July 28, 2008
Location Infatuation
Been using the GPS for years now. Started with my simple eTrex and then to the Forerunner with all my runs. Got my Colorado 400t for hikes. All is well. But the data is stale by the time its posted. Don’t you really want it streamed real-time all the time?
I sort of had this vision of doing it with my iPhone but the lack of background app support kinda killed that dream. My friend, Tim, said he was hacking on an app so maybe he will find something but I am doubtful. There is no way with a non-hacked iPhone to do ongoing location updates. Oh well. Didn’t want to run with my iPhone anyway.
So then I ended up with that plan in Leadville where I would tweet my aid station stops. That died because I had no cell coverage at the aid stations (which I figured) but thought the phone might queue the messages and send when I topped out a hill and got a brief bit of reception. The phone I bought doesn’t do that. Screwed again. Plus it was just text with no coordinates.
Upon receiving my iPhone, I started playing with brightkite. This is a web site where you can update your current location in a smart way. So instead of just saying you are at this latitude and longitude, it can say what store, restaurant, etc. you are at. Plus, brightkite is supposed to be releasing an iPhone app this month. I imagine this will use the GPS in the iPhone to get you close to where you are vs. searching and typing text. All this info goes to the brightkite web site for display to your stream and friends.
So then I whipped up some Movable Type code to display my current brightkite location on the sidebar of my blog. When I am somewhere interesting, it shows the map, link to a full Google map, and link to the brightkite place.
Then enter B2 — she decides that she has to be cooler than me and gets a SPOT personal GPS tracker. I thought this thing only sent “I am fucked, come get me!” messages but as it turns out it can send simple OK updates with location to the SPOT satelites. On top of that, I find out brightkite added support for SPOT. Sold! Ordered one so I can be just like B2. It will be here this week.
The new plan is that for runs (mostly races) and hikes, I can carry SPOT (only 7 oz) and it will realtime broadcast my location every 10 minutes to its satellites. That is relayed to brightkite and Fire Eagle, then published to the blog. Wa la!
Going to try it out on a run later in the week to see how the updates go. Then this weekend will be a bigger test. Planning on running one or two easy 14ers over the weekend as preparation for the Pikes Peak Marathon. Anyone interested? Then B2 is talking about going out that next week to climb something else. A reunion of sorts! We haven’t been out in over a year on the hills. So it might be dueling SPOTs. Hopefully, our SPOT dots stay together. Then with the system in full swing, I will be able to broadcast real-time from the Pikes Peak Marathon.
So if you are into this type of thing, watch the blog sidebar for the real time location. If you are really into it, get a brightkite account and friend me. I have invites. If you are really really into this, I can send you direct SPOT updates. Thought my wife would be in the latter camp but she was like…why would I want updates on where you are every 10 minutes? Enough said.
