Option to wait for stabilization before recording

[Cigaes]

Description

I would appreciate an option to wait for the GPS position to stabilize before starting the recording. Maybe a button to start tracking and displaying the accuracy, including vertical, and a second button to start recording.

I have taken the habit of starting GPS Test in parallel with OSMTracker and to wait until the accuracy is below 10 m to start recording, but, as can be seen in the attached screenshot of the same itinerary, the elevation is still wonky.

Use Cases

I would use this when I am not in a hurry to start recording, in order to have traces accurate from the start. Otherwise, application will give a wrong estimation of the distance and total elevation.

Benefits

It would make traces more accurate from the start.

Thanks in advance.

Alternatives

No response

Example (optional)

No response

Submission Checklist

• I have verified that this feature hasn't been requested previously.
• I have provided sufficient information to understand my proposal.
• I am willing to provide additional information if necessary.

[miltonials]

Hello @Cigaes ! Thanks for your report. 😁

There are a few questions regarding this matter. If we wait for stabilization before recording, what should we do if accuracy decreases during the recording? Should we stop the recording, show an alert message or do nothing?

I think we can develop something to improve the accuracy at the start (i.e. wait for more satellites), but during the recording I'm not sure what we could do.

@Andyporras @FR3DD221 @Kevin-Salazar-itcr do you have anything in mind?

[Kevin-Salazar-itcr]

Hi @Cigaes @miltonials, hope you're doing well!

Regarding the last comment, I agree that we need to address what to do during recordings when there’s a lack of accuracy. As mentioned, at the beginning of any recording, it's true that accuracy may be poor — once I had a 20 m inaccuracy at the start, which later stabilized to 2–3 m.
I’m okay with the idea of waiting for stabilization, but it's necessary to define what should happen during recordings if inaccuracy occurs.

So first of all, we need to know whether more users actually require that level of accuracy (waiting until the satellites stabilize before recording), or if they prefer to start recording as soon as possible. Once we clarify that, we can think about how to handle the “during recording” case.

[Cigaes]

After giving some thought, I think it could work like that:

• a numeric option “min accuracy”
• a boolean option “wait for altitude”
• a numeric option “notification delay”

With the following behavior:

• If the GPS accuracy is worse than the “min accuracy” option, then the point is not logged.
• If the horizontal accuracy is good enough but not the vertical accuracy, then the point is logged without the altitude.
• If the “wait for altitude” option is set, points without altitude accurate enough are only logged if a point with a valid altitude was already logged.
• If points are not being logged, the UI shows it, with an indication of the current horizontal and vertical accuracy, how much time has elapsed since the last valid log and a button to restart logging anyway.
• If more than “notification delay” times passes without logging a point, a notification is emitted.

With this, I get the use case I have: I check “wait for altitude” and the recording only starts when the accuracy is good enough. And I think the behavior during the recording is good too: wobbly points will not ruin the recording, but the user can force the recording to continue if it stays wobbly.

Smarter behaviors would be conceivable, but I suspect the UI and documentation for them would be too complex to be worth it.

Thanks.

--
Nicolas George