Animate Google Map

This is an interesting project. It animates the route on the Google Map based on the real geo-locations.

Please see the following example first. It shows how I drive from work back to home every afternoon. Click the "Start the magic" button to view in action.

How it works:
1. Turn my GPS on, and run a software to generate the NMEA log file. This log file contains all the inforamtion I need to complete this project, such as Latitude, Longitude, speed, time, etc.

2. I wrote a program to parse this log file, and get only what I need.

3. Mainly use Google Map API to animate the route.

Examples:
1. The GPS can get pretty acurate geo-locations in a clear weather. The result can be affected with the high buildings, mountains and large trees. The following example shows the situation when I drove in a small road covered by huge trees. You can see the result is not that good.

Click here to see

2. Video SYNC on the Google Map. I tried to put Youtube on the Google Map. The timing is hard to get matched. I am looking for a good solution to this problem.

Click here to see this project in action

Thoughts:
1. A more advanced application I am working on is to SYNC the video with the Google Map. I have some technical issues, but hope I can solve it.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me.

Sunny Sun @ September, 2008