Search code examples
androidgpsgoogle-earthnmea

How to view realtime NMEA data in Google Earth?


I am using my HTC Desire to send NMEA - $GPRMC data to my Laptop(server)! A file named gpsdata.nmea gets created in the server and is getting updated every second with new data. I can view my path if I open the file in Google Earth! However I want to view my path dynamically as it changes.....in Google Earth!!! Is this possible? Or are there any other software that allows this?? Please help me!


Solution

  • Google Earth 6 has a menu option, Tools > GPS that calls up a GPS Import dialog. Go to the Realtime tab - you can check the NMEA radio box and select a polling interval (how often the track is updated). Google Earth then scans your computer serial ports looking for a GPS device that is attached and sending NMEA on that port.

    Of course if your HTC is uploading a file to a server you now have a new project, namely how to stream that file (or rather the updates to the file) over the serial port that Google Earth reads. And that's a new problem all in itself. Google for "sending file over serial port" to get started.

    Here is a link to a project that might be adaptable for this: http://home.hiwaay.net/~taylorc/gps/nmea-server/

    However, you may find that Google Earth is the wrong application, and that Google Latitude actually does what you want. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Latitude for more details.