For fun I created an application where you send an SMS containing a
coordinate and your own online map will update and reflect that position,
optionally you can specify a message to be displayed on the map.
While this might be termed as interesting, I can't yet find a real
application for this. So my question to fellow geowankers is what could this
(or a extension of!) be used for?
The main application I can think of at the moment is sponsored walks, boat
trips etc, what would like to be able to keep followers up-to-date on the
progress via their website. Thereby using SMS as the communication medium
without having to fire up WAP.
See the concept demo/prototype here:
http://www.nearby.org.uk/google/trackme.php
which shows a test position where I supposedly was. (I have used this
successfully on a road trip to record the progress, want to make an
historical point viewer for it!)
On that page is a link to the FAQ, and then can signup to create a map and
try it, but no idea how idea will perform outside the UK. (uses a UK SMS
provider and understands lat/long, UK postcode or GB grid-reference
currently)
With a bit of work might be able to get a GPS position forwarded, via a
hardware/software solution (via a Palm connected to the GPS and phone for
example). However if going to that extent could be used via GPRS etc, so the
benefit of SMS is that it would be low tech so only needs a normal phone and
a GPS or even just a map.
Any ideas, or am I mad?
Barry
- www.nearby.org.uk - www.geograph.org.uk - www.trigtools.co.uk -
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