Have you ever wondered: “where’s the nearest place can I get a drink?” N900 users, look no further! Although as yet unfinished, BeerTracker aims to solve this debacle by providing a quick and feature-frugal map to your closest pubs in the style of the Aliens motion tracker.
BeerTracker on the N900
BeerTracker is being developed in C++ with OpenGL ES 2.0 and GLSL, which has been something of a learning curve for me. This has, however, improved my understanding of matrix and vector algebra to no end, as well as learning quite a bit about the OpenGL pipeline. The original concept for BeerTracker was to use the Maemo liblocation API (i.e., GPS and network positioning) in harmony with data from a Google Maps search. I’m currently implementing the GPS positioning code, but the source for the pubs’ locations might need a rethink as Google seem only to be exposing the API to web applications. For now, I’m planning to use pre-defined latitude and longitudes as a proof-of-concept.
Watch this space.
Tags: C++, GLSL, Maemo 5, N900, OpenGL ES 2