I've been using OSMAnd for over a year now as a replacement for the HERE Maps app I was using before. I switched on account of 1) smaller map downloads (since I valued space savings over offline information more at the time) and 2) being more configurable. TL;DR just a better app all around
That being said, I don't think it's absolutely perfect. Personally, I don't have aGPS on account of being a bit of an open source purist, and while I could try adding some sources, that only sort of fixes the issue I want to discuss: completely internal navigation/the use of dead reckoning. The idea is as follows: if GNSS was unavailable and a user doesn't have and aGPS source, they can't navigate, period, and I don't think that should be the case on account of the fact that we should be able to add the ability to navigate without any sort of network to provide location (although probably not without external sensors, I'll get to that shortly). Admittedly, this is a fringe use case. I mean, navigating in a setting where neither of these sources are available is extreme, since it usually involves some kind of international war. What is far less of a fringe use case is everywhere GNSSs don't work well or at all: under roofs and inside canyons. Whether it's in a tunnel or in the middle of a city with skyscrapers, GNSS signals can be degraded to the point of outright losing the signal, especially in tunnels. While outright navigating with nothing but dead reckoning is probably pointless, having that source is important for a seamless navigation experience. So maybe I've at least piqued your interest on *why* we should add this, now let me fill you in on *how*. I'm not a programmer so I can't do the heavy lifting in that regard, but I can at least point to other open source projects that should serve as examples. Modern automobiles are equipped with a variety of sensors as part of a system called On Board Diagnostics, or OBD. Most nowadays are equipped with the second iteration, OBDII. While the sensors on board vary from vehicle to vehicle and country to country, speed and orientation sensors are pretty universal, and that's more or less all that's required for dead reckoning. All OSMAnd has to do is estimate new coords for the current location based on where they started (an initial fix of some kind, in an extreme scenario you'd have to use a landmark like you house or something to start) how fast you were going and in what direction, and boom, you're navigating without navigation network. The caveat here is you're still utilizing an external sensor: a bluetooth OBD(II) dongle. I bought one for ~$.99 on ebay and it works as well as you might expect. The sensors in a car are far more accurate then an equivalent built into a handset. People have tried (and failed) to make dead reckoning systems using only the internal sensors of handsets, and they are just too inaccurate. But of course, OSMAnd is not just for vehicular navigation, it's for biking and walking/running as well. There are foot based sensors that should work for those who navigate without any mechanical assistance, see https://www.oblu.io/. It's an interesting project, especiialy if it work as well as the demo shows, but I'm not ready to drop more than 100 bones on a sensor I won't use. The point is that no matter what, so long as you can get access to the internet in some way (even by proxy) and this dongle, you can navigate; even if the ubiquitous GNSSs in the sky stop working. Personally I wish the governments in charge of these sattelite clusters would just dedicate them to humanity and move on, but alas, politics and money always seem to muddle things up. On that note though, the EU's Galileo GNSS is supposed to serve such a function in it's civilian access, as in it's supposed to provide locks accurate up to 10 m for everyone, presumably always. Personally I find it very unlikely they would leave such a network up in the event of a major international conflit, but still. I'm curious to hear everyone's feedback and additional ideas! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Osmand" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
