Google Earth GPS Tracking Solution - Page 9

zapwizard · 01-27-2006, 10:18 AM

Bump....

Is anyone willing to port this to OSX for us Mac Mini folks?

RPM_VR4 · 01-27-2006, 04:32 PM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...t=google+earth

You should ask on the Google Earth forums as neither of the 2 GE-GPS solutions are made by people on this forum.

mercury7 · 01-27-2006, 06:43 PM

Okay, here's what I've come up with.

Buttons are from left to right:
Tilt | Address Entry | Rotate | Path Toggle | Zoom

EDIT: updated picture in later post

supbro · 01-27-2006, 07:34 PM

That looks awesome mercury7! This might actually make me take the $80/mo EV-DO plunge

The GE solution puts my Google Maps solution to shame...

-Doug
==========
hackmyride.com

mercury7 · 01-28-2006, 05:04 PM

That's pretty cool, Doug. Only problem with google maps is, it's not 3D. Hopefully we can get this bad boy working soon, so I can use my new Power Vision phone to have the best GPS around (for free too!).

Here's the address entry screen I came up with. The top six buttons would be programmable - House, Work, Wal-Mart, The White House, etc.

The the text box and the part around it are partially transparent, so you can see the map below them.

EDIT: updated picture in later post

mercury7 · 01-28-2006, 07:15 PM

I've added two more buttons to the main screen.

Reset - Puts the tilt, rotation, and zoom back to default values
Mode - Toggle the road overlay

EDIT: updated picture in later post

RPM_VR4 · 01-28-2006, 08:36 PM

Make sure there is a hot-key or at least a menu item for everything you want to be able to do. It's cool you are in to it. I will try to help, but I wont have much time for another month still.

It will be tricky to do what I envision:

When a route is entered, it should zoom-out and show the entire route (just as it automatically does), but we would have to disable nemaGE/EarthBridge so the network update doesn't instantly zoom the map back in. From there you could return to GPS view, or play the route (if you don't know what I mean, type in an address, it will zoom out to show the route, scroll the left bar down and select "route:###", then press the play button to see Google Earth "fly" the route at any speed/height/angle configured in the preferences.)

We should also have buttons for "Search for nearest Chevron" and such since Google Local is built in. We would always have to set the "from" address based on the GPS icon.

I have one idea for the home screen graphic above... I would like to see that same thing but with a thin border around the sides and top. Then turn on the "overview-map" and make the border bend around it in the upper right too. ...or not ...it's just a thought

Buttons on the sides might work as a 2nd skin style, since you mainly want the map in front of you, but the wide-screen shows you a ton on either side.

PURDooM · 01-29-2006, 12:05 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by mercury7

That's pretty cool, Doug. Only problem with google maps is, it's not 3D. Hopefully we can get this bad boy working soon, so I can use my new Power Vision phone to have the best GPS around (for free too!).

Here's the address entry screen I came up with. The top six buttons would be programmable - House, Work, Wal-Mart, The White House, etc.

The the text box and the part around it are partially transparent, so you can see the map below them.

Damn, that looks pretty

(The osk)

spaceskater · 01-29-2006, 04:18 AM

Guys anyone played around with Earth Bridge??? How is the refresh rate of the KMZ file? any closer to real time traking?

12Vsystems · 01-29-2006, 04:23 AM

Great use of google maps.

A question about the cached files? If the size limit is 2Gb and that stores a cities worth of information couldn't you create a .dat file for each city and save it locally/make available for download, then use skinbedder and autoit to change/update the .dat file depending on where the user was?

What if I create a button that gets the current gps position and then plots a 100 mile circle around that area. Couldn't I use that NEMA data and feed it into google earth to automatically generate a cached map?

My idea would be to connect to a 802.11b network before I leave download the local maps, disconnect and keep using google maps. This is assuming you can pull data from google earth quickly.

I will start testing now.

moahdib · 01-29-2006, 05:25 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by mercury7

Okay, here's what I've come up with.

Buttons are from left to right:
Tilt | Address Entry | Rotate | Path Toggle | Zoom

Do the buttons you added give focus to nmeaGE and send keystrokes or is it just doing zooming and tilting on GE itself?

Zooming and tilting on GE running with nmeaGE's kml file is obsolete because it always takes data from nmeaGE and refreshes every second.

From what motodude mentioned, nmeaGE needs to be on top in order for you to send keystrokes to it and change zoom/ tilt, so I am just using girder to restore nmeaGE and send keys to it. Of course my nmeaGE is kinda "hiding" on the bottom area so it doesn't block much of the screen.

I must say that the coolness factor of GE is a definite 10. Specially when you are driving around 3D buildings

mercury7 · 01-29-2006, 10:51 AM

@ moahdib - What we want to do is find a way to disable nmea or earthbridge so that we can still use GE features -zooming, using addresses, playing routes.

I haven't actually used any those screens yet, so any help or ideas you have are welcome.

@ 12Vsystems - if you can figure that out, A LOT more people willl be able to use these programs.

@ PURDooM - Thanks, man!

RPM_VR4 · 01-29-2006, 04:42 PM

SkinBedder can embed nemaGE and keep it hidden while sending keystrokes to it (so it would be just like the remote control in EarthBridge [that doesn't exist yet]). Yes, I tried EarthBridge. The tracking lines are awesome and it seems to work much smoother/better than nemaGE, but it has no hot-keys and you can't change the picture yet. It is in early-beta stages. If the guy really does what he has planned for it, it will be awesome though.

As for the cached data, a large part of the coolness factor appears in traffic/weather overlays, Google Local searches, and other "live" data. This is the GPS of the future, and it requires a constant connection to work well. cellular is pretty good right now, Wi-Max and others are coming soon. Besides, google doesn't want you caching data... I foresee a not so distant future where ad/coupon-icons pop-up on your GE map as you drive past places running Google Ads. I'm still not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least it's a pretty cool thing to be possible.

mercury7 · 02-01-2006, 06:48 PM

New interface design.

Upper left - route view | play route | car view

Left middle - enter address and prefrences

Lower left - mode | reset tilt/zoom/rotation | toggle path

On a side note, I got my new phone today. Let me just say, it is killer. Everything you could ever want in a phone is in there - Samsung A900. For an extra $10 a month, I get unlimited web, picture and video mail, and TV at broadband speed! It even comes with a USB cord that will charge it. (read: it's good for Google Earth in the car)

mercury7 · 02-01-2006, 07:01 PM

... and the other screen