SeeMeRun - Real-time tracking for runners/joggers/walkers

SeeMeRun

Hi all,

My name is Ricky Jacob and I am a PhD student at NUI Maynooth, in Computer Science (http://www.cs.nuim.ie/~rjacob). I am currently developing a very early version of a "Real-time marathon tracking app" called SeeMeRun.

Yes there are many things like this out there but I wanted to see if I could develop my own software.

Some of you here might know one of my PhD supervisors - Peter Mooney who competes in a lot of road races around Ireland.

I am looking for some volunteers to test out the first release of the Application. The Great Ireland run seems like a nice place to try this out.

Who can try?

Any runner, jogger, or walker .... willing to carry an Android-based phone while on the run.

What does it do?

Allows the competitor have his/her friends and family 'track in real-time' their progress with details about, current location, pace, etc.

What's required?
Install the app on the android phone by downloading (open the link in the android phone browser) it from here: SeeMeRun App
All you need to do is just before the run, launch the app on the phone enter you bib number and click 'SeeMeRun'.

What friends&Family must do?
Open the SeeMeRun webpage and type in the bib number and click SeeMeRun. And watch the runner in real-time with location/pace/distance information.

The webpage here: SeeMeRun Webpage

As of now the web interface seems to be working well on the newer versions of firefox and chrome.

The current interface has just the route for The 10k Great Ireland Run 2012 so do share this with friends who are taking part this Sunday.

It can be tested for any run and we would be including more race routes in future and also ensure it works with full marathons and other smaller races.

Would be great to improve this webpage/app into a nice little service.

At this stage, we are yet to have the 'Predicted finish time' in place. Will be integrated soon. Need to make a prettier looking mobile interface and a flexible webinterface..

Obvious future work is have it's basic functionality available on iPhone and other phones as well. Need to also improve it so that it works well with all browsers (and browser versions).

Would like to hear your valuable thoughts and feedback about how this can be improved and what other features and functionalities should be added.

** Please note that this is absolutely non commercial and is not linked or affiliated with the Great Ireland Run in any way **

Thanks
Ricky

SeeMeRun

Android App URL: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/gir/smr.apk

drquirky

SeeMeRun wrote: »

Hi all,

My name is Ricky Jacob and I am a PhD student at NUI Maynooth, in Computer Science (http://www.cs.nuim.ie/~rjacob). I am currently developing a very early version of a "Real-time marathon tracking app" called SeeMeRun.

Yes there are many things like this out there but I wanted to see if I could develop my own software.

Some of you here might know one of my PhD supervisors - Peter Mooney who competes in a lot of road races around Ireland.

I am looking for some volunteers to test out the first release of the Application. The Great Ireland run seems like a nice place to try this out.

Who can try?

Any runner, jogger, or walker .... willing to carry an Android-based phone while on the run.

What does it do?

Allows the competitor have his/her friends and family 'track in real-time' their progress with details about, current location, pace, etc.

What's required?
Install the app on the android phone by downloading (open the link in the android phone browser) it from here: SeeMeRun App
All you need to do is just before the run, launch the app on the phone enter you bib number and click 'SeeMeRun'.

What friends&Family must do?
Open the SeeMeRun webpage and type in the bib number and click SeeMeRun. And watch the runner in real-time with location/pace/distance information.

The webpage here: SeeMeRun Webpage

As of now the web interface seems to be working well on the newer versions of firefox and chrome.

The current interface has just the route for The 10k Great Ireland Run 2012 so do share this with friends who are taking part this Sunday.

It can be tested for any run and we would be including more race routes in future and also ensure it works with full marathons and other smaller races.

Would be great to improve this webpage/app into a nice little service.

At this stage, we are yet to have the 'Predicted finish time' in place. Will be integrated soon. Need to make a prettier looking mobile interface and a flexible webinterface..

Obvious future work is have it's basic functionality available on iPhone and other phones as well. Need to also improve it so that it works well with all browsers (and browser versions).

Would like to hear your valuable thoughts and feedback about how this can be improved and what other features and functionalities should be added.

** Please note that this is absolutely non commercial and is not linked or affiliated with the Great Ireland Run in any way **

Thanks
Ricky

SeeMeRun

Android App URL: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/gir/smr.apk

Very cool. If I was running this weekend I would do this for sure! Any plans to do an iphone version?

SeeMeRun

Hi drquirky,

We are currently working on an iPhone app and also to make the interface of android app more appealing. Will keep you posted on that..

Gringo78

Don't have an android and not running the Great Ireland Run but did use a similar app for the Dublin Marathon. Couple of observations:

- I think you should have a 'privacy' option which means only those who you have given a password to can view your progress online i.e when they type in your bib number, they are prompted for a password if you have enabled privacy.

- GPS kills smartphones battery's fast - the app I used allowed you to select how often updating would occur which would save battery's - once every 30sec-60sec is sufficient to give people an idea of pace & whereabouts.

BenEadir

SeeMeRun wrote: »

To all those running this Sunday, it would be great if you could volunteer to test the SeeMeRun app.

It is a real-time tracking app with information about location/pace/distance for those running this Sunday.

Details here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056605022

Spread the word. Thanks!

Hi Ricky,

Congrats on the initiative. I use RunKeeper on my Android phone so will be using that to track my distance and time etc and for logging purposes (have an annual KM challenge I need to keep up with) but I'd be happy to try your app out.

My main question is "Will your app run at the same time at RunKeeper or can only one of them use the GPS resource on the phone at the same time?"

EDIT: I just installed the app and have two more questions/comments:-

1. Your instructions for using the app are "All you need to do is just before the run, launch the app on the phone enter you bib number and click 'SeeMeRun'." but there are two "SeeMeRun" labels on the app screen. I'm guessing one is just a logo and one is a "start" button but it's worth avoiding potential confusion for testers who want to help but will also be focused on starting their race. Some may hit the logo, see nothing happen and set off thus losing you some users.

2. What does the "Status" box do? Will it update as we progress or do we enter something into it which those people following us will see??? Confused.com!!

Ben

Dotcomdolly

I would have thought serious runners would be using a Garmin and not want to carry a phone during a race.

SeeMeRun

Gringo78 :
Agree with your views on privacy. Will have that eventually. But as of now it will work with any number, so even if you type in your bib number with a few extra numbers while logging using the mobile, it will work fine.
Friends and family need to use the same number while trying to track you.

So say the bib num is 1234, and on your phone you try logging using the number 1234552 or 4322211.
So bib number was just for convenience, even if the runner enters any number upto 9 digits it should work fine if friends and family use the same number.

So here we are assuming no two people will think of the same combination of numbers.
In order to scale the app this obviously has to change to a password with characters and numbers.

Battery usage is a very important We will include the option of the runner choosing how often he/she wants to transmit that information.

Thanks for your feedback, will definitely try and integrate these asap.

SeeMeRun

Dotcomdolly:
You are right there. It is tough to have people completely interested in the idea of having to carry a phone while running.

But I wish to believe that atleast once in few races, runners would be interested in knowing that a little away from all the action there are friends & family cheering you on.
While some of the runners could be on TV and photographs taken, here it gives opportunity for friends to see you in action as it happens.

I know it is tough to think of an audience watching running on a desktop web browser.

The idea is to extend this to some sort of a running commentary if one chooses to have that option which provides scrolling text of the run as it happens. And all this will be auto-generated.

Something on these lines:

on RTE

on BBC

SeeMeRun

BenThere

Thanks Ben for those words. Would be absolutely great to have you test the app..

Some apps have been developed where after opening the app, if you hit the home button or open other apps, it 'might' quit.

As far as I know the current (crude) version of SeeMeRun can be opened and after you hit SeeMeRun, you can go back to launch other apps and it should still run.. We haven't really tested by trying to run RunKeeper along with SeeMeRun.. But as far as I can tell (fingers crossed) it should both run just fine alongside each other.

However, would be absolutely brilliant if you could try and test it before Sunday and let us know what you notice while running the apps together..

Although the page is currently prepared for the Great Ireland Run, even if I use this app now with some random number (ideally 9 digits or less) and run in Maynooth, it should still work fine, it would only be missing a route map in the background.. The app and webpage should still work fine anywhere..

With regards to the icon and the button, I should have thought about it before. Guess it actually is confusing now that you mentioned.

Will try to change and update the app in the link I have put the app.

Status box (should have used a better name/way to represent that):
It would ideally display one of the 2 messages:
1) 'Enter a bib number' (This is if you click SeeMeRun without entering any number)
2) 'Logging Run' (This is after you have entered the number and clicked SeeMeRun, thus assuring the runner that he/she is now connected and so people will now be ale to watch them on the webpage)

Location information will be exact (unless mobile network coverage is lost in certain parts of the route).
It starts to calculate time taken from the moment the app is launched and pace from that.

In future development work, will need to think of ways where it starts to track and provide stats only once after 5 mins after launching the app. Thus giving runners ample time and thus the calculations are close to being accurate.

Would that be the way to go or do we have other suggestions?

Thanks again Ben. And I hope I have managed to clear some of the confusion there.

BenEadir

No worries Ricky, if the app was finished and polished you wouldn't be looking for testers

Sometimes you need a few numskulls like me to point out issues which don't even appear to be issues to clever clogs like yourself

I won't have a chance to run both apps concurrently before Sunday but I will try to load both for the race.

I'll PM you my bib number so you can see if it's tracking correctly yourself if you like?

BTW I'm personally not worried about privacy before anyone jumps on here looking out for me. The more people who see me moving along the route the better. If Ricky see's me stopped half way up the hill around the 8.5KM mark and I haven't moved for 5 minutes it's not the app which is malfunctioning it's me so send an ambulance with oxygen asap

Ben

SeeMeRun

Thanks for that.

Do PM me your bib number (or the number you decide to enter in the app if different) and I would be more than happy to see it for myself in real-time. Could download and send you the file too if need be.

Regarding the stopping of tracking. Infact during the 1st ever trial (32marathon, Kildare) of this app at a race we had a similar problem of lack of network coverage for a small section of the route. And the runner's family emailed to check if the runner had stopped. Genuine concerns there. And at that point I wasn't sure what happened as we overlooked the network coverage part and expected it to be available at all times.

It is only after a few minutes we see it is back to working properly. A quick look then at the database and we saw that we hadn't received any data for that stretch of the route. Was the same for that stretch for each of the 4 laps of the route.

So another one of those things we would like to integrate is keeping the audience in sync with what is the current status (with some level of accuracy) of the runner. If we are getting data from the phone with same location, then it is a case of runner stopping (could be a water station/toilet) and if it is a case of no data, either no network coverage/phone switched off/app crashed.

eoinín

Dotcomdolly wrote: »

I would have thought serious runners would be using a Garmin and not want to carry a phone during a race.

Good grief. I must have missed the part where he was only asking for "serious" runners to volunteer.:)

SeeMeRun

As of now I guess 2-3 have confirmed using this tomorrow.. Having about 10 would have been cool...

Kildare Run is next in the list of runs along with Samsung Night Run..

BenEadir

Hi Ricky,

Hope you got some data from my app today. I turned it on around 1pm in advance of warming up etc. My wife and kids were at the race so my wife logged into the tracking website via her Blackberry and she was able to enter my bib number fine. As soon as she did it confirmed I was "logging run" or something similar.

I kept the app on during the race (along with RunKeeper and my music player) and at the end I stopped it.

Although my wife could see my position on her Blackberry browser at the start of the race she it seemed to stop tracking me pretty much straight away.

I hope that was of some use to you?

I might sign up for the Samsung night 10km in a couple of weeks and if I do I'll give the app another lash then if you want.

Keep up the good work, it definitely has potential.

Ben

SeeMeRun

Hey Ben,

Really appreciate you doing that I was at the race hoping to get a feel for the race atmosphere, turned on the browser on the phone and it was exciting to see. But like you said, it stopped as quickly as it started.

It has only logged data for 2 mins (almost one value inserted per second and lots of data where it is the same value for lat/long).

Is it that this app was taking up too much alongside RunKeeper? So I might have to work on how often do we want an update of location (once per minute may be?).. I remember when we initially tested this app my colleague ran the full marathon and it worked fine for the entire run logging about a position per second.

I don't have the answer now as I myself am trying to think of the reason.. Time to get back to the drawing board.. Will hope to improve the code and try to figure out what the reason could be..

And would be great if you try it during the Samsung Night Run if you are taking part.. Will prepare a route-map and have the page ready for use..

Hope the app behaves this time..

Some pics here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.196678087115338.43072.189419051174575&type=3

BenEadir

Ricky,

I just signed up for the Samsung Night run so will give it another go then. My wife and kids will stay home this time and can track me on the home PC which has a Chrome browser if that makes any difference.

Ben

SeeMeRun

That would be great.
It should work fine on chrome. It did so when we tested here.
With regards to running the app for Samsung Night Run:
Do you think you will be running other apps (RunKeeper) too alongside this time? Still trying to figure out why it stopped sending data from your phone after little over 2 mins.

Will send you the link of the webpage for the Samsung Night Run. App, the same should work fine unless we make some changes to it. Will keep you updated.

BenEadir

Hi Ricky,

If I remember correctly I started the SeeMeRun app about 20 minutes before I started the RunKeeper app so if it stopped working within 2 minutes then I don't think the cause will be the RunKeeper app also running.

I will be using the RunKeeper app in the Samsung Night race also (I have to track my cumulative runs to reach an annual goal I have set) so am happy to give it another lash and this time I'll make sure to start SeeMeRun well ahead of RunKeeper and take note of the time I start each so you can see if one impacts the other.

Ben

SeeMeRun

Thanks for having a go at it again. I hope it did not cos any problems for RunKeeper and you were able to get that properly logged..

I was just checking again.. It was first turned on at 13:04 received location twice and then again the timestamp shows received location updates till 13:07..

I will test it here again and try to check as to why this happened..

BenEadir

I'd guess that 13.07 would still have been before I turned on RunKeeper but I'm not sure. Had kids hanging out of me as I was trying to warm up and decide whether or not to wear an extra layer during the race as it was pretty cold and looked like it was going to lash rain in a few minutes.

Ben

SeeMeRun

Managed to integrate Street View images to the run tracking. So it gives a fairly close representation of what the runner is seeing. So as the runner goes around, if it is a place where there is street view imagery, then it will keep changing based on the runner's position. Giving a feel of what the runner is seeing.

Here is a screenshot taken by my friend sitting in India.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=199611176822029&set=a.194663077316839.42540.189419051174575&type=3

SeeMeRun

Update about SeeMeRun.

Runners carrying an android phone during the run, download the SeeMeRun app here: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/gir/smr.apk

Install the app - turn on GPS, connect to internet for it to work.

During the run, open the app, type in the bib number and click 'SeeMeRun'. Wait till you see the message on the status say - 'Logging Run'.

You can now turn on music, or open other apps and then start running.. :-)

Meanwhile friends and family, open one of the following webpage (latest version of firefox/chrome) and type in the runner's bib number and click 'SeeMeRun'.

No StreetView: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/smr/snr/

With StreetView: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/smr/snrg

With StreetView Images: http://postgis.cs.nuim.ie/smr/snrg/index1.html

This is how it would look for the viewer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0JOTXPdk_4

All those running, Share this information with your friends and family.. Friends and family of those running the Samsung Mobile Ireland can use one of the three links.. Good Luck to all those running..