Using the GPS Features of Your Cell Phone? 45
travik asks: "I use a Nokia 3650. The cell phone already knows my co-ordinates (E911 service). It has Bluetooth. Why can't I send the coordinates using Bluetooth to my laptop, and use a mapping application to give me my location and directions to where i want to go. I've searched Google and also read up on old posts, no one seems to be doing it. Why?"
E911 isn't really GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
AGPS (assisted GPS) also depends on the service provider to calculate your location, but it actually uses real GPS satellite signals to do it. The signal strengths are uploaded to a server which does the heavy-lifting of figuring out the location. Again, this depends on the SP servers and they aren't going to be terribly interested in returning lots of location points back to you.
Real GPS does the CPU work on the device. There are rumored to be a few phones with this capability, but I use a Garmin Gecko 301. $228, records 10K points, downloads via serial port (yuck), and burns a set of alkaline batteries in 7 hours (or less). IMHO, it'll be a while before location information is as easy to get to as the cheapest GPS. Battery power is just too valuable.
Re:E911 isn't really GPS (Score:1, Offtopic)
* Tracking where you make your calls from.
* Constant logging of everywhere you go and travel through your life to within 100 feet.
* Rembember the FBI getting the ability to grab library reading records, and mkaing it illegal for librarians to disclose that information? It'd be easy to do the same thing with private citizens ("Okay, you're the closest person to the area we want to monitor. Now look to the right. Is there a blond man possibly exchanging a bag with a wo
Re:E911 isn't really GPS (Score:3, Informative)
it's possible to do it with regular old phones as well, the service provider can pull out the signal strengths to the nearest towers from the network and it has cordinates for them. this has been demonstrated to work fairly well.
as to the original askers question, the phone doesn't really know where it is(as in any map cordinates or similar), however it's possible to pull out information on which gsm cell the phone is in. there's even a program that automates actions ba
Re:E911 isn't really GPS (Score:1)
Re:E911 isn't really GPS (Score:2)
If you are in their coverage area the aGPS features are used to provide faster acquisition.
But it will also determine your position if you wander out of the coverage area. There is even an option to spit out NMEA out the USB/serial port on the phone.
It is available on these phones i88s, i58sr, i205, i305, i530, and i73X.
On my i730, I have found the GPS receiver to be very sensitive. In a single story
It's.... kinda possible (Score:5, Interesting)
The big problem is finding a record of all the cell values and their locations - I never found one for my service (O2), although I was able to get a list of all the cells on the way to work, just by running the program.
The accuracy isn't great, although it gets better in central London. Near Oxford Street I was getting a new cell every 100 yards or so...
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:3, Informative)
I imagine that if cell information from your sevice was not forthcoming, some kind of distributed mapping project could be performed and the data shared.
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, I know a guy who works for one of the UK operators whose job it was to run commands to the actual sites to find out where they think they are. Turns out a lot of lazy install engineers just put in (0,0) GPS coordinates when setting up site. In
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:5, Interesting)
I first saw this technology used on WLAN. Ehahau [ekahau.com] uses this technology to provide location based services on WLAN, and it works great. In our test setup at the university, we get arround 1 meter error in the position.
I've been in touch with a group of people at The IT-University of Denmark [www.itu.dk], who are working on using this technology on GSM cellphones. The biggest problem here is getting access to the data. The cellphone companies simply do not want to provide this information. Our collaborative guess was that they want to keep this information to themselves, probably to sell extra services.
The main drawback of this technology is that a huge amount of calibration is needed to make it work. On WLAN our buildings have been calibrated in a grid of 3x3 meters, which makes quite a lot of calibration points when we want coverage of the entire campus. But the cool thing about it is that it does not require any extra hardware to do the localization. A labtop or PDA with wireless will do the job.
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:1)
Some of this is security; a lot of these towers are unmanned. Sure there are physical security but someone malicious could go break down all the locks, destory or steal equipment, and cost the companies lots of money in both equipment and lost income.
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:1)
Re:It's.... kinda possible (Score:1)
Additionally, radio amateurs have been using this method for years in so call "fox hunts". It has also been used for tracking down radio "pirates'".
Privacy? (Score:1)
That's just an optimistic guess though. I like to think that techies do everything on purpose. But it's more likely to be a simple missing feature; they just never bothered
Re:Privacy? (Score:5, Insightful)
GPS receiver (Score:2, Informative)
Re:GPS receiver (Score:2)
Or if you already have a phone with (seemingly) built-in GPS capabilities, why spend $100 when you already have a GPS receiver? (especially if your phone is bluetooth, as bluetooth GPS receivers are around $300+!)
What a mindless waste of money.
Well (Score:2, Interesting)
As for why your phone can't do it, well, it might be a privacy issue. Imagine some dumb user randomly installing an app on their cellphone(as the installers get easier) that constantly broadcasts your position....somebody who may or may not deserve it, may get robbed/hurt/taken away to the
Re:Well (Score:1)
Re:Well (Score:2)
Well since the output he is asking about is Bluetooth, which is very limited in range, I'd argue that anyone close enough to receive the signal announcing the GPS coordinates of the phone
Not exactly the same, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy tracks his location by phone.
Where is Calum? [umtstrial.co.uk]
Cheers,
Roger
Re:Not exactly the same, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not exactly the same, but... (Score:2)
It really is a small world after all...
Re:Not exactly the same, but... (Score:1)
Cell locations (Score:2, Interesting)
I haven't seen this functionality in Europe though. Dunno about US.
Re:Cell locations (Score:2)
Re:Cell locations (Score:1)
E911 with Cingular & T-Mobile (Score:1, Informative)
Positioning Techniques (Score:5, Informative)
Careful not to mix up different positioning techniques
GPS, on the other hand, requires you to have a GPS receiver. If you have one, your device can determine its position. You do not require a mobile phone network for this, but you need at least 3 GPS satellites "in view" (meaning: you must see the sky, GPS won't work within buildings; there is "indoor GPS", but this is about creating 'artificial satellites' within a building).
GPS gives YOU your position, and YOU alone, unless you transmit the information (e.g. to a map service). The techniques described above give your position to the network operator, not you. The operator then has to give the information to you or some mobile service. With E911, in case of an emergency the network operator reports your position to the emergency units.
Why can't I send the coordinates using Bluetooth to my laptop, and use a mapping application to give me my location and directions to where i want to go.
As said above, if you do not have a GPS receiver, YOU do not have your position. You have to use whatever service your provider offers (if any). To use the laptop you need a GPS receiver. Connect that to the laptop, install the right software... and voila
Hope that helps
Re:Positioning Techniques (Score:1)
All cell phones sold now days have a GPS receiver built in. However, the phone still doesn't know where it is at. The phone simply relays satellite info to the towers. They send information they receive from the satellites to the towers/base station, where the calculations are done, and the resulting information is then added into the information about your call. There isn't much processing at the base station, since it usually has a pretty good idea of where you're at
Re:Positioning Techniques (Score:2)
Are you sure about this? Given that a GPS receiver is about the same size of a small mobile phone, uses the battery and is normally not useful to the user, "all cell phones" is too general. There are cell phones with GPS, yes, but they are the exception. Since GPS is an additional feature, the handset manufacturer would happily announce it in the specs or the data sheet...
They send information they receive from the satellites to the towers/bas
Re:Positioning Techniques (Score:1)
The phones send it's GPS data to the towers, and thus to the base station. In all digital towers, the towers are able to guess where the phone is at already, and use GPS to focus in on exactly where it's at. However, analog towers, and long sets of repeaters don'
Solution right there: (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, it provides you with a simple GPS module that communicates with your mobile through Bluetooth. Map and directions are provided by an online service and appear on the screen of your mobile. Neat!
Here's a an idea I'd like to see... (Score:2)
You now have your instructions. Code this....
Re:Here's a an idea I'd like to see... (Score:1)
3586i (Score:2)
Sad..
S
Re:3586i (Score:2)
According to the likned page "Note that GPS [...] require operator and network support."
Did you by any chance ask your operator ?
All CDMA has GPS, but not carriers (Score:5, Interesting)
You can download the location of ~all cell towers from the FCC
http://wireless.fcc.gov/geographic/fcc_db.html
(big files) as they are publically licensed, but you can't know the carrier's private ID # of the tower without matching the tower's license to what you phone tells you, as some do.
The first test launch of a stand-alone GPS phone is several quarters away... The CDMA chips are basically capable, but need some extra hardware and firmware since they don't get a kick-start from the tower/server communication.
Right now, if your carrier doesn't have the PUBLIC servers installed (they will not use their e-911 servers for commercial use for liability reasons) then you can't have GPS.
And BTW, the carrier's servers do know your location because of the MS-* handshaking and communication (which allows the ephemeris calculations to be done faster on your phone), it's a question of whether it gets saved or tapped.
It's---a-small-world-after----all---...
Re:All CDMA has GPS, but not carriers (Score:1)
Are you saying that when I take my Motorola i305 and hit the menu button, Moce the cursor down 5 positions and hit select twice that it isn't my GPS position displayed? Sure looks like it to me.
In addition the phone will also display my heading and velocity.
OTOH, reception
miniGPS (Score:3, Interesting)
It's called miniGPS [psiloc.com], and it's written by Psiloc [psiloc.com]. They make plenty of other goodies for S60 phones, so check them out.
But it's not 'real' GPS, and only lets you know what tower you connect through. As another poster mentioned, the 3650 doesn't have GPS, and E911 is not the same thing.
But miniGPS is quite cool.
Possible only on Nextel phones in the US (Score:3, Informative)
You can also sign-up for a free service like www.uLocate.com [ulocate.com] that can send maps and text descriptions of your location to your phone
Every other carrier that claims to have GPS phones has the data locked-up in some way. They are trying to figure out a way to charge you per fix and have not worked out how to do that yet. Until then only the 3 or 4 911 centers in the US that have installed E-911 equipment can tell where your phone is. I suspect they will open it up after some bad PR. Imagine a situation like the recent abduction and murder in Florida where the girl has a GPS cell phone but the authorities can't get any info because the local 911 call center is not set-up yet.
Re:Possible only on Nextel phones in the US (Score:2)
minigps (Score:2)