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How to: Use a GPS watch, XML and Satellite photos

Posted by timothy on from the before-these-things-are-manditory dept.

ptorrone writes "Engadget.com has a How-to article about using a Garmin Forerunner 201 watch and XML to export a runner's tracks and place them over Hi-Res Satellite photos. The author plans to run 10 miles, in 10 cities over the next 10 weeks and print out all the images."

35 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a perfect way… by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...to ruin a good run. I find running to be a perfect time to check my type-A personality and my obsession for order and understanding at the door and get good and meditative. You can embrace your inner geek the other 23 hours of the day.

    1. Re:Sounds like a perfect way… by Seehund · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Agreed.

      I mean, "why"?? Does he run in really complex patterns so he can't remember them and draw them on a map by hand? What's he going to use the maps with his joint cartilage destroying routes superimposed on for?

      Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an ugly thing. Combined with a fetish for electronic gadgetry it gets expensive, too.

      Then I RTFA, and saw that it was an art project, and it all makes sense (well, it's explained anyway). Maybe this little detail could have been mentioned in the Slashdot story? :P

      --
      Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
  2. oh great... by trick-knee · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used to sell GPS units at REI, and they are just about the most stupid things. people would take them into the back country, leaving a map at home, and then use their cell phone (they sometimes work) to get themselves rescued.

    okay, so there are other uses. I'm not really meaning to troll, but GPS has stuck in my craw ever since.

    1. Re:oh great... by Dr+Reducto · · Score: 4, Interesting

      True that. I bring a GPS, LandSat Compass, and Map with me when I go out into the wilderness. I rarely use the GPS. I maily only use it to compare my estimated position to my actual position. I can usuall y find my position pretty accurately using landmarks and their relative bearings to my position. And when I do it, I understand where I am on the map even better than when using a GPS.

      Admittedly though, if you remember to set a waypoint for where you started, you can get back quite quickly by just running in a general direction, and checking how I am doing every 2 minutes or so.

    2. Re:oh great... by lommer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I find myself in the same position as you - until last year I refused to carry a GPS with me for pride's sake. Why should I bring a GPS when I am perfectly capable of navigating by hand with a compass and map? However, I was on the mamquam glacier (in BC, Canada) last february during a complete white-out, and we had to move. We definitely used the old fashioned way of finding our bearings with a compass and then ensuring our path with trailed ropes and such, but it was VERY reassuring to have a GPS to confirm that our predicted position was accurate. That was the first time when I actually felt that a GPS was truely serving a useful, nonredundant purpose. Mind you, it was one occaision in my 10+ years of mountaineering experience, but all the same it only takes one fuck-up out there to kill you.

      Since then I've bought a GPS and carry it with me regularly, even on day trips. I actually kind of appreciate the waypoints features which have come in extremely useful on one occaision where my Dad lost his wallet at campsite and didn't realize it 'till he got home. Luckily, the people he was with had taken a waypoint there and I was able to transfer that waypoint into my GPS and go up a few days later with some of my friends and we found it with only ~15 mins searching. Probably could have been done w/o GPS, but it was much faster with it and a fun excerciser to boot. The contents of the wallet also covered the cost of my GPS :-)

  3. How Long by mfh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hey, how long before someone creates a video game with one of these things? That'd be a lot of fun to design.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:How Long by ukiah · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's called geocaching. Kinda like treasure hunting with a GPS. One of my favorite activities. Check it out here: www.geocaching.com

  4. Portable defibrillator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the guy running is like the average geek, he's going to stop every 100 feet and get his heart started again. 10 miles? He'll need to be rebooted more often than Windows 95 with a bad video driver!

    1. Re:Portable defibrillator by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not every geek is a fat slop like you.

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
    2. Re:Portable defibrillator by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hrm.. some of us are actually in shape *boggle* There's a lot to the world outside your bedroom, go explore it. ;) This looks really interesting though (and not to mention useful for me; click the link in my sig for more info) I've been looking for one of these for a while, that way I don't have to dick with a bunch of SSH shit from my laptop at a Starbucks in B.F.E.

  5. Running for Geeks by hrbrmstr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If it looks like Running for Geeks and smells like Running for Geeks then it must be a Running for Geeks reformatted dupe.

    It would have taken all of 1.5 minutes to check that.

    And I never usually bother, but when I saw the Engadget article myself a day ago I almost knew this would happen.

    Give timothy a break tho...it *is* Saturday.

    --
    Mind the gap...
    1. Re:Running for Geeks by dr+bacardi · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you (and your mods) had RTFA, you would see that this is an extension to the original. It's even in the first paragraph on the page, "I've received a lot of emails about a project on my running for geeks web site, so I thought I'd show how I make high resolution maps of the places you jog, with the tracks overlaid on top." More appropriate for a slashback? Sure, but not a dupe (for once).

  6. Motorcycle use by weave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can see a lot of benefit of using this on motorcycle trips. I often go riding with no destination in mind, taking randon turns, getting lost, then finding a familar main road and working way back again. I often wish I could retrace my route on a map later to find out exactly where I went.

    1. Re:Motorcycle use by jamonterrell · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I do the same, but I certainly would NOT want a GPS with me when I do it. The whole point is to have fun trying to find your way back home. I mean really if you're REALLY lost and you REALLY need to get home, just stop and ask for directions, it's usually quicker and more accurate anyway.

      --
      I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
    2. Re:Motorcycle use by weave · · Score: 3, Interesting
      No, you misunderstand, and I agree with you completely. The fun is getting lost and trying to get back. I'd throw the GPS in the glove box, not use it during the ride, and only pull it out after the trip to retrace my steps for curiousity sake.

      You ever come across something real neat, like a covered bridge in the middle of some great mountainess terrain, and have never been able to find it again?!

    3. Re:Motorcycle use by icespeedskater · · Score: 2, Informative

      GPS Visualizer might do what you want.

    4. Re:Motorcycle use by Elequin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's awesome - it's exactly what I needed!

      I used GPSBabel to convert my NMEA data to GPX format, uploaded it to GPS Visualizer, and voila! Thanks!

    5. Re:Motorcycle use by LearnToSpell · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Kismet comes with a program called gpsmap, which can plot your route. There are various sources you can pull from, Mapquest-style included. GpsDrive is handy too.

      --
      Haida Manga
  7. GPS my cat by tau0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What I really need is to be able to GPS my cat (who typically is a couple of feet away hiding under a bush contemplating whether or not to respond to my calls).

    1. Re:GPS my cat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny


      Dead kitties tend to wander less.

    2. Re:GPS my cat by jafomatic · · Score: 3, Funny

      When have cats ever responded to our calls?
      A cat responds to a can opener, not its name.

      --
      ::jafomatic
    3. Re:GPS my cat by Tribbin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OK, so then you know where your cat is.

      There is no way you are gonna catch your cat.

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    4. Re:GPS my cat by CdBee · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's my experience as a geek that technology will not lead you to pussy

      --
      I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
  8. Re:Sounds like a perfect way by TheDancer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because this device allows you to time your splits to make sure you're running at your target pace without "pre-measuring" your course. Granted, to some people this isn't important, they're just running of the joy of it. Others--while also running for the joy of it--are running to train for upcoming races, and making sure you're on pace become very important. However at the same time it's fun to run different routes so you don't get bored with the course. This let's you run any course (provided you can get Sat signal) and stay on pace.

    Plus you can do all those other geeky things in the 23 other hours, like automatically download the XML tracks, and plot it on sattelite imagery.

  9. GPS are fun... by kiwioddBall · · Score: 4, Informative

    This technique of overlaying GPS trails on maps are the basis of most moving map programs, e.g. Oziexplorer

    I recommend Geocahing.com for more fun and games, as well as other games : GPSGames

    My little yellow Garmin, my Palm m130 and I keep ourselves quite happy thanks... GPS has quite a following in NZ - GPS.org.nz

  10. GPS units can do a lot by SsShane · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most GPS units will stream their data to a standard format that can be captured with Hyperterminal or something similar. Writing a Python script that parses the data and converts the coordinates to Lat/Long decimal degrees is very easy. I wrote one for our Lowrance GPS/Depth Sounder to plot course, position, and depth data for our many small lakes. With a few control points to find the current water elevation before sounding the lake, a failry accurate digital terrain model can be generated using some good GIS software. I'm sure techiniques like this could be used in many situations; the XML output is a neat idea and something I'd like to look into. Since Python has great string manipulation capabilities however, its nice to use for the amount of customizing that can be done (the data string can carry rediculous amounts of information like depths (mentioned above), ground speed and lots of other stuff, depending on the type of GPS unit).

    1. Re:GPS units can do a lot by lommer · · Score: 2, Informative

      Lat/Long is obsolete - I find it much easier to use a more modern system like Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). I consider it to be the metric equivalent of lat and long. Where in lat/long you have subdivisions of 60, UTM is all divisible by 10, has grid lines drawn on all maps (at least on those produced by the USGS and the Canadian equivalent), and is very easy to work with at widely different scales. For more of an explanation see http://www.nps.gov/prwi/readutm.htm

  11. Call me jesus by ehiris · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to this I ran over my neighbours houses and over water. I'm good.

  12. For Linux users wanting a similar program... by wskellenger · · Score: 2, Informative
    Check out Viking on SourceForge.

    GTK-based program that will overlay tracks and waypoints onto TerraServer images. Development has been coming along nicely...

  13. Alpine skiing by ToadMan8 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There was a company that did this as long as 5 years ago in Vail, CO.
    You'd wear a GPS antenna on your shoulder and a unit in your pocket would record where you were at what time. Then they'd print it on a topo map styilized for 3D and color code where you were going and at what speed. They'd also calculate your top speed, average speed, vertical feet, etc...
    I think they're out of business now, sadly, but they were good people and it was a cool idea, for sure.

    --
    I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
    1. Re:Alpine skiing by KC5VKX · · Score: 2, Funny

      Winter Park, CO had this when I was there last month. They call it SlopeTracker. Seems like a nifty idea though I never really bothered to check into it since I figured it'd probably cost a small fortune like everything else there. That and I doubt I'd actually stay upright on the skis long enough for it to get a lock.

  14. Plotting on aerial photos, topo maps etc by Bushcat · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This is trivial beyond belief with an outstanding application called "USA Photomaps". I won't provide a link so only the truly interested will track it down.

    It downloads Terraserver aerial photos for a selected region at two resolutions, the associated topo maps, and allows seamless zooming/switching between all images and topos.

    Check out the Nevada testing grounds for some outstanding pics. I've used the system to plot all the missile silos in the western US: after a while, it's almost possible to guess where they'll be.

    Another interesting route is the Ridge Route from Castaic.

    A hobby seen in the UK (and I assume, therefore, elsewhere) is to define jogging and cycling routes that draw the outline of an animal or other object on an existing urban road network. Some people have way too much time.

    1. Re:Plotting on aerial photos, topo maps etc by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Informative

      BTW, for the URL, RTFA - it's what the guy used.

  15. Re:Free Mapping Tool by Shadwell · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I realize it's Saturday, but maybe if you read the article you'd see that USAPhotoMap is the exact program used in this HOWTO.

  16. It reminds to me... by lonoak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... the Degree Confluence Project.