Raw GPS iPhone App

This is the very first iPhone App that I developed. It’s been as much of a fun learning experience making this program as it has been a production. Click here to find Raw GPS on the iTunes Application Store.


Raw GPS is a simple GPS program that provides you with key data from the iPhone’s built-in GPS hardware. This includes latitude, longitude, velocity (speed and direction), and altitude. The program also currently features two extra GPS functions. One is a trip logger, which calculates and displays distance travelled and average speed in real-time. The trip logger also features graphs, a map with the trip’s route drawn on it, and data calculations such as average speed and change in altitude. These features could be useful for runners, bikers and hikers looking to keep track of their exercises, for example.


The other available function is a countdown trip, which allows you to select a destination on a map and an amount of time that you’d like to get there in. Once started, the trip info tells you how many miles away the destination is and at what bearing, as well as how fast you might want to travel in order to reach the destination by the set amount of time. This could be useful if you were, say, running late for class and wanted to know how fast you gotta move. Not that that’s ever applied to the developer...
(/sarcasm).


Documentation


As soon as you launch the Raw GPS app, the app will request location information from the iPhone. As location information becomes available, the app will display it on the main screen, entitled “Raw GPS Navigation.”


Clicking on the “Start Trip” button causes the app to begin recording all the location data that it receives as distinct data points stored in its memory. This allows the app to calculate total distance travelled and average speed until you click “Stop Trip” or exit the app.


Pressing the standard “Info” icon on the top right of the “Raw GPS Navigation” screen flips the view to reveal the “Goto” configuration. From the “Goto” configuration, you can configure a destination point based on latitude, longitude, and the provided scroll-and-zoomable map. You can also set a time, which counts down and is measured in seconds. When you’re ready to have the app work with the place you’ve selected, press the “start” button or “start timer” button on the main view. Press “Done” to return to the main view.


Trip View Features


New to version 1.1.0 of Raw GPS, Trip View allows you to view fairly detailed information about a recorded trip, as well as save and load Raw GPS trips. Let’s take a look...


To first launch “Trip View,” press the “Menu” on the top left corner of the main application screen. On the menu that pops up, press “View Trip” or something to that effect. What will appear should be something that resembles the screen image to the left, but with data from your trip. Pressing the “Graphs” button reveals the “Graphs” view that is also shown to the left. Currently, the available graphs are “altitude vs. distance” and “speed vs. time.”


Pressing the “Trip Map” button displays a map view with annotations from the recorded trip. Pressing the “Load” button allows you to retrieve trips that were saved at an earlier time by pressing the “Save” button. Pressing “Reset Trip” stops the current trip, so that pressing “Start Trip” on the main application screen starts a new trip.


Image credit/source: NASA.

Support for the Raw GPS iPhone application can be obtained by e-mailing “support@cdunn.net.” Thank you for using Raw GPS.

Color of Latitude and Longitude Data


The latitude and longitude location data display is colored based on the estimated accuracy of the GPS location information. The colors are defined as:


Red: Greater than 328 feet in possible error.

Blue: Less than or equal to 328 feet in error.

Yellow: Less than or equal to 164 feet in error.

Green: Most likely less than 99 feet in error.


Low Velocity Handler


Raw GPS attempts to determine your velocity, even if you’re traveling at slow speeds. If your speed is too slow for the GPS hardware to provide velocity data, Raw GPS will look at previous location data points and attempt to find out how fast it’s moving based on those.

Click HERE to Download Raw GPS App in iTunes! Only $0.99.