Does Org-mode need to be position aware?

Does Org-mode need to be position aware?

[Torsten Wagner]

Dear All,

I recently bought a Android-based phone and was pleased to see the
mobileorg version for Android. As you all may know people tend away from
static computer places and we have mobileorg and some of us even run
emacs and org-mode natively on smartphones and other gadgets. More and
more of this devices come with a build-in GPS or at least they get can
get the current location by tracking the mobile phone towers.

Playing around with Android for a few days, I saw many applications
which make use of the fact that the location is known to them. E.g. they
show restaurants, shops, or doctors praxis close to you.

I start wondering whether org-mode should get aware of my location and
whether people might be interested to add a location tag to org-mode tasks.

In a similar way as we add status, priorities, dates, tags, etc. It
might be interesting to add a location. A special agenda search could
list only those entries associated with my current location (or within a
given circle).

Since GPS coordinates are somehow ugly and human unreadable, I thought
it should be possible to mask them similar to links. E.g., like
[[gps://35.71083783530009,139.8175048828125][Somewhere in Japan +3km]].

Obviously, the first part has to be generated by read out the GPS
location, the second part is a human readable description and a given
radius. Closing this "link" would end up in "Somewhere in Japan +3km".

A "C-a l" could compile an agenda list only showing those entries which
intersect with my current location.

Obviously, it requires to read in GPS data, which might be tricky to do
for all those different devices. Furthermore, it might need emacs-lisp
code as well as some external program to read-out the position of the
GPS module. But I guess the emacs-lisp gurus here might know this much
better then I do. Another issue comes to my mind for mobileorg users. As
far as I know, mobileorg only fetches agenda views from a server but
does not generate them. However, this would be necessary to create this
kind of location aware agendas.

Would be nice to hear other opinions. Makes this sens? Should it be part
of mobileorg, or rather a independent package?
Maybe something for me to get used to emacs-lisp ?! ;)

Bye

Torsten

Re: Does Org-mode need to be position aware?

[Sebastian Rose]

Hi Thorsten,


that's a great idea!


Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
> Dear All,
>
> I recently bought a Android-based phone and was pleased to see the
> mobileorg version for Android. As you all may know people tend away from
> static computer places and we have mobileorg and some of us even run
> emacs and org-mode natively on smartphones and other gadgets. More and
> more of this devices come with a build-in GPS or at least they get can
> get the current location by tracking the mobile phone towers.
>
> Playing around with Android for a few days, I saw many applications
> which make use of the fact that the location is known to them. E.g. they
> show restaurants, shops, or doctors praxis close to you.
>
> I start wondering whether org-mode should get aware of my location and
> whether people might be interested to add a location tag to org-mode tasks.
>
> In a similar way as we add status, priorities, dates, tags, etc. It
> might be interesting to add a location. A special agenda search could
> list only those entries associated with my current location (or within a
> given circle).
>
> Since GPS coordinates are somehow ugly and human unreadable, I thought
> it should be possible to mask them similar to links. E.g., like
> [[gps://35.71083783530009,139.8175048828125][Somewhere in Japan +3km]].
>
> Obviously, the first part has to be generated by read out the GPS
> location, the second part is a human readable description and a given
> radius. Closing this "link" would end up in "Somewhere in Japan +3km".
>
> A "C-a l" could compile an agenda list only showing those entries which
> intersect with my current location.

`C-a' is bound to `beginning-of-line'.

`C-c a l' is still free.


But wouldn't a property more suitable for the agenda? 

* TODO Something in Japan
  :PROPERTIES:
  :COORDS: gps://35.71083783530009,139.8175048828125
  :END:


The `+3km' could be a default setting (and could be supplied as a
filter, just like tags).


(Somehow I see the `org address book' discussion coming up again.  Emacs
needs an address book we all use.  Something that's delivered with
Emacs.)



Links could point to map.google.com.  I'd like to use those links to
store tracks in Org-files as well.  HTML-Export could support OSM or
Google-Maps to show the tracks.  We also could produce SVGs or PNGs from
the data.


> Obviously, it requires to read in GPS data, which might be tricky to do
> for all those different devices. Furthermore, it might need emacs-lisp
> code as well as some external program to read-out the position of the
> GPS module.


On Linux, BSD and MAC OS X there is `gpsd'.  I don't know how useful
it is --- I don't own a GPS yet.

http://gpsd.berlios.de/ states:

   gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPSes or AIS
   receivers attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports,
   making all data on the location/course/velocity of the sensors
   available to be queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer. With
   gpsd, multiple location-aware client applications (such as
   navigational and wardriving software) can share access to receivers
   without contention or loss of data. Also, gpsd responds to queries
   with a format that is substantially easier to parse than the NMEA
   0183 emitted by most GPSes.

Is there something like it for other systems? Windows?
I think Cell phone systems should have something ...




> But I guess the emacs-lisp gurus here might know this much
> better then I do. Another issue comes to my mind for mobileorg users. As
> far as I know, mobileorg only fetches agenda views from a server but
> does not generate them. However, this would be necessary to create this
> kind of location aware agendas.
>
> Would be nice to hear other opinions. Makes this sens? Should it be part
> of mobileorg, or rather a independent package?


I'd make it an independent package.  Some laptops come with a built in
GPS these days.  And your desktop might know his GEO location as well.

We might have a variable `gps-home-coords' which is nice to have on cell
phones as well (would be great to have several "homes" for some people -
e.g. commuters).


Unfortunately I don't own a GPS yet.  But I'm very interested in this
one and surely will contribute.




Best wishes

   Sebastian

Re: Does Org-mode need to be position aware?

[Thomas S. Dye]

I'll second the "great idea!"

This is something that my archaeological fieldworkers would love to  
have.  A list of TODO items for various archaeological sites (with  
coordinate locations) could be prioritized by Org-mode using proximity  
to current position.  They'd love the idea they are saving steps.

All the best,
Tom

On Jun 25, 2010, at 2:06 AM, Sebastian Rose wrote:

> Hi Thorsten,
>
>
> that's a great idea!
>
>
> Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I recently bought a Android-based phone and was pleased to see the
>> mobileorg version for Android. As you all may know people tend away  
>> from
>> static computer places and we have mobileorg and some of us even run
>> emacs and org-mode natively on smartphones and other gadgets. More  
>> and
>> more of this devices come with a build-in GPS or at least they get  
>> can
>> get the current location by tracking the mobile phone towers.
>>
>> Playing around with Android for a few days, I saw many applications
>> which make use of the fact that the location is known to them. E.g.  
>> they
>> show restaurants, shops, or doctors praxis close to you.
>>
>> I start wondering whether org-mode should get aware of my location  
>> and
>> whether people might be interested to add a location tag to org- 
>> mode tasks.
>>
>> In a similar way as we add status, priorities, dates, tags, etc. It
>> might be interesting to add a location. A special agenda search could
>> list only those entries associated with my current location (or  
>> within a
>> given circle).
>>
>> Since GPS coordinates are somehow ugly and human unreadable, I  
>> thought
>> it should be possible to mask them similar to links. E.g., like
>> [[gps://35.71083783530009,139.8175048828125][Somewhere in Japan  
>> +3km]].
>>
>> Obviously, the first part has to be generated by read out the GPS
>> location, the second part is a human readable description and a given
>> radius. Closing this "link" would end up in "Somewhere in Japan  
>> +3km".
>>
>> A "C-a l" could compile an agenda list only showing those entries  
>> which
>> intersect with my current location.
>
> `C-a' is bound to `beginning-of-line'.
>
> `C-c a l' is still free.
>
>
> But wouldn't a property more suitable for the agenda?
>
> * TODO Something in Japan
>  :PROPERTIES:
>  :COORDS: gps://35.71083783530009,139.8175048828125
>  :END:
>
>
> The `+3km' could be a default setting (and could be supplied as a
> filter, just like tags).
>
>
> (Somehow I see the `org address book' discussion coming up again.   
> Emacs
> needs an address book we all use.  Something that's delivered with
> Emacs.)
>
>
>
> Links could point to map.google.com.  I'd like to use those links to
> store tracks in Org-files as well.  HTML-Export could support OSM or
> Google-Maps to show the tracks.  We also could produce SVGs or PNGs  
> from
> the data.
>
>
>> Obviously, it requires to read in GPS data, which might be tricky  
>> to do
>> for all those different devices. Furthermore, it might need emacs- 
>> lisp
>> code as well as some external program to read-out the position of the
>> GPS module.
>
>
> On Linux, BSD and MAC OS X there is `gpsd'.  I don't know how useful
> it is --- I don't own a GPS yet.
>
> http://gpsd.berlios.de/ states:
>
>   gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPSes or AIS
>   receivers attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports,
>   making all data on the location/course/velocity of the sensors
>   available to be queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer. With
>   gpsd, multiple location-aware client applications (such as
>   navigational and wardriving software) can share access to receivers
>   without contention or loss of data. Also, gpsd responds to queries
>   with a format that is substantially easier to parse than the NMEA
>   0183 emitted by most GPSes.
>
> Is there something like it for other systems? Windows?
> I think Cell phone systems should have something ...
>
>
>
>
>> But I guess the emacs-lisp gurus here might know this much
>> better then I do. Another issue comes to my mind for mobileorg  
>> users. As
>> far as I know, mobileorg only fetches agenda views from a server but
>> does not generate them. However, this would be necessary to create  
>> this
>> kind of location aware agendas.
>>
>> Would be nice to hear other opinions. Makes this sens? Should it be  
>> part
>> of mobileorg, or rather a independent package?
>
>
> I'd make it an independent package.  Some laptops come with a built in
> GPS these days.  And your desktop might know his GEO location as well.
>
> We might have a variable `gps-home-coords' which is nice to have on  
> cell
> phones as well (would be great to have several "homes" for some  
> people -
> e.g. commuters).
>
>
> Unfortunately I don't own a GPS yet.  But I'm very interested in this
> one and surely will contribute.
>
>
>
>
> Best wishes
>
>   Sebastian
>
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> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
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Re: Does Org-mode need to be position aware?

[Greg Troxel]

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Sebastian Rose <sebastian_rose@gmx.de> writes:

> On Linux, BSD and MAC OS X there is `gpsd'.  I don't know how useful
> it is --- I don't own a GPS yet.
>
> http://gpsd.berlios.de/ states:
>
>    gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPSes or AIS
>    receivers attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports,
>    making all data on the location/course/velocity of the sensors
>    available to be queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer. With
>    gpsd, multiple location-aware client applications (such as
>    navigational and wardriving software) can share access to receivers
>    without contention or loss of data. Also, gpsd responds to queries
>    with a format that is substantially easier to parse than the NMEA
>    0183 emitted by most GPSes.
>
> Is there something like it for other systems? Windows?
> I think Cell phone systems should have something ...

(I am one of the maintainers of gpsd.)  gpsd works well; what it does is
get data from almost any gps receiver -- in that receiver's format --
and make it available in a standard format (now JSON based) with a C and
python library available.  Dealing with gpsd from emacs should be pretty
easy.

I think people have run gpsd on windows, but I don't use windows so I
don't pay attention to that.

There is also geoclue:

  http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/GeoClue

which is intended to integrate multiple location providers (including
gpsd) so that programs that want location can get it without worrying
about gps vs manual config vs wifi database vs geoip.


>> But I guess the emacs-lisp gurus here might know this much
>> better then I do. Another issue comes to my mind for mobileorg users. As
>> far as I know, mobileorg only fetches agenda views from a server but
>> does not generate them. However, this would be necessary to create this
>> kind of location aware agendas.
>>
>> Would be nice to hear other opinions. Makes this sens? Should it be part
>> of mobileorg, or rather a independent package?

Various cellphones have location support.  This is more or less like
geoclue but proprietary per platofrm (e.g.s apple's Core Location using
wifi, cell towers, gps as available).

> I'd make it an independent package.  Some laptops come with a built in
> GPS these days.  And your desktop might know his GEO location as well.

Architecturally, both org-on-real-computers and mobileorg should have a
way to hook up to a location provider.


The hard part is that lat/lon is really not what people want to think
about.  And, location services not using GPS will return locations that
are only sort of near the right answer.


So I'd suggest having the user define a set of locations as a sequence
of tuples of name, latlon and maybe radius.  This could be a GPX file
(standard interchange for GPS waypoints) perhaps plus radius.

Then, org could find the appropriate named point, and use that for
location, and most matching could be in terms of point names.


This way one could have tags for contexts, and reduce the gps use to
just autoselecting tags.  I think this might be the least mysterious and
error prone.


I edit org files on a computer that stays in one place, from many
places.  So I'd definitely need to say '(org-set-location "office")' and
not rely on automatic.

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