NxTracker is 'Showcase' software. A few years back I started working on a application framework package, then called Dilbert but since renamed to Alliance. For a number of reasons development has been on and off since I started the project, but a few months back everything started going again and NxTracker (NxTracker) was born from the wish to demanstrate the power Alliance had.
NxTracker tracks mobile phones using GPS, GSM Cell Towers and Location Points of Interest.
If a GPS receiver is connected it does three things; first it stores the current position using GPS, second it stores the GSM cell tower the phone is connected with and lastly it stores a custom label for the user: e.g. 'Home','Shopping','Work',etc....
This information sent from your phone to your server using a UDP connection, I use UDP as a possed to TCP or HTTP because the bandwidth usage is sustansially less which keeps costs down. The software was designed with Aspicore GSM Tracker in mind but it can work with anything that sends standard complient NMEA sentences.
If no valid GPS signal is received it checks the GSM Cell Tower for a previously known location. If it finds a valid GSM location, it reports that as a position, meaning that GPS is not necessary anymore for positioning. However, if it fails to find a valid location using GSM it then looks for a Point of Interest saved with the same name as the users Location Label; e.g. Location Label is "Home" it will look for a Point called home that is ether asosiated with the users IEMI or is publicly shared. It the uses the POI as the users current location.
The next challenge was privacy. As you can imagine there are some location I do not wish to share online with all the wold. Using my home example agian the Home POI is stored with my IEMI and is set to private. This means it will not be displayed on the Google Map like all the other points. The clever bit comes in with distance. If a user goes within 75 meters of on of thier private locations thier location is automatically set to private and does not display on Google Map. Visiters can still get some information as 'Nearest Location' will display the name of the private POI your mobile is closest too, but it want tell anyone where that is.
In the mean time have a look around NxTracker and explorer the application, if you have any feedback I would love to hear form you.
Documentation on Alliance is sketchy at best but Ill keep writing it and fill in the blanks as I go until it seems complete.
Special Thanks goes out to
Aspicore - http://www.aspicore.com
Aspicore GSM Tracker is a fantastic bit of software for GPS tracking on mobile phones, and it is not only the inspiration for my work here
but NxTracker was built with this application in mind. All the data handling and proccessing is centered around what this application produces.
Google Maps Icons - http://code.google.com/p/google-maps-icons
With out Google Maps Icons the Points of Interest displayed on my map would be bland and life-less. This was a grate find and I feel it really
improves the end user experiance.
Eclipse PHP - http://www.eclipse.org/pdt
With out Ecplise I dont know what IDE I'd use, but it wouldnt be as good.
TortoiseSVN - http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org
I run SVN on my server and thats how I keep track of all my code. TortoiseSVN for windows is truly a god send.
Eppenga - http://www.eppenga.com
I want to send a special thank you to Ebo Eppenga. His OpenSource GG-Tracker software gave me the idea for how to layout my Google Map display.
Chris Veness - http://www.movable-type.co.uk/
Chris Veness clear and easy to follow demonstration of some pritty complex MySQL functions has helped to make NxTracker so much easyer on the unexpecting database