8Motions blog

Here is a project that I wanted to introduce to you: OpenCellID.The purpose of this project is to create an OpenSource database of GSM cells.

Why? Because this can be used as a “cheap” way to get your location. There is not a lot of phones that provides this access to JavaMe application (mostly SonyEricsson), but this may change in the near future.
The idea is do it in a transparent way for end user, thanks to 8Motions or other applications. This is not a new idea, as Google probably made the same for his GoogleMap mobile application. The only issue, is that the application needs to access to two informations:

• the cellID
• the GPS position

and for now, no handset provides this. N95 for instance, haves a GPS but does not provide CellID information in JavaME. Latest SonyEricsson phone, provides CellID, but not GPS position. I think that new GPS enabled handsets will provide both, but for new you need to use a SonyEricsson phone and an external bluetooth receiver….

You can check the result of collected data on the OpenCellID.org web site….

There were other initiatives like this, but the idea is to provide the Datas as an OpenSource information. The code of the project is hosted on Google Code.

Identificateurs Technorati : cellid, mobile, opencellid, gsm, towers