Add Course/Bearing and Speed to the Location Class

[mjorrens]

Can you guys add Course/Bearing and Speed as properties to the Location Class?

Android returns Bearing (direction the device is moving) and speed.

iOS returns Course (direction the device is moving) and speed.

Course is the same as Bearing.

Note that compass returns where the device is facing, not the direction in which the device is moving. Looks like you have that one covered.

Thanks!

EDIT: API Proposal

API Proposal

Add:

public class Location
{
        public double? Speed { get; set; }
        public double? Bearing { get; set; }
}

Both Speed and Bearing should be null if they are unavailable for a given set of location data on a platform.

[Redth]

Some further research. It does seem iOS, Android, and UWP all follow degrees based on north (though iOS and Android aren't specific if it's true north, let's assume it does).

UWP

Nullable<double> Heading - degrees relative to true north

Null value indicates no heading available

Android

double Bearing Get the bearing, in degrees.

Bearing is the horizontal direction of travel of this device, and is not related to the device orientation. It is guaranteed to be in the range (0.0, 360.0] if the device has a bearing.

0.0 value indicates no heading available (presumably 0.0 is practically impossible to return, and something more like 0.0001 is more likely to be returned for a value existing close to north)

iOS

double Course

Course values are measured in degrees starting at due north and continue clockwise around the compass. Thus, north is 0 degrees, east is 90 degrees, south is 180 degrees, and so on. Course values may not be available on all devices. A negative value indicates that the course information is invalid.

< 0 value indicates no heading available

[Redth]

Some research about speed:

UWP

Nullable<double> Speed The speed in meters per second.

Null value indicates no heading available.

Android

double Speed Get the speed if it is available, in meters/second over ground.

0.0 value indicates no speed is available (presumably 0.0 is not likely to be possible, more like 0.00001 for a valid available speed that is close to 0)

iOS

double Speed - The instantaneous speed of the device, measured in meters per second.

< 0 value indicates no speed is available

[DanielCauser]

Issue number 400!

[Mrnikbobjeff]

I implemented everything in this branch here. I tested it on android, it worked there. I do not own a uwp device though, so I will not be able to check whether my changes work there. iOS will also take time to test as I don't always have a iOS device available. The changes were pretty straightforward though because of all the work @Redth put in. I will create a pr as soon as I am able to test it on iOS.

[Redth]

👍 Please make a PR and we will merge it into a local branch and fill out the UWP bits :)

[jamesmontemagno]

I would say that we can document that these are pretty inaccurate and I get tons of complains on my Geolocator plugin, but I think docs will help.

[Mrnikbobjeff]

@Redth done:)

[mjorrens]

I have actually had good success with James' Geolocator plugin on Android (tested on a Galaxy Note 2) and iOS (tested on an iPhone 6S) with accuracy (walking and driving). There are a bunch of settings to get right though on each platform to increase accuracy and frequency of updates.

[jamesmontemagno]

Should it be called Bearing? Course? Heading? Probably Heading....

[Redth]

For some reason I thought UWP called it bearing as well.. They all call it something different. Now that I see that, I do think Heading is probably best.