[aprssig] Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) for APRS

[Frank Olaf Sem-Jacobsen]

Hi, I thought I'd toot my own horn a bit on this subject :)

There is an application for using google maps on cell phones, mobile 
Gmaps (http://www.mgmaps.com/), which has the possibility to use a small 
application from navizon (http://www.navizon.com/) for positioning, in 
addition to internal GPS systems (jsr-179) and Bluetooth GPS receivers.  
This works on a lot of cell phones, and also on the Windows mobile 
platform.  Navizon provides positioning either through GPS receivers, 
through cell  tower information, or WLAN access points, depending on the 
capabilities of the mobile device.  I'm not too into the navizon 
application, but I assume it sends the information to a central database 
and receives an approximate position.

Now, the interesting point is that I have become a co-developer of 
mgmaps, responsible for implementing tracking features.  I am almost 
done with the process of porting my tracking code from my own 
application mAPRS to mgmaps, which in addition to providing mapping 
services to display received station also is a more stable platform for 
GPS communication.

This new version of mgmaps in combination with navizon will be able to 
provide APRS tracking based on cellphone towers or WLAN accesspoint 
information.  It will hopefully be released by next week, so be sure to 
check out the web page, www.mgmaps.com some time then.  I will also 
probably not be able to resist the temptation of sending another e-mail 
when it is released ;)

p.s. I am not in any way affiliated with navizon.

-- 
Frank Olaf Sem-Jacobsen, LA3NMA