Trail-Sense
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kylecorry31
New Feature Ideas
Please feel free to post new feature ideas in the comments on this issue. I would love to have some other thoughts about what should be included in this app (no guarantee that I will include them, but I will consider each idea). No idea is a bad idea here, worse case I may say that I will not include it in Trail Sense (but who knows, if it is a really good idea, I or someone else may work with you to build it into a separate app). I should also mention, that I am not averse to the idea of having separate companion apps to Trail Sense with specific niches if a good feature does not meet the goal of Trail Sense.
Some set in stone goals of this app:
- Trail Sense must not use the Internet in any way, as I want the entire app usable when there is no Internet connection
- New features must provide some benefits to people using the app while hiking, in a survival situation, etc.
- New features should make use of the sensors on a phone rather than relying on stored information such as guides
- New features must be based on peer-reviewed science
For reference, some things I have considered in the past and removed were:
- "Survival blueprints" (recipes for making items while in survival situations)
- There are a lot of other resources out there and it is best presented in a book format
- Survival guide
- There are a lot of other resources out there, including this awesome app
- Animal behavior
- I can't say there is enough science / supporting evidence behind Solunar theory for me to make accurate predictions of animal behavior in general, though if someone provides strong evidence I will consider it
Saw the app in F-Droid recents and it seems quite useful already. A couple of nice-to-have features that came to mind:
- Allow as location share target. For example, in OsmAnd when selecting Share > Send, have Trail Sense show up in the app list.
- Support swipe between tabs.
- Maybe far-fetched: temperature. I think most phones have at least a battery temperature sensor. The reading will vary based on device activity and location (pocket, desk, etc.), but might produce useful readings with some care in calibration and use.
@vuori Thank you for the ideas!
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Yes, the location share target would definitely be a useful feature, I'll add an issue for that.
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I'll take a look at this to see if Android supports it with little developer effort.
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I actually looked into making a temperature sensor available in my early development (+ humidity), though I found that it was very inaccurate due to the phone heating up from use and being in a pocket / temperature-controlled room. Another thing I noted while looking into this feature though is that temperature/humidity is something that the phone's user would be able to feel without the phone, and given that when looking at it in Trail Sense they would already be able to feel it, I'm not sure how much value that would provide (other than the phone issuing heat alerts/advisories to let the user know that they are at risk for heat exhaustion/stroke or frostbite).
re: 3. Yeah, I can see the technical issues and put that way giving it a pass makes sense.
re: 3. Yeah, I can see the technical issues and put that way giving it a pass makes sense.
I did create a new issue to look into it (https://github.com/kylecorry31/Trail-Sense/issues/62), the heat / cold alert aspect may be a useful reminder to stay cool or warm. I may put it as an off by default setting if anyone wants to try it out though.
It might be nice to be able to see in which direction the sun and the moon are, perhaps as icons on the compass?
Another feature, ripped straight from the compass app on my pebble, is to have the compass change to a "linear" display, like in skyrim, when the phone is held up.
The current display works okay when held up to your face, but it gets a bit weird when you're facing south and north is shown to be downwards.
So I purposely made Trail Sense only display in portrait orientation, and didn't design it for landscape. Is having landscape orientation support something anyone would want? If yes, give a thumbs up to this comment.
I don't see any harm in supporting landscape (aside from more code), but portrait mode certainly seems the most useful since that's how you'd hold the phone while walking.
Landscape could be very useful for the vertical compass, however.
I'd love to see GPS and compass accuracy visualized somehow. Give you an idea if you should be trusting your instrument or yourself more in a given location.
Ability to take or associate an image with each waypoint.
An optional pop over of the image when the waypoint draws could be nice, as well.
Option to pull data from connected sensors, for instance Fitbit watches.
My phone does not have a barometer, yet my Fitbit does, so having Trail Sense poll my fitbit for atmospheric pressure would be awesome.
https://dev.fitbit.com/build/reference/device-api/barometer/
@Saijin-Naib Thank you for the ideas! I'll look into them to determine their feasibility and how well they'll fit into Trail Sense and the "no internet policy" of trail sense (in particular the connected devices idea)
Integration as a Share target so locations from text messages, map programs, browser, etc. can be sent to Trail Sense and added as waypoints.
Would make planning trips etc super easy when in a location with data services, though once stored, they obviously no longer need data.
Ability to add notes to a waypoint. Alongside images, this can help navigate in confusing or dense locations, like a multi-path split at a trailhead (picture of spot, and a note to go left around the Spruce, etc.)
(Geopackage would easily allow for these features to be read/written)
Ability to organize waypoints into groups and sub-groups.
Would be great to organize a system of trailheads within a park, for instance.
(Geopackage also could help with this by having tables per group, etc)
Ability to store/show height and angle to waypoint in addition to distance and bearing.
(Geopackage also allows for XYZM points)
@Saijin-Naib Thanks for the feature ideas! I'll look into them - also, Trail Sense should already be a share target for geo coordinates, is that working for you?
@kylecorry31 , yeah for Geo in specific, I see that it can act as a Share source to things like Magic Earth, which is great.
how about a step counter that can be used to calculate roughly how far one has travelled based on your height (which would estimate the stride length)? It could work as a fall-back for GPS positioning, where it estimates your position based on the last known position and how many steps you've taken in what direction. I imagine this could be very useful for people in dense forests where GPS is flaky.
@swedneck that is a very interesting idea, though I'm a bit worried about how accurate it would be. Ex. if the user has the phone in their pocket/backpack and is walking, the phone wouldn't be facing in the same direction as the person, hence the estimated location would be wrong (though may be corrected by an incoming GPS signal). I can think of a few other areas which would lead to inaccurate results as well.
I'll do some more research to see how feasible this would be / if I could make an accurate implementation of this - thanks!
@kylecorry31 perhaps the user would have to manually set the direction they're walking, and change that direction in the app any time they move another direction? It'd be a bit cumbersome, but i think you'd be pulling up the compass at those points anyways.
Hey. That's a cool application. But I don't have the ability to add a lot of points through copy/paste in a certain format. Like that:
59.940425 30.313874 - Point Description 1, some text
59.923596, 30.385413 - Point Description 2
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@whoizit Thank you for the feedback! I do have bulk adding of beacons planned (#95) - I'm not sure when I'll get to it though.
You should currently be able to create a beacon from OSM - you have to share a point using the geo: option and it should give you an option to open Trail Sense. Let me know if that isn't working for you.
@kylecorry31 this last update is amazing! So many great UX improvements in it.
Thanks so much for your hard work!
If I may, is it possible to show the raw values for compass and gps when we tap on them? What do you consider high, etc? Also might help us debug compass, in terms of smoothing value, compass mode, and possible need for recalibration.
@Saijin-Naib Thank you for the kind words! I'll hopefully be able to spend a bit more time getting the rest of the new features implemented (as seen in the issues tab here).
So, the accuracy value for the compass comes from Android itself, I'm not sure how that is calculated internally. The GPS, on the other hand, is something that I could display, as Trail Sense receives the GPS accuracy in meters, and I perform a calculation to determine high/med/low (and right now, it only factors in the position accuracy, not elevation accuracy). I'll create a new issue to present this information.