What is Loadstone GPS

Loadstone GPS is a free navigational application designed to be used with a Bluetooth GPS receiver and a mobile phone using the Series60 platform on the Symbian operating system.

Loadstone GPS was developed to be a low-cost feature-rich navigational assistant for the blind. At this point in time, it may be not as powerful as other GPS-Navigation solutions such as those offered by:

Freedom Scientific
Destinator
Humanware
Trekker and Braillenote GPS
Sendero Group
Keysoft GPS software for the Braillenote GPS
Wayfinder Systems AB
Wayfinder

but we think you will be pleasantly surprised as to how well it works! In fact the core development team and thousands of users around the world rely exclusively on Loadstone GPS as a navigation assistant.

In order to use Loadstone you need the following:

* Mobile (cellular) phone running Symbian (Series60)
* Bluetooth GPS receiver supporting the NMEA protocol
* Optional Access software - Screen reader / Magnifier (if you are blind/visually impaired)

Loadstone GPS allows a user to save points of interest and affectively create a map of the environment. Using this map a user is informed about his or her relative position to these points and knows the heading and distance to these points. This way Loadstone GPS omits the use of (expensive) professionally designed maps while providing all of the orientational information that is needed to move around in the environment. The program is therefore able to help the user to learn and memorise a route; enabling the user to locate points such as: a supermarket, a friends’ house, a train station/bus stop and even their home’s front entrence!

Release Notes

The following changes took place in Loadstone GPS version 0.70:

-Versions of Loadstone GPS for the Symbian Series60 3rd edition are now signed and can now be installed to your Symbian Series60 3rd edition handset in the usuual way.

-Fixed various memory leaks and added more error checking.

-Fixed a bug that was causing file functions to crash on first edition handsets.

-Fixed a bug that could cause random crashes on third edition.

-Fixed a glitch where the trip distance might not be saved correctly if the
gps receiver wasn’t connected.

-Fixed a glitch where it was possible for the vibrate to get stuck on at
program exit.

-Introduced long key presses (pressing and holding a key) to allow for more
key bindings to functions/commands.

-The keymap file format is more flexable.

-The keymap loader will now add new default keys to an existing
keymap file.

-key-assignments that have changed in Exploration mode:

numeric keys:

*short press moves in the given direction.
*long press returns the point name in the given direction but does not move
focus.
*shift short press performs a “show area” function in a given direction.

Other keys:

*shift * is a shortcut for the “find point” function.
*long * is a shortcut to show the comment associated to a checkpoint.
*shift # is a shortcut for the “delete point” function.
*long joystick keys perform a “show area” function in the given direction.
(this also works in Navigation mode)

-default key-assignments that have changed in Navigation mode:

*long joystick keys perform a “show area” function in the given direction.
(this also works in Exploration mode)
*long star performs a “find point” function.
*long 5 performs a “show comment for next checkpoint” function.
*shift 0 performs a “training mode” function.
*long 0 performs a “play memo”.
*shift long 0 performs a “record memo”.

Note: Additional Navigation mode keyfunctions are discussed below.

-Can now assign a comment to a checkpoint.

-Checkpoint files now contain all needed information about a point.
Old-style checkpoint files will be converted automatically during first load.
These files are not compatible with older versions of Loadstone GPS.

-Removed the routine that renamed old versions of Loadstone GPS’s “pointlists” directory to “checkpoints”.

-Added a “show comment” function for the next checkpoint.

-Added a setting to control when checkpoint comments get announced.

-Added an arrival radius setting to tell when you’ve arrived at a checkpoint.

-The trip metre will now display show current state.

-Added a goto function to enter exploration mode at a given set of coordinates or manually move the exploration point. This function is mappable to a key.

-The about screen now includes your userid.

-The last_position file can now handle comments and blank lines.

-cleaned up functionality of the point importer by eliminating some previous error conditions and replacing them with warnings.

-two new settings in the gps settings tab: software heading and
software speed. These allow the speed or heading or both to be calculated in software rather then using the values provided by the gps receiver. This should help with receivers like the qstarz or holux with static navigation turned on at low speeds.

-Three new settings in the general settings tab: query timeout, search timeout, and show area timeout. These default to 5 minutes. The query timeout sets an upper limit on how long a query with the arrows in navigation mode, the numeric keys in exploration mode etc. can take. The search time out sets a time limit on a “find point”. The show area timeout sets an upper limit on how long a show area can take. These limits aren’t exact and are ment to stop database queries from running for unreasonable amounts of time. The settings are in seconds and
can go from 0 (unlimited) to 600 (10 minutes). It’s possible to override the search timeout in the find point dialog.

-It’s now possible to label a point if there’s no signal using the last known position.

-Added a WakeUp feature that can be used to help when using a bluetooth headset or speaker. When enabled this will add the word “attention” before doing output to try to wake the headset up from power saving mode.

-It is now possible to temporarily toggle some settings and map these toggles to keys in Navigation mode. The defaults are: long 1 toggle sound, long 2 toggle signal monitor, long 3 toggle cell monitor, long 4 toggle wake up, and long 6 toggle point direction display.

-Added an astronomic submenu off of the Options/Functions menu. This contains sun and moon submenus that’ll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the sun and the moon. These functions are mappable to keys.

-The “find point” function dialogue box will now retain any previously entered search string.

-Added a relative degrees option for the point direction setting. This
option will give the heading to a point in degrees relative to the current
heading.

-The gps quality display will now say if the fix is 2 dimensional or 3
dimensional.

-Text files with a utf8 signature, like those created by windows notepad, are now handled correctly.

-reactivated the “record memo” and “play memo” functions. Pressing the play/recording keys used to activate the function (or SoftKey2) will stop the operation.

-Added a new lock point feature. This lets you pick a point of interest and keep track of distance and heading to that point. In navigation mode if
a point is announced using one of the joystick keys you can lock that point (using long 9) You can then check the heading and distance to that point using long 8. To clear the locked point use shift long 9. In exploration mode use shift long * to lock the current point.

-Added a sound settings tab. This allows all program sounds and
vibrations to be configured. (see web site documentation for string formatting)

-Added a “keypad training mode”. This will tell you what a mappable key in navigation mode is currently mapped to. The default key to toggle training mode is shift 0.

-The source code now includes documentation about how to compile the unsigned programme under Linux.

-The source code now contains documentation about all the files used by
Loadstone GPS.

Download :

loadstone_0.70e3_20080506.rar (134 KB)

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