[SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

Brainstorm link




It would be very useful to have a setup which allows your profiles to change automatically based on your location. Obviously this isn't practical by using GPS because that'll suck the battery dry, but since most people will have wifi on permanently, it might be possible to use that instead.


Additionally, it would be pretty swish to have the device automatically open and close applications based on these profiles. Other changes could include ringtone/vibrate, power settings, gps on/off, bluetooth on/off, etc.


Simply, the device could be set to activate profile A (vibrate, calendar, calculator, VNC, bluetooth, etc) when connected to, say, work_wifi_network_abc, and then deactivate when it is no longer connected.



The device may then activate Profile B (ringtones, bluetooth, music, etc) when connected to home_wifi network.

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

As far as I know, based on my rudimentary understanding of how code works (no really, compared to most of you here I'm a total luddite), it should be possible to add some sort of hook/extension to the wifi connection code, which simply feeds the network name or mac address into a profile/app launching system. Once in there it should be a simple read-config, do-instructions procedure.

Right? :)

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

Why do you need to found are you lost or afraid?????????

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

Have a look at the Android 'Locale' app to see the sort of thing you could do. That uses cell tower, wifi and GPS to determine location, but only to the accuracy it needs so if you are nowhere near one of your locations it doesn't need to bother with wifi or GPS. It can also trigger on a combination of other conditions like time of day or battery level.

Locale also does rather more than switching profiles: it has a plugin structure so actions can include things like sending tweets or running an arbitrary Python script.

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

I was thinking about something like this, also triggering off things like what Bluetooth devices it was connected to etc. as well. Thanks for the mention of "Locale" I'd not seen that before, it's exactly the type of thing I'd love to have. I wonder how they get the info about cell towers...

Answering my own question... Here is some code for getting location info based on cell tower info on android:

http://www.anddev.org/poor_mans_gps_...okup-t257.html

Need to have a look at the maemo API.... liblocation returns cell tower info, but I'm not 100% sure if the GPS needs to be turned on for that to work.

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

I think this is a problem that Shepherd (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31524) could solve.

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

Ooo, I was JUST about to add Shepherd as a solution but luckily checked here first... thanks to Brainstorm being *excruciatingly* slow... Do you want to add it Pelago?

Btw, there are two very similar brainstorms to which I've previously added Shepherd as a solution. One was about changing profiles based on calendar events, the other about changes based on location iirc. Can't look for them right now since Brainstorm is ... you said it ... SLOOOOOoooow.


EDIT_ These are the other two brainstorms. Especially the second one is very similar to yours, code177

http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...nges_im_status

http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...ttings_changes

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

While I'm at it, welcome to the forum dtrouton and THE GENERAL!

dtrouton: Your bluetooth idea in particular might be worth mentioning in the thread pelago linked to.

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

I've added a few Brainstorm ideas and comments in the past, but it's now too slow for me to be bothered. Roll on the December server upgrade!

Re: [SANDBOX] Wifi-based Proximity Profiles
 

Thanks nymajoak, for the welcome and the suggestion. I've added a reply to the shepherd thread.