GpsMid

This is a Midlet for use on any J2ME enabled device, primarly for mobile. It displays a simple map, with the actual position at the center.

The map data is from OpenStreetMap, a wiki based opensource map. Yes the world is not realy complete yet, but in some of the larger cities and the USA coverage can be quite usable. Furthermore, as a wiki, you are always able and invited to help improve it. Look at Getting Involved with OpenStreetMap

Actual supported features:

Displaying map data, north on top.
Zoom in/out.
show the name of the nearest street.
search for a name (street, city or POI name) and mark this as target
Search for close by points of interest
Route calculations to a target
Adding waypoints to the map
Fully customize which OSM features are used in GpsMid
center the map to a position received from:
- SIRF GPS-unit in binary mode with Bluetooth connection.
- NMEA GPS-unit with Bluetooth connection.
- Devices with JSR179 compatible location provider
Recording and displaying of tracklogs
Importing and exporting tracklogs and waypoints to and from GPX
show the direction of movement.
show the position of the used satelites.

Features in development

Useability improvements
Voice routing
Further improvement to the routing algorithm

More information about current develoment can be found here

Limitations

Limited memory: Some phones have very limited memory, such as the Motorola Razr V3 series. On these it may not be possible to zoom out fully without exeeding available memory. Midlets of about 3Mb size should be fine though, at least when zoomed in.
Maximum jar size: Some phones, such as earlier S40 phones of Nokia, restrict the maximum size of a jar file they will accept. As GpsMid bundels the map data into the jar, this may limit the area one can incorporate into a single Midlet. Experimental support of storing the data on the filesystem has been added in version 0.4.0 to overcome this.
Permissions: Java 2 ME unfortunately has often a DRM policy, which only allows signed midlets to access certain phone features used in GpsMid. As an opensource project, and the data bundled in with the jar, we however cannot offer signed versions of GpsMid at this moment

Installation

Pre-created bundles are currently only provided for a few demonstration areas due to space restrictions. You can however create a bundle for your custom region easily by yourself. Look at Osm2GpsMid to find out how to create such a bundle. Each jar-file is a bundle of the application itself and some map data. Simply copy the Midlet (.jar and .jad file) to the correct directory on your device (in my case /mobile/kjava/). Choose install new, and select the jar file.

NEWS:

Version 0.4.0 has been released with many new features

Usage

After start, accept the splash screen content. If you have a GPS receiver or a location aware phone, select setup to configure the device, choose Location Receiver, select discover and finaly select the correct BT GPS-device. Or you can use the build in Location-Provider-API (JSR179), if this is implemented at your device. Go back to the main menu and select Map. After a few moments you should see a map with your actual position in the center.

Keys

1 zoom out
3 zoom in
arrows and 4,6,8,2 pan the map. Once panned, the map no longer follows your position. To re-enable centering on your position, hit 5 a postion is received
7 switch through several overlay displays
Hold 9 for a second to enable a keylock. While GpsMid is running, the normal keylock will most likely not activate.
Shortcuts to menu entries
- * Opens a setup dialog to configure some display options
- 0 toggles between fullscreen mode
- # Keeps the backlight on even with no key activity
- Hold * for a second to jump to the waypoint menu
- Hold 0 for a second to toggle track recordings on or off
- Hold # for a second to jump to the tracklog menu

Search location

If you are at the search screen, the first result will presented after 2 chars. To find names press only once the button with the letter on it. For example if you want to search for otto* press 6886.If you see only numbers, the names are not resolved jet. Wait a bit and press the right arrow and the names should be desplayed. Use the up and down arrow to select an entry and press the fire button to jump to this location on the map screen.

Search for closeby points of interest

If you are in the search screen, select nearest POI from the menu. In the new dialog select which point of interest you are looking for and specify a maximum distance. After hitting OK, you should see a list of points of interest ordered by distance from the positon of the cursor in the map.

Routing

Select your destination as the target either my searching, or my navigating the the road and select "As target" from the menu. Once you have selected the destination, go back to your start position, e.g. by hitting 5 if you have a GPS enabled. The route will be calculated from the current cursor position to the target once you hit "Route" in the menu.

Demo

If you have a java plugin for your web browser, you should be able to see a demonstration of GpsMid working on the left of this page. It will take a while to download, but eventually, you should see a phone emulator with GpsMid running on it. As the emulator lacks some of the required "hardware support", such as access to a GPS or local filesystem, not all of the features of GpsMid can be tryed out. This demo shows an area of central Munich.

For security reasons, don't handle this software while driving.

For running on the Sun emulator (WTK25), select the .jad file to run. You can also create your own bundle with your preferred location. See Osm2GpsMid.

Last updated: 15/08/08