>  That's exactly the objective.There is a clear difference and
> complementarity between a general purpose database and the
> "CellsHunter" game for instance. The good news is that we are
> progressing well with CellsHunter to integrate their database.

I think this should be something done ~weekly; syncing the databases.

>  I still hope to convince OpenBMap to don't recreate another database
> focused on OpenMoko but use and improve a general purpose project.

I can't see why openbmap would focus on OpenMoko more than any other
projects. They talk about Windows Mobile and Freerunner on the front
page

> I
> am sure that that's the spirit of Onen, but it seems that we had some
> communication issue that I should be solved soon.

I don't know about your issues, just don't let it effect your
co-operation. If you think it's good to work together, do it.

>  The final benefit, at the end, is to provide the best not in only in
> term of coverage but also in terms of accuracy database.

OpenBmap stores this data:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/myposition/wiki/log_format

* mcc
* mnc
* lon
* lat
* alt
* heading
* speed
* hdop
* vdop
* pdop
* swid: software id of the logger
* swver: software version of the logger
* lac: decimal value
* id: decimal value of the cell id
* ss: signal strength in dBm
* rxlev: optional
* ta: timing advance, optional
* speed: in km/h

OpenCellID stores these (source: http://opencellid.org/api)

mcc: mobile country code(decimal)
mnc: mobile network code(decimal)
lac: locale area code (in decimal)
cellid: value of the cell id (in decimal)
measured_at (optionnal) the time of the measure...
lat:latitude when the measure has been taken
lon:longitude when the measure has been taken

CellHunter seems to be the app-specific you were talking about. Didn't
find specs to tell what data it sends (didn't check the source).

I think alt, speed and GPS precision etc information can be useful in
calculating the position of the cells.

>  As a reminder, we are open to any suggestion on how to imprement the
> API, features, missing fields, etc.....

Please add sopport for at least alt, speed, heading, hdop, vdop, pdop,
signal strength. If the projects plan to share their data, all
projects should gather the same (full!) data of the cells to reach the
highest possible precision. Coverage is something you'll be able to
reach by everyone focusing on their own projects AND sharing the data.

I must say I like opencellID API: it has clear addresses how to
put/get cell information or GPS location. THis is something where
openbmap is behind.
And if OpenCellID has a nice api, it's good, but if I see that it
doesn't use speed nor hdop/vdop/alt in calculating the location I
trust openbmap more - but it's lacking the proper API.

-> work for both of you to do. Focus on it, not in rhetorics &
communication issues. Just make your project better than the other one
is and share the data. It's the best for the community!





r

-- 
| risto h. kurppa
| risto at kurppa dot fi
| http://risto.kurppa.fi