Find What The Neighborhood has to Offer with EarthComber

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.earthcomber.com/splash/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.earthcomber.com/splash/index.html</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20060222-EarthComber.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Recently we're been talking about <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10449">GPS Navigation</a> and how it can be a serious distraction as you drive. While GPS navigation can be handy, some of us don't really need driving directions all that often. Enter EarthComber - a new bread of GPS navigation software. EarthComber runs on your device and will alert you when your near any of your favourite restaurants, theaters, clubs, historical places, coffee houses, and more so much more. At that point, you can ask for directions on how to get there from where you are. I haven't installed this yet, but they just added Windows Mobile support and they list the SPV C600 as a supported device. Which indicates to me, that any Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone should work with this software. I don't need driving directions - roads don't change very often. However, I have problems keeping track of restaurants, coffee stops, and whatnot. So, this will be a welcome addition to my device. If you're going to give it a try, please share your experience with us! I'll report back after the weekend and let you know what I've found out. :D

[hotdram]

Cool,
Checking it out now, seems pretty neat. On a related note, it is hard to check out a website you are drinking a Starbucks,driving, shifting and trying to go to view a website from the SMT-5600 :)

Just kidding, I am at my desk.
~Rob

[hotdram]

Can't get through the work firewall. Will try at home.

~Rob

[fruehling]

Does this work with GPS on a smartphone or does it triangulate your location based on cell tower locations? If not the latter, is there any software out there that does this? In most areas this would render GPS excessive, no?

[edgar]

This looks cool, I'll try it next weekend.

Mike,

you went and found this as that "killer GPS App" just so you don't have to give your GPS to my wife! She'll be heartbroken. I hope you're happy! :twisted:

-Edgar

Tower triangulation is over rated. Many spots are not close enough to three towers to give a triangulation that is any closer than say 1000m.

Good for E911 I guess, but not for finding your favorite place.

[fruehling]

Don't you just need to be near two towers? The triangle is completed by the device, no? Is there some sort of product for smartphones that uses this?

[Mike Temporale]

Don't you just need to be near two towers? The triangle is completed by the device, no? Is there some sort of product for smartphones that uses this?

That may be possible, but it can't focus on as small a spot as GPS. I think it was something like 10 miles square, or was it 1 mile square? Either way, that's a pretty big area compared to GPS - and it makes a big difference in what's around you. ;)

[Mike Temporale]

Mike,

you went and found this as that "killer GPS App" just so you don't have to give your GPS to my wife! She'll be heartbroken. I hope you're happy! :twisted:

:lol: Well, that's not really how it happened. Just browsing for news and saw the headline on Geek.com. I wasn't even sure what EarthComber was until I followed the link and worked through the tour. :D

[Rocco Augusto]

ive tried setting it up but it keeps telling me that the cab is not intended for my device, im using a cingular 2125

[edgar]

Don't you just need to be near two towers? The triangle is completed by the device, no? Is there some sort of product for smartphones that uses this?

That may be possible, but it can't focus on as small a spot as GPS. I think it was something like 10 miles square, or was it 1 mile square? Either way, that's a pretty big area compared to GPS - and it makes a big difference in what's around you. ;)

You can do a "find" with as few as one tower technically. But all that would tell you is the guy is coming from antenna 4 with a signal strength of "X" and you could try to extrapolate that strength into a distance inside that antenna's cone of signal. With two towers you look at the overlapped cones and extrapolate strength again within that overlap, with three even a smaller overlap, etc. The unit itself is not a triangulation point, it is the variable. You cant use it as a fixed point, technically, only the unit (or the unit's holder) knows where it is, so if you lost your unit you couldnt use it as a triangulation point.

"24" makes it look so simple - Chloe clicks a button and says "Jack is on the fourth floor of the Wilson Building, under the bed in the NE bedroom". Unit strength can be changed by simply placing your hand over the unit and weakening the signal slightly. That slight change can cause the formula to mark you as farther away, etc. So yeah, like Mike said cell triangulation can be off by more than a mile, and with less than 3 towers even more. More towers, closer the overlap, less extrapolation of where they are. Remember though, it has to be a clear view, all bets are off inside a concrete jungle with signal reflections etc.

There is a couple web sites that talk more in depth about this. And of course multiple discussions about E911 as an emergency locator.

GPS on the other hand has as many as 30 or so triangulation sats worldwide (public access at least); I regularly fix onto 9-12 depending on where I am. So with SIRF III and WAAS (ground based towers) you can actually get down to less than 3 meters. I'm usually within around 10m or so. Well within the "turn left at the next street" vs "turn generally left, or maybe slight right sometime in the next mile or so"


-Edgar

[Mike Temporale]

I'll report back after the weekend and let you know what I've found out. :D

Looks like EarthComber should be called US-Comber. They currently only have maps for the US. :( I guess I won't be playing with this over the weekend after all.