I am building an application for Android devices for skydivers to log location data during a skydive.
I have set the app up to record the device GPS location every 5 seconds in a foreground service. It seems to be working fine until the user is inside an aircraft, at which point the location may no longer update, or update very infrequently. Location updates will resume when the user has deployed their parachute.
The aircraft is a Cessna Grand Caravan
I can't work out why this may be the case? Could this be something to do with the altitude making the GPS sensor ineffective? Or maybe to do with being inside an aircraft? The location tracking works absolutely fine at ground level such as when tracking a route in a car.
I am collecting location updates the same way as in the Android documentation, available here:
https://developer.android.com/training/location/request-updates
Any help would be greatly appreciated
after researching the Android Location FusedLocationProviderClient I am very confused about what you should and should not do!
The use case is: The App holds different locations with latitude and longitude. While the user is walking around the app (with the phone in the pocket, screen off) needs to track if he is close to one of the locations and plays a short beep when closer than a defined range.
Would the Geofence option the best solution? These locations will also change during runtime and periodically - they might also be more than 100. Any suggestion?
I am also thinking about a background service to handle all this when the device moves. This would be more flexible and allows for the reload of the locations as well. Any thoughts?
Thanks!!
You don't actually need to build a background service to monitor if a user is close to a location. There is already a geofence provided by Google. It uses fusedlocation provider internally.
Please refer this
You can combine this with a FusedLocationProviderClient and subscribe to location updates. This way you'll get location updates as well.
I am building an app that will monitor where a user is using GPS and alert him if he is within a certain distance of a particular place. I would provide the app with a list of the places and their latitude and longitude and the app would check against this list. Once the user has launched the app to start the location monitoring process, then most of the time he does not need to know anything about it and will be using other apps, making phone calls, or whatever. A user interface will only be displayed when the app finds a match with a location in the list.
I guess that this means that the location monitoring should run in background mode, but I am fairly new to android and I don't really understand about background processes or about location monitoring. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial or information?
to building this app that will monitor where a user is using GPS and alert him if he is within a certain distance, you will using service in background and using gps to get altitude and longitude and you will using a function to calculate a distance bitween a user location giving by gps and others location in the list and you can also start your Service on Boot Automatically.
good luck.
I have referred many questions on this topic, but it seems some of my requirements are missing:
I want to get the GPS location at ~0.0001 accuracy
Don't want to use internet; Though GSM/CDMA network is ok
Should be obtained programmatically when the app starts
Should be quicker, say within a minute (like iPhone, which probably works in Airplane mode as well!)
The code should work in most of the devices
The phone may switch-on/off anytime and travel any distance
Is there any way to get just the co-ordinates with above mentioned requirements? Any sample code snippet will be much appreciated.
Checking various apps like "Locate Me", "Maverick", which claim to show offline locations. But in various scenarios without internet, they don't give track the location (in India).
I have referred plenty of old/new questions inside/outside SO. Below are few:
Is it possible to have the gps location while offline with the nexus
7?
Does GPS require
Internet?
How to get current exact location in android without internet
connection?
[Note: I am asking this question on behalf of my Android team and will be happy to clarify the details if asked for. Should you feel that this post belongs to Android.Stackexchange, then kindly move it.]
1. I want to get the GPS location at ~0.0001 accuracy
You can listen only to GPS provider and discard a location when it doesn't have the minimun accuracy you want:
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 5, myLocationListener); // "myLocationListener" must be an object from a class that implements LocationListener
// "myLocationListener" implementation of LocationListener.onLocationChanged
public void onLocationChanged(Location location)
{
int MIN_ACCURACY = 5; // in metters
if ((!location.hasAccuracy()) || (location.getAccuracy() > MIN_ACCURACY))
{
// discard this location and keep listening to new location readings
}
else
{
// that's a good reading!
// do somethings you want... blah, blah, blah...
// stop updates when you get the location to preserve users' battery.
locationManager.removeUpdates(myLocationListener);
}
}
2. Don't want to use internet; Though GSM/CDMA network is ok
Yes, GPS works totally off-line. Android can make use of internet ONLY to update A-GPS data cache and provide faster reads in cold-start updates.
3. Should be obtained programmatically when the app starts
Then call item locationManager.requestLocationUpdates on mainActivity's onCreate event.
4. Should be quicker, say within a minute (like iPhone, which probably
works in Airplane mode as well!)
Keep in mind that iPhone works with "high quality hardware". Android can be run on crappy devices. So it'll depend of:
The device's hardware quality;
The number of satellites that are visible in the sky at that moment;
The age of almanac and ephemeris data on gps cache;
GPS can fail to read satellites because user is inside a building or something.
5. The code should work in most of the devices
What is the oldest Android's API you want it to run?
6. The phone may switch-on/off anytime and travel any distance
I didn't get it. What is your concern about this?
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Update 1:
"...I would like to use Android 4.0 and above..."
I've tested GPS features from Android 2.3 to 5.0 devices. Everything runs pretty fine on all of them.
"...I have observed that 1 geo-coordinates based demo app which was working in other devices, din't work in my LGG3 with Android 5.0. Any idea on that?..."
Did you check GPS permissions on Android settings? (Maybe it's disabled) Or can be a hardware issue? Did you try in another similar device?
"...Suppose the GPS is showing correct location in New York,
I switch off the phone and then switch on after reaching to London,
then will it still show correct location (without internet)?..."
Sounds you're confusing things: reading a GPS location is one thing. Showing that location into a MAP is another different thing!
You don't need to be connected to the internet to do GPS location reading. But, if you want to show that location into a MAP, probably you're gonna need internet (to load map resources, etc.).
If you nedd to stay collecting GPS locations periodically (let's say, from 10 to 10 minutes), then it will be better to use AlarmManager to schedule a timer that will "finger" your app and say "hey, time to make a GPS reading!".
"...Also what is your opinion about the latest Fused API?..."
I've tested it and used it for a while, but I gave it up. It needs that Google Play Services be installed to work (not a problem, most users have it on their devices). But if you need ACCURACY (as I do), it will not work. It uses "fused sensors" (accelerometer, gps, wifi, compass, etc...) to try to get user location with minimum power possibile. Sometimes, it says you're 10 miles away from where you're really is. I couldn't make it work fine to keep the "path" where user has been. But it really saves battery.
Suggestion is to use Google Location Services
It takes the best possible and accurate location as accurate as it can at current moment. It automatically (with configuration of course) takes best current accuracy too - whatever is available GPS, network, internet, GSM/CDMA/LTE... It also cashes last known location so, basically, you know it every moment - the best what you can.
Of course you have to realize that each service provides its own accuracy and in it's own time. Look, for example, GPS Test App on Android and see how accuracy increases with time and used satellites.
Also Location Services is good for you because it simply provides coordinates - just as you asked and hides a lot of work to determine what real service to use based on time and accuracy. However, of course, if none of the services on your particular device and location can give you required accuracy then there is no way to get it. That's why services also provide accuracy measurement.
Here is another link
Use fused location API provided by Android SDK.Implement fused location in a Service and call it in your application MainActivity.
i have working code for an app that receives latitude and longitude --- im working towards a goal that based on this longitude and latitude i set it will turn off the ringer --- its sounds pretty straight forward it just seems like i have programmers block and cant seem to move past this point----so my question is ---in what ways could i utilize the location services in android using eclipse to set a certain longitude and latitude coordinates to a place where when i enter that specific place it turns off the ringer for me or any variation of the ringer on/off/vibrate/silent
This is not really a programming question. You stand a chance of getting voted down because of that.... But, to start you should read up on Location Services and Location Manager. the concept is that you start by getting your "Last Known Location" from location service and begin to dial in your precise location using Network_Service and GPS_Service. From scratch it could take a minute or so to actually get a GPS location and it consumes battery so you have to start and stop "Locating" judiciously to maintain a good location and preserve battery. As for turning the ringer off?? You should also tag this as Android and put some code together or at least an idea and repost.
Make sense? start reading here Android Location