Spatial Self-Mapping for the Scatterbrained
December 14, 2015 12:11 PM Subscribe
I am designing a project for about 10-20 undergraduate students (mostly traditional students but some non-traditional) where each will be asked to track their movements for a couple of weeks. Is there an easy, secure, mobile app for both Android and iPhone that will provide consistent location data in a reasonable format? Preferences would be for an app that doesn't drain the battery and one that allows you to set the interval for recording points. Nice but not critical would be some kind of reminder to record what they were doing at that time.
(Yes, I'm aware of all of the relevant privacy concerns and this has full IRB approval).
(Yes, I'm aware of all of the relevant privacy concerns and this has full IRB approval).
How detailed does the mapping need to be? If you have in mind 24/7 recording, it's going to be difficult to find an app that doesn't drain a phone's battery if it's recording the current GPS location at rapid intervals. The Moves app does 24/7 recording of movement, but not necessarily with great accuracy in order to conserve the battery. Something that is (possibly) more accurate is an app intended for mapping running or walking for exercise, such as RunKeeper or MapMyRun, but they probably will drain the battery in less than a day if left running.
You may be able to find other apps in QuantifiedSelf.com's list of tools.
posted by StrawberryPie at 4:01 PM on December 14, 2015
You may be able to find other apps in QuantifiedSelf.com's list of tools.
posted by StrawberryPie at 4:01 PM on December 14, 2015
Response by poster: I'm looking more for something that would record a point every ten to sixty minutes rather than continuously.
posted by one_bean at 4:50 PM on December 14, 2015
posted by one_bean at 4:50 PM on December 14, 2015
OpenPaths used to be what I used, but I can't fully recommend it as the app hasn't been updated since 2012, and it's a bit. Please update us if you find a good solution!
posted by suedehead at 8:37 PM on December 14, 2015
posted by suedehead at 8:37 PM on December 14, 2015
It's not quite the fully baked app that you want, but Firefox Mobile can quietly contribute to (and consume) Mozilla Location Service data. Mozilla have very strict limits on the battery use that browser features may add, so a web app built on top of Firefox Mobile could do this without huge battery drain.
posted by scruss at 11:42 PM on December 14, 2015
posted by scruss at 11:42 PM on December 14, 2015
For future record:
I recently found Owntracks, (github repo), and found it to be great, privacy-conscious, well-documented, with iOS and Android versions, support for geofencing/location markers, with the ability to push to your own server (over HTTP and MQTT).
Moves is also an app that works _very_ well and one that you can use an API to get data from, although I have reservations about their privacy policy and putting your own location data on your server.
one_bean, what did you end up using?
posted by suedehead at 2:28 PM on March 25, 2016
I recently found Owntracks, (github repo), and found it to be great, privacy-conscious, well-documented, with iOS and Android versions, support for geofencing/location markers, with the ability to push to your own server (over HTTP and MQTT).
Moves is also an app that works _very_ well and one that you can use an API to get data from, although I have reservations about their privacy policy and putting your own location data on your server.
one_bean, what did you end up using?
posted by suedehead at 2:28 PM on March 25, 2016
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posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:57 PM on December 14, 2015