TravTrack
Tracking Control
This screen is Tracking Control screen, which is shown whenever the Tracking tab on the bottom left of the tab bar is tapped. It allows you to start, stop and pause tracking, and add locations to the current track.
When you tap on the Start button, the button will change to a Stop button, and the screen will change to reflect that tracking is enabled, and, usually within a few seconds, the first location point will be added to the track and shown on the screen, see below. Once you start tracking, you may use the Home button on your device to exit the TravTrack application and use any other applications on the device. The tracking function will go on in the background. You may return to the TravTrack application via the normal method, i.e. by tapping on the TravTrack icon. Exiting the application via the Home button and returning via the TravTrack icon may be done at any time, as often as desired, with no detrimental effect to the current tracking function.
On this screen, you will see a number of items containing information about the current track:
- The current status of the tracking function, ON, or PAUSED, and the tracking mode (Acc. for Accuracy, or Econ. for Economy, more about this below).
- The name of the Track. Each track has a name, and when a new track is started it is assigned a default name. The name can be changed by tapping in the box that contains the name and entering a new name.
- The First Date. This is the date and time that the first location point was added to the track.
- The Last Date. This is the date and tame that the latest location point was added to the track.
- The number of location points currently in the track.
Below these items is a description of the latest location point added to the current track, including the latitude, longitude, altitude above sea level, and the estimated accuracy.
There are three buttons which allow you to:
- Stop Tracking. This stops the tracking function and closes the current track. The track is now available for viewing, editing, exporting and emailing via the Tracks tab at the bottom of the screen. Once closed, however, no new location points can be added to a track.
- Pause Tracking. This temporarily stops the tracking function, which prevents new points from being added to the track while paused, but does not close the current track. The button will change to a Resume button. When tracking is resumed, tracking will be re-enabled and new location points can be added to the current track.
- Add the Current Location. The tracking algorithm, depending on the settings, adds points only at certain times. If desired, the device's current location can be added to the current track by tapping on this button. It may take up to a couple of minutes for the device to get an accurate location and add it to the current track. If the current tracking mode is "ACC" (for Accuracy), this button is inoperative, because locations are automatically added to the track.
Map Screen
This screen is the MAP screen, which is the screen you see when the MAP tab on the bottom tab bar is tapped. This screen shows a map with all of the location points in the current track. The map may be scrolled using a wipe motion, or zoomed in and out using a pinch motion with two fingers.
The first point in the track is shown with a green map pin. The last point in the track is shown with a red map pin. Intermediate points are shown with red dots. Edited points are shown with a purple map pin. You can view information about any point by tapping on the point, which shows an annotation flag containing the date/time that the point was added, and optionally the name of the town or city containing the location point.
You can then edit the point by tapping on the blue circle with the arrow on the right of the annotation flag, which then reveals the following screen...
This screen allows you to edit the point in several ways:
- You can delete the point from the track by tapping on the Delete button.
- You can give the point a name by tapping in the Name box.
- You can attempt to obtain the address of the location point by tapping on the Locate button. If the address is obtainable using a mechanism known as reverse geocoding, the address field will be updated with the address.
- You can add textual notes to the point by tapping on the Notes button. A screen will appear which will allow you to enter, view or edit the notes for the point.
Tracks Screen
This screen is the Tracks screen, shown when the Tracks tab on the bottom tab bar is tapped.
This allows you to manage completed tracks. The list of tracks may be scrolled if needed.
You may delete tracks by tapping on the Delete button on the top right of the screen
will bring up deletion icons on the left of each track entry.
Tapping on the deletion icon for a given track
will bring up a Delete confirmation button on the right of the track entry. When done deleting
tracks, tap on the Done button on the top right of the screen.
Tapping on an individual track entry brings up the following screen...
This screen allows you to view, edit, export or email a completed track. You can...
- Change the name of the track. Tap in the Name box and enter the new name.
- View the track. Tapping on the View button will bring up a map screen, similar to the one described above, which will allow you to view the track and view/edit any of the points in the track, similarly to the methods described above, under "Map Screen".
- Export the track. This will convert the track to a KML file or GPX file (depending on one of the settings, described below). These files are stored in the Documents folder on your iOS device and can be copied to your computer, or delete from the device using the file sharing feature of iTunes on your computer. See below.
- E-Mail the track. This will also convert the track to a KML file or GPX file and bring up an email creation screen allowing you to email the resulting file as an email attachment.
Settings Screen
This shows the first part of the Settings screen. This screen allows you to set the parameters that control the tracking function.
The first setting controls the Operating Mode. There are two modes of operation, Economy and Accuracy:
In Economy mode, the default mode, the device only adds points to a track when a "Significant Location Change" is detected by the device hardware. The definition of a "Significant Location Change" given by Apple, Inc. is that it "uses the device's cellular radio to determine the user's location and report changes in that location, allowing the system to manage power usage much more aggressively than it could otherwise.".
In Accuracy Mode, the device will attempt to continuously monitor its location and update the track with new location points whenever the location changes by an approximate amount defined by the "Distance Filter", see below. This mode may use significant amounts of power and may, if used for too long, drain the battery. It is highly recommended that this mode be used only when the device is attached to an external power source, such as an external battery or automobile battery charger.
The next three settings control the Filter parameters, which determine the how location points are "filtered" to determine their eligibility to be added to a track.
The Accuracy setting determines how accurate a location reading has to be to be saved as part of a
track. The Location Services hardware and software of the iOS device can obtain several location
readings at different times, based on GPS information, cell-phone tower triangulation, and Wifi
Hot-Spot information. The accuracy of this information is estimated by the iOS device and given to
the TravTrack application along with the location information. This setting determines which location
readings will be ignored by the TravTrack application as being too inaccurate for the desired use.
Setting the Accuracy parameter to a low number means that the locations saved as part of a track must be accurate to a small radius, thus ignoring any locations that are outside that radius. This, however means that more battery energy must be used to obtain a more accurate location. Setting the Accuracy parameter to a larger number allows locations to be stored in a track that are more inaccurate, but uses less battery power. This may be useful if, for example, the user merely wishes to keep track of which towns and cities were passed through on a given trip.
The Distance Filter setting determines when locations are obtained. The Location Services hardware and
software of the iOS device will attempt to obtain a new location when the distance traveled from the old
location is approximately the value set as the Distance Filter. Setting this to a low number will add more
points, separated by smaller distances, to the track. This will, of course, require more battery power than
when a larger Distance Filter number is used.
The Time Filter setting determines how the TravTrack app will handle older location values.
The Location Services hardware and software of the iOS device sometimes saves, or caches, older values
and sends them to the TravTrack app. If a value is older than the Time Filter parameter setting, then
it will be ignored by the TravTrack App which will wait for a newer, up-to-date value.
In summary, to get the most accurate, closest together, latest, location points, set all three Filter parameters to the smallest numbers. To save the most battery power, set them to the largest values. It is recommended that the user experiment with these settings to find the best combination.
Settings Screen (continued)
By scrolling the settings screen down, the next groups of settings will be visible.
The first group of settings controls the Export and Email functions. The Export and Email functions convert the stored track information into one of two formats: KML or GPX.
The first setting in this group determines which file format will be created by the Export or Email functions.
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is a file format for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. The KML file specifies a set of features (place marks, images, polygons, 3D models, textual descriptions, etc.) for display in Google Earth, Maps and Mobile, or any other 3D Earth browser implementing the KML encoding.
GPX, or GPS eXchange Format is a file format designed as a common GPS data format for software applications. It can be used to describe waypoints, tracks, and routes. It stores location, elevation, and time and can in this way be used to interchange data between GPS devices and software packages. Such computer programs allow users, for example, to view their tracks, project their tracks on satellite images (in Google Earth), annotate maps, and tag photographs with location information.
The second setting in this groups determines how intermediate points are handled in the conversion
to KML or GPX file format. If the WayPoints setting is set to All, then all intermediate points in the
track are converted to individual Way Points in the KML or GPX file, and show on the resulting
maps as individual, editable points. For example, in Google Earth...
If the WayPoints setting is set to Saved, then only location points
that have been edited and saved, such as points that have been given names, or address information, will be exported as Way Points. For example...
The next group of settings called "Other Settings "sets miscellaneous parameters.
The Map Type setting determines whether the MAP Screen show just a road map, a satellite image, or a combination of both. For example...
The Distance Units setting determines how all distances, altitudes, parameters, etc. will be displayed or interpreted, either in meters or in feet.
Exporting Tracks
To export one or more tracks as KML or GPX files, tap on the Tracks Tab on the bottom tab bar to view
the currently saved tracks.
Then tap on the entry for the track you want to export.
This will display the Track Details screen.
Tap on the Export button. The track will be exported in either KML or GPX format, depending on
the File Type in the settings.
Once the file is exported, to copy the file to your computer, you must hook your iOS device
to your computer using the USB cable for your device, and bring up the iTunes application
on your computer. One iTunes has started and has recognized your iOS device, click on the device
on the left part of the iTunes window...
This will show the device information in the main iTunes window. At the top of the main iTunes
window there is a menu bar showing the different tabs for different aspects of the iOS device.
Click on the Apps tab. This will show a page about the various applications installed on the device.
Scroll down until the section labeled "File Sharing" appears.
Click on the TravTrack application on the left, then select one or more of the exported files
and click on the "Save To" button to save the files on your computer.
These files may now be opened with Google Earth, or other KML or GPX file viewers.
To delete the files from your iOS device, select the files you wish to delete and hit the "delete" key on your computer keyboard.