Hello everybody! Let me first introduce myself since this is my first blog entry in English. My name is Razvan Orlando Matei, I am the co-founder of Fightersoft Multimedia SRL and the lead developer of the Mobile Tracking System project. MTS (as I will refer to it from now on) is a social networking application built on top of a very powerfull LBS base. Using MTS you can freely find your friends, communicate with them and much much more. In this article I will focus mainly on the LBS part of MTS – especially the brand new interface between the MTS server and Google Earth.
To play with the new features of MTS you will need a Windows Mobile (2003, 5 or 6) smartphone or pocket pc, a bluetooth GPS receiver (optional) and Google Earth installed on your computer. You can grab Google Earth for free from here.
Let’s start by configuring your bluetooth GPS receiver to work with your Windows Mobile device (if you don’t have a GPS receiver then skip this part). For reference, in this article I will use a SPV C600 
and a Sirf Star III bluetooth GPS receiver. You will first need to turn on the bluetooth on your device and pair with the GPS receiver. Please check the GPS receiver documentation if you have any problems (to save you some time, when asked for the passkey use either 0000 or 1234). In the Services window make sure that you will select Serial Port.
After the pairing is complete go to the COM Ports menu and choose New Outgoing Port. Select your GPS receiver and choose a port such as COM7 (uncheck Secure Connection).
Now, you need to install the MTS client on your mobile device. Grab the MTS version appropriate for your device from here. Choose your network operator and create your account from Options – Settings – Your ID. If you have problems setting up MTS please consult the online help from here or post your problem on our discussion forum. Now go to the Options – Hardware screen. In the GPS COM Port select the COM port that you choosed when you paired the device (usually COM7).
After pressing save do a Bluetooth Restart from Options – GPS Functions. To check if the GPS receiver is correctly working with your mobile device, go to Options – GPS Functions – Details.
Note that it may take some time to get the position fix and thus coordinates and speed. To check if the GPS is working, check that the Last NMEA Sentence is not empty. If you get a message in the coordinates field stating to change the digit sign from , to . then close MTS. Go to the Settings window from your mobile device and choose Regional Settings. Change every digit sign to ” . ” from the Regional Settings window.
To quickly check your position go to the MTS Services page and search yourself either by localize or by satellite.
If your position is correct then congratulations, you sucesfully configured MTS to work with your GPS receiver. Now to move on to the exciting stuff!
Remember that at the begining I mentioned that the GPS receiver is optional. We developed a technology that will automatically record GPS coordinates for the GSM towers. You only need to pass through a GSM tower area with the GPS receiver on and the coordinates for this particular cell are recorded. The more people with GPS receivers pass through the cell covered area, the more precise the cell tower is represented on the map. The catch is that when an user without a GPS receiver passes through this cell, his or hers position can be placed on the map using the coordinates of the GPS tower. Of course this type of positioning is no where as precise as the actual thing (the GPS receiver connected to MTS) but you can get a general location – and this is good enough for some people. Using MTS you can get almost all the map interactivity using only your mobile device without owning a GPS receiver. Is just like having a GPS without actually having it. Based on this concept we have developed a number of interesting features – mostly based on the interaction between the MTS server and the Google Earth servers.
Get your position directly on your mobile phone with or without a GPS receiver
Let’s say that you are traveling. Of course, friends and family can watch you (if you allow it) on the map on the computer just like we’ve seen above but let’s say that you want to see your position on the map for directions or orientation. No problem! Simply download the Google Maps for Mobile from http://www.google.com/gmm. After you install it on the mobile device, open it and go to Find Nearby Businesses. In the search field type http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gmmstargate. Replace stargate with your username.
Your current position appears on the map! You can zoom in our out using the volume keys (if you have a smartphone) or using the touchscreen (if you have a pocket pc). You can press the key 1 and get detailed information about your location such as the date and time when this position was reported, the speed in km/h and the GSM tower description. Still disoriented? No problem! You can see your last 10 positions on the map! Simply go to the Find Nearby Businesses window and type in the search field http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm2stargate_10 (again, replace stargate with your actual username).
You can quickly jump from one location to another and get detailed information by pressing the phone’s keypad. But now let’s step up the level!
Get your position and path on Google Earth with or without a GPS receiver
If you didn’t install Google Earth yet then do it now. Again, you can grab it from here. It is free. Install and launch it. In the Places sidebar, right click My Places – Add – Network Link.
In the Name field type in your username and in the Link field type http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gmmstargate (replace stargate with your username). Click on the Refresh tab. If you want to get your current location automatically updated on the map, in the Time-Based Refresh section choose Periodically and choose a value of 10 seconds or more. If you want the camera to be automatically placed on specified user (it’s breathless when tracking a single user but impractical when you want to view more users on the map at the same time) then check Fly to View on Refresh. After clicking ok, Google Earth should automatically zoom in on your location. You can also repeat these steps and add all your MTS friends in the places side bar and can see where they are in real time all over town, country or the world itself! There are no limits!
Another neat feature of MTS is the path. You can see every place you have been from now back to a few hours, a day or up to a month. To view a complete path you need to add two network links. The first are the locations themeselves – in the link field enter http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm2stargate_20 (replace stargate with your desired username). Note the _20. The 20 is the number of locations to be displayed in reverse cronological order starting from now. You can change it to whatever suits you for example 10, 30, 100 (no more than 500). If you want to display only the path for today simply delete _20 and use only http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm2stargate. After you are done adding this network link, add another (this one is for the yellow line that will connect the locations). In the link field use http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm3stargate_20. The same notes as above are available here. The result should be something like in the screenshot.
You can click on any location to get details such as location picture, traffic (who else passed through this cell in the recent time), the public transport available in this location, the sign posts and so on.
Still want more? What if I told you that this is only a small part of the entire project?
We at Fightersoft noticed that although people want complex features with incredible eye candy and rich in options they also want their every day features to be simple and practical. We understood that. That’s why, while it is possible to do with MTS all that I presented in this article, you can also get a text only report of the last 500 locations you visited, you can find a friend no matter where in the world is by pressing two keys, you can write him or her a message in no time, you can get your e-mail messages directly on your mobilephone (basically a push email solution) and you don’t neccessarely have to carry an external device such as a GPS receiver if you want to view your position on a map. It’s simple and yet complex. It’s powerfull. Try it. Join a growing community where the world is our playground.
Granted, at this time (13th May 2007) the GSM towers with GPS coordinates gathered by the MTS server is ranging to about 3000 thousands mostly concentrated in Romania. If you have a GPS receiver please connect it to a MTS installed mobile device and simply go about your business – the database is building itself – you don’t have to do anything. Check the current MTS cells with GSM coordintes coverage maps.
In conclusion I want to repeat the links for the MTS and Google Earth interactivity:
http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gmmstargate – my current location
http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm2stargate_20 – my last 20 locations
http://mtsmobile.ro/v015gm3stargate_20 – my last 20 locations united by a yellow line
Again, you can replace stargate with any MTS user and _20 with any number (no higher than 500) or delete it all together to get the locations just for today. Clicking on the links above should automatically launch Google Earth and you will be able to see my position on real time on the map. By the way, you don’t need to worry about what happens when you loose the GPS satellite fix – the MTS server will automatically switch to GSM positioning.
Watch out for the Symbian client that will include all of these features. Coming soon.
Stay tuned for more in the near future! See you… out there!
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