GPS reliability

[vexhold]

I am designing an app and have a quick question.

There are apps out there that track movements of people and vehicles.

Do these apps rely on maps of roads and trails to determine the location, or are the GPS locations precise enough to put the user at that exact location.

Here is a scenerio similar to what I want to do.

Let's say I have a bunch of kids playing a game of tag in a city park (roughly a city block in size). Each one has a phone in their pockets. I want to gather data from each child on their exact movements during the game. I could then import all the data and watch all the children as the game progressed on the computer.

Example data for a single user would look like the picture below.

So will the GPS in a typical android phone be able to give me these results, and if so, how acurate would they be?

 

[Reghero]

I am designing an app and have a quick question.

There are apps out there that track movements of people and vehicles.

Do these apps rely on maps of roads and trails to determine the location, or are the GPS locations precise enough to put the user at that exact location.

Here is a scenerio similar to what I want to do.

Let's say I have a bunch of kids playing a game of tag in a city park (roughly a city block in size). Each one has a phone in their pockets. I want to gather data from each child on their exact movements during the game. I could then import all the data and watch all the children as the game progressed on the computer.

Example data for a single user would look like the picture below.

So will the GPS in a typical android phone be able to give me these results, and if so, how acurate would they be?

Best to take a look at MyTracks, when I was out cycling it was accurate to within 1 or 2 meters through fields and the likes.

 

[chanchan05]

How accurate you can be depends on the accuracy of the GPS radio, which differs from phone to phone, and the accuracy of the data you get from AGPS. When you have maps and you are in drive mode, the app simply assumes you are on the road and will snap your location to the nearest road on the position it gets for you.