Displaying Speed on Google Maps

As I’ve been working on my Bluetooth GPS app for Windows Mobile I’ve been thinking how to display useful information on a map. The GPS receiver provides all sorts of data such as location, altitude, speed, direction and many other things. Instead of displaying this information in a simple text format I’d like to do something more visual.

Tonight I was able to work up a basic speed example that represents three different states: 0-15 MPH (red icon), 16 – 45 MPH (yellow icon), and anything over 45 MPH (green icon). You can see a screen of a recent trip. I used my Bluetooth GPS app, which currently logs data to a text file. At the end of the trip I’m able to upload the data to my server. I’m still working on getting the real-time piece in place. This would allow my Windows Mobile device to upload data to the server while I drive.

My next step for the UI piece will be to represent direction in a visual format. This will most likely come in the form of a rotated icon since the GPS receiver returns direction in degrees (in relation to north). Representing altitude will be more challenging and for now it will simply display in the info bubble when you click on a marker. You can click here or on the image below to see the interactive version.