FOSS4G2006 Mobile GIS BOF Minutes

2007-04-12T01:07:23Z

Wiki-FsoMcj:

'''IMPORTANT NOTE'''

''This is only the first part of Mobile GIS BOF minutes. The second part was written down by Tim Bowden. He will publish it in a couple of weeks, when he is back home after his journey.''

== Where, When and Who? ==

* Place: FOSS4G 2006 conference, Lausanne, Switzerland
* Starting date: 13-Sep-2006, 18:00
* Duration: 02h00'
* Presenters:
** Mrs. REIMER, Silke
** Mr. BOWDEN, Tim
** Mr. LOSKOT, Mateusz

== Mobile GIS BOF Attendees ==

'''NOTE:''' ''Please, add yourself if you're not on the list or fix your name if it's incorrectly spelled below.''

* Brent Fraser
* David Villalon
* Ventura Mendoza
* [[User:Frank_Warmerdam|Frank Warmerdam]]
* Frederic Pouget
* Jan-Oliver Wagner
* Just van den Broecke
* Ludovic LESTRAT
* [[User:Mloskot|Mateusz Loskot]]
* Silke Reimer
* Till
* Tim Bowden
* [[Tyler Mitchell]]
* [[AndrewTurner|Andrew Turner]]

== Why you are here? ==

'''NOTE:''' ''Please, add your notes below if anything is missing.''

=== Silke ===
* It's possible there is an opportunity to found some work on Open Source mobile
* Contribution of project management, infrastructure, place for meetings, marketing stuff, may be founds.

=== Just ===
* On-line services.
* Apps for mobile phones.
* Multimedia features.
* Tracking platform for mobile devices.
* Contribute multimedia features, Java development.

=== Tim ===
* Collecting data in a field.
* Consume data in a field
* Synchronize data on mobile devices against servers.
* Provide building blocks, not end user application.
* Contribute use cases, testing and ideas.

=== Till ===
* Collecting data infrastructure features in a field
* Identify object in a field
* The idea was/is to develop a client that provides data and identification tool,
* POI, ROI, Routing tool.
* The idea is to connect central database with mobile client.
* Contribute: experience about Java Script (->Web based) on mobile devices, ideas, testing.
* Looking for: well-designed and developed platform.

=== Brent ===
* Data collection in a field and server upload capabilities.
* Use mobile device as an input device, not only for output/data provider.
* Good accuracy level.
* Collect control points to rectify satellite image.
* Precise navigation and locating capabilities.
* Mobile device -> iPAQ

=== Frederic ===
* Interested in mobile solutions.
* Works for private sector, not Open Source company.
* LBS for mobile platform.

=== Ludovic ===
* Works with ArcPad based solutions.
* Inventory of features in field.
* Contribute: testing

=== Tyler ===
* Need outdoor mobile platform for environmental assessment, etc.
* Particularly interested in applying [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality Augmented Reality] concepts to GIS data.
* Provide advanced features of visualization, 3D, etc.
* Tablet PC platform would be good, plus cameras and multiple sensors (digital compass, gps, accelerometers)
* Frustrated with current windows options

=== ??? ===
* iPod-based solution

=== Mateusz ===
* Interested in development of mobile GIS framework, a set of libraries and components usable in other projects, end-user solutions.
* Provide foundations for mobile GIS development.
* GUI independent.

=== David ===
* Working in an european project (SMITA project) devoted to develop a mobile gis client for tourist, with LBS and based in open source and open standards.
* Web-based apps for smart phones and pda devices.
* Contribute: exchange of experiences, testing.

=== Ventura ===
* Working in an european project (SMITA project) devoted to develop a mobile gis client for tourist, with LBS and based in open source and open standards.
* Web-based apps for smart phones and pda devices.
* Contribute: exchange of experiences, testing and disemination.

== Project output ==

We can see three different applications for mobile devices:
a) End-user application, a kind of viewer or editor
b) Data collecting solution, with GPS, editing and automation features
c) The third one, is a kind of LSB solution for mobile phones or other small
devices with GPS/GSM capabilities.

a) and b) are main lines of development proposal.
c) is very different application to a) and b)

== Development platform ==

a) Langauge:
- C/C - it seems to be our language of choice
- Java - mainly used on mobile phones
- Python - who has worked with Python on mobile devices?

b) Operating platform
- Windows Mobile >= 5.0 - the main OS on the mobile devices market at the moment; target platform of the first prototype
- Linux - most of us would prefer to develop for Linux, but it's not very popular yet, no commercial support for Linux-based mobile devices, etc.

b) Tools:
- Visual Studio 2005 - a commercial toolset, the only option for Windows Mobile development :-(
- gcc-based toolset for cross-compilation, but there is no debugger

== Type of application ==

- standalone application (most of participants likes this one)
- thin client (a web-based solution)
- strong client (standalone application or a combination)

== Data ==

Data sources localization we want to support:
* local
* remote

Main data types we want to support:
* vector
* raster

Various data sources and formats possible to use:
* vectors:
** local files (ie. shapefiles, mapinfo)
** GML and WFS
** database (ie. [http://www.sqlite.org/ SQLite])
* rasters:
** tile server for rasters
** WMS

Available libraries to access and operate spatial data:
* [http://www.gdal.org/wince.html GDAL/OGR for Windows CE]
* [http://shapelib.maptools.org/ Shapelib]

== What GIS components we have ready to use? ==

* Windows Mobile
** OGR
** [http://proj.maptools.org/ PROJ.4] and [http://mateusz.loskot.net/projects/proj4/ PROJ.4 port for Windows CE]
** SQLite

* Linux
** most of currently available portable libraries are runnable on Linux on mobiles

== GPS ==

All Mobile GIS BOF participants agree that we need a GPS support.

=== Windows Mobile ===

* GPS API and GPS Intermediate Driver (GPSID) - [http://mateusz.loskot.net/2006/01/07/a-first-glance-at-the-gps-api-in-windows-mobile-50/ see short overview]
* [http://gpsd.berlios.de/ gpsd] does not officially run on Windows-based systems, what about porting it?
* There is always an option to develop our own portable library for reading and parsing NMEA sentences
from serial/... port in a separate thread (no TCP/IP server/listener required)

=== Linux ===
* [http://gpsd.berlios.de/ gpsd] works very well on Linux

OSGeo - User contributions [en]

FOSS4G2006 Mobile GIS BOF Minutes