New Feature Ideas

[kylecorry31]

This is a continuation of #59, since that was getting too long.

Please feel free to post new feature ideas in the comments on this issue. I would love to have some other thoughts about what should be included in this app (no guarantee that I will include them, but I will consider each idea). No idea is a bad idea here, worse case I may say that I will not include it in Trail Sense (but who knows, if it is a really good idea, I or someone else may work with you to build it into a separate app). I should also mention, that I am not averse to the idea of having separate companion apps to Trail Sense with specific niches if a good feature does not meet the goal of Trail Sense.

Some set in stone goals of this app:

• Trail Sense must not use the Internet in any way, as I want the entire app usable when there is no Internet connection
• New features must provide some benefits to people using the app while hiking, in a survival situation, etc.
• New features should make use of the sensors on a phone rather than relying on stored information such as guides
• New features must be based on peer-reviewed science

For reference, some things I have considered in the past and removed were:

• "Survival blueprints" (recipes for making items while in survival situations)
  • There are a lot of other resources out there and it is best presented in a book format
• Survival guide
  • There are a lot of other resources out there, including this awesome app
• Animal behavior
  • I can't say there is enough science / supporting evidence behind Solunar theory for me to make accurate predictions of animal behavior in general, though if someone provides strong evidence I will consider it
• Heart rate sensor
  • I don't want Trail Sense to move into the medical sector, there are increased regulations on that in Google Play and not something I'm willing to provide support for.

[ojppe]

A good feature would be a sound level meter
Something like the metal detector layout looks perfect for this.
Check out OpenNoise on the Play Store and on Github

[kylecorry31]

@ojppe thank you for the suggestion. Can you suggest some use cases for a sound level meter that fit within Trail Sense's use cases?

I believe someone had suggested that in the past, and at the time I couldn't find any use cases (I can't seem to find the conversation around that - might have been through email or is lost in the old "New Feature Ideas" issue).

[ojppe]

Determine the loudness of things in the environment (thunderstorm, volcano, waterfall, generator, aircraft, train, music, gunfire) to protect hearing

[kylecorry31]

@ojppe while I think that would be a useful app, I don't think that will fit within Trail Sense's use cases

[ojppe]

I don't see why not, Trail Sense has become my digital swiss army knife and a sound and speed meter are the only things missing (I can think of) that use most phones' sensors. But you know best!

[kylecorry31]

@ojppe I apologize, I should have stated my reasons more clearly. I know a lot of the tools in Trail Sense can be used outside of hiking, but I'm trying to limit the scope of what I include in the app to keep it pretty focused. There's general criteria for new features in the first comment of this issue and the use cases wiki, but here's the specifics for a decibel meter:

1. I don't believe hearing protection falls into the supported use cases of Trail Sense: hiking, camping, backpacking, and geocaching. I believe a decibel meter would fit much better into a health, concert, or safety regulation app. The cases where this might come into play while hiking are very rare, and most people who find themselves in this situation will likely not have hearing protection with them.
2. I don't think this tool would get much use in the hiking space, but it would be time consuming to develop and support.
3. The microphone permission is not something I want to add at this point unless there's a feature which will provide a clear benefit in the hiking space for the majority of users.

If there's something that can be predicted / identified using sound that is beneficial while hiking, I could add this in with that (more of an indicator that it is picking up audio), but as of right now I don't know of anything that falls into this case other than #1143

As for the speed meter, the speed is shown on the Navigation tool in Trail Sense (GPS by default), and also available on the Pedometer tool (based on steps).

[ojppe]

Thank you for the clarification

[Wumbo-11]

I have an idea for a "pairing" feature on this app, it may sound unappealing but it's something you might want to consider for later.

I'm thinking of this feature as being able to allow Trail Sense app users (2 or more people) to pair their coordinates or maybe a 'special location code' via gps that can be monitored offline. (You know, maybe it's like a bluetooth pairing between connected cell phones and being able to share each device's camera).

It's just that this uses a gps code base that is specifically used in the use of this application only, maybe it could be by scanning a special barcode or giving a special mark in this application. (hope you can understand what I mean)

Well, your app is very useful so far, I will always wait for future updates.

[kylecorry31]

I have an idea for a "pairing" feature on this app, it may sound unappealing but it's something you might want to consider for later.

I'm thinking of this feature as being able to allow Trail Sense app users (2 or more people) to pair their coordinates or maybe a 'special location code' via gps that can be monitored offline. (You know, maybe it's like a bluetooth pairing between connected cell phones and being able to share each device's camera).

It's just that this uses a gps code base that is specifically used in the use of this application only, maybe it could be by scanning a special barcode or giving a special mark in this application. (hope you can understand what I mean)

Well, your app is very useful so far, I will always wait for future updates.

Thank you for the suggestion. I do have a similar feature planned as part of the Trail Sense Comms plugin - no timeline yet for that though. I hope to do some experimentation on the plugins in 2024, because I think they would be pretty cool and open a lot of possibilities. #1540

[Saijin-Naib]

I would love to see other tools have Android Quick Action tiles alongside Pedometer and TrackBack, like Flashlight, screen flashlight, whistle, etc.

[kylecorry31]

I would love to see other tools have Android Quick Action tiles alongside Pedometer and TrackBack, like Flashlight, screen flashlight, whistle, etc.

Thank you for the suggestion, I will get more added. Here's an issue to track them: #2120

[LeftyDextrous]

Hi Kyle,

It would be nice to have an automatic "night-light" timer, where the app theme changes from the user-selected default, which used during the daytime, to the Night theme after sundown.

This would be useful in situations where you don't want your phone to automatically brighten when you check it during the night, both to preserve your night vision (in an astronomy context) and to avoid spooking animals if you're hunting. Hopefully this should be easy to implement given that Trail Sense automatically determines sundown times anyway.

Thanks for the app,
Lefty

EDIT: I realize now there is a Sunrise/Sundown function. However, I still would like to be able to customize the specific theme to be used during the day and night. Apologies if this FR is redundant.

[kylecorry31]

Hi Kyle,

It would be nice to have an automatic "night-light" timer, where the app theme changes from the user-selected default, which used during the daytime, to the Night theme after sundown.

This would be useful in situations where you don't want your phone to automatically brighten when you check it during the night, both to preserve your night vision (in an astronomy context) and to avoid spooking animals if you're hunting. Hopefully this should be easy to implement given that Trail Sense automatically determines sundown times anyway.

Thanks for the app, Lefty

EDIT: I realize now there is a Sunrise/Sundown function. However, I still would like to be able to customize the specific theme to be used during the day and night. Apologies if this FR is redundant.

Thank you for the suggestion! I created the following issue to track that feature: #2192 (it is not redundant and would be cool is Trail Sense let you choose which theme to use during the day and night)

[Saijin-Naib]

I would love a way to refine calibration on PhotoMaps after initial calibration.

Say we are navigating on the PhotoMap and notice our location is off from the map, we could enter a refine mode where we drag/drop our current position marker to the right spot and the projection gets transformed to better fit.

[kylecorry31]

@Saijin-Naib thank you for the suggestions

1. Have you tried the "Open Photo Map" quick action? I've been trying to prefer quick actions over additional UI elements since they are more customizable.
2. Would this be different from the ability to recalibrate a photo map (menu > calibrate)? Unfortunately, photo maps only supports 2 calibration points, so if you are looking to have a non-linear warping, then I'm afraid I may not be able to support that

[Saijin-Naib]

Hi!

1. Yes, I have it on the bottom, but I need to drill down to the map(s) each time through my organization structure (Country/State/County/Town/Park/Maps) and find the map. I have 36 maps currently, adding more each week.

2. Hmm... in that case, I guess it must not be different if we are only able to do two-point...

[kylecorry31]

Hi!

1. Yes, I have it on the bottom, but I need to drill down to the map(s) each time through my organization structure (Country/State/County/Town/Park/Maps) and find the map. I have 36 maps currently, adding more each week.
2. Hmm... in that case, I guess it must not be different if we are only able to do two-point...

Just to confirm, there are two photo maps quick actions - one to open the photo maps quick action tool (Tool: Photo Maps), and another to open the active map (Open Photo Map), which factors in your current location and the destination beacon. Can you confirm you are using the "Open Photo Map" variant of the quick action?

(https://kylecorry.com/Trail-Sense/guide?id=tool_photo_maps - Quick Action section)

[Saijin-Naib]

Ah, no, I am using the bottom navigation area to switch between compass and photo map:

[kylecorry31]

Ah, no, I am using the bottom navigation area to switch between compass and photo map:

In that case, my suggestion is to use the "Open Photo Map" quick action to open the active map. You can enable this in Settings > Tools > Quick actions, and when you long press the bottom navigation bar you will see the quick action there.

Are you looking for a button on the Photo Maps tool to open the active map in addition to that quick action?

[Saijin-Naib]

Hmm, that could be very useful, or perhaps also with a UI marker on the photo maps lists (breadcrumb/dot) to show what folders/maps are currently where you are?

[kylecorry31]

Hmm, that could be very useful, or perhaps also with a UI marker on the photo maps lists (breadcrumb/dot) to show what folders/maps are currently where you are?

Thanks, that is a good idea:

• Folder breadcrumbs #2488
• Add active map button to photo maps tool #2489

[VasilisKos]

There's a nice feature in an open source app called "Sundroid". It's called "tracker" and it actually displays the sun and moon tracks on the compass. It's very useful, and I guess not hard to implement, since it's open source:
https://github.com/davemorrissey/sundroid
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.sundroid.free

[leavenode]

Barometer calibration is a welcome new feature in the latest release. Thank you for that. All my phones are now calibrated to my local METER station, and it will be easier to determine which sensors on which phones are the most stable. Previously they were all giving wildly disparate readings. Only my S8 was reading close to the true pressure.

As far as comms go, how practical would it be to encode morse code using the flash, and perhaps read it from a distance with the camera? How about an integrated morse code trainer?

A widget that links directly to the SOS beacon might be useful if one become incapacitated.

And how about a barograph widget for the homescreen?

[michaelblyons]

As far as comms go, how practical would it be to encode morse code using the flash, and perhaps read it from a distance with the camera? How about an integrated morse code trainer?

See #1612

[kylecorry31]

Barometer calibration is a welcome new feature in the latest release. Thank you for that. All my phones are now calibrated to my local METER station, and it will be easier to determine which sensors on which phones are the most stable. Previously they were all giving wildly disparate readings. Only my S8 was reading close to the true pressure.

As far as comms go, how practical would it be to encode morse code using the flash, and perhaps read it from a distance with the camera? How about an integrated morse code trainer?

A widget that links directly to the SOS beacon might be useful if one become incapacitated.

And how about a barograph widget for the homescreen?

Thank you for the suggestions - as @michaelblyons mentioned, that issue should cover morse code with the flash. I'm not sure about including a morse code trainer - I think that may be out of scope for Trail Sense (but could make a good recommended app, if you have any in mind)

For the SOS widget:

• SOS quick actions #2499
• Widgets #347 (updated to include SOS)

For the barograph widget:

• Widgets #347 (will include a snapshot of the weather from TS)

[kylecorry31]

There's a nice feature in an open source app called "Sundroid". It's called "tracker" and it actually displays the sun and moon tracks on the compass. It's very useful, and I guess not hard to implement, since it's open source: https://github.com/davemorrissey/sundroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.sundroid.free

Thank you, I believe that this ticket will address that: #1920

Also, a similar feature is available in the Augmented Reality tool

[leavenode]

An option to use "lunitidal interval" to set up the tide tables. Many of the simpler Casio tide watches use this method. Various values can be found online, for example this page from the UK

https://ntslf.org/about-tides/tide-clocks-watches

[leavenode]

Is there any way to use the accelerometer to detect if the device is dropped? It could sound an alert, or flash a light to aid recovery.

[kylecorry31]

@leavenode thank you for the suggestions, here are some issues to track them:

• Lunitidal Intervals #2510
• Device dropped alert #2511

[MaxMyzer]

It would be cool if you could import OpenStreetMaps data for photo maps (though not as much of a photo) - if you export a PDF from OSM and import it to TrailSense, it gets compressed too much sometimes ..

[kylecorry31]

It would be cool if you could import OpenStreetMaps data for photo maps (though not as much of a photo) - if you export a PDF from OSM and import it to TrailSense, it gets compressed too much sometimes ..

Thank you for the suggestion, I am planning on eventually adding OSM tile support: #604

[Craftefix]

add a small side panel for galaxy users,not shure if trailsense needs to be distributed through galaxy store to make it work tho

[kylecorry31]

add a small side panel for galaxy users,not shure if trailsense needs to be distributed through galaxy store to make it work tho

Thank you for the suggestion, just to confirm, is that the feature on Samsung phones where you can open on the right side of the screen from anywhere? This:

[jarekt]

feature request: allow calibrating the map with multiple known locations/beacons weighted by the given location's uncertainty/accuracy. I believe this could be done using least squares or something similar.

[kylecorry31]

feature request: allow calibrating the map with multiple known locations/beacons weighted by the given location's uncertainty/accuracy. I believe this could be done using least squares or something similar.

Thank you for the suggestion. I thought I had an issue logged for that, but I couldn't find it so I created #2534 to track it (if I do find it, I'll update this comment and delete the new issue)

[jm355]

Apologies if these have been requested, I didn't see them when I searched (except survival guide, which I see you mentioned but I wanted to chime in my support for including it in this app as well)

• Wim hof breathing guide. I think this would be useful for someone in extreme cold, the wim hof breathing method has great results for helping people manage cold and I think having functionality in the app to take you through each step/stage of the method is really helpful. An example is https://inner-breeze.app/. More research is needed, but there are reports of the technique being useful for reducing acute mountain sickness https://www.healthline.com/health/wim-hof-method
• Mushroom ID (with many warnings to only eat mushrooms you're certain of the identity of!), for example shroomify. It has a simple id set up where you can select different traits of the mushroom you have, and it will give you a list of mushrooms it might be, as well as warn of dangerous lookalikes. I can understand why you wouldn't want to include this due to the risk of poisonous mushrooms though.
• todo list, with the ability to set a time to remind you of a list or list item
• Survival guide such as the guide you linked to. I think this would be important to include in trail sense because people may not know about those apps/resources, but if they find themself in a survival situation without internet, they won't be able to look up those guides or download them. This could be solved by adding a warning to the app description to tell people to go download those too, but I think the best solution would be to simply include it in trail sense. Alternatives already exist for many of the tools included in trailsense, but they are still included anyways since they're so useful for survival/hiking situations (e.g. flashlight, pedometer, photo maps, level, clinometer, clock, timer, notes, packing lists, unit converter, and white noise), so I think it would make sense to include some guides as well. I think this justification also applies to the wim hof breathing tool and mushroom id ideas, yes there are other apps for those things but people may not know about them or think they don't need them.

Thanks for your time, consideration, and the great app!

[damianofalcioni]

Apologies if these have been requested, I didn't see them when I searched (except survival guide, which I see you mentioned but I wanted to chime in my support for including it in this app as well)

• Wim hof breathing guide. I think this would be useful for someone in extreme cold, the wim hof breathing method has great results for helping people manage cold and I think having functionality in the app to take you through each step/stage of the method is really helpful. An example is https://inner-breeze.app/. More research is needed, but there are reports of the technique being useful for reducing acute mountain sickness https://www.healthline.com/health/wim-hof-method
• Mushroom ID (with many warnings to only eat mushrooms you're certain of the identity of!), for example shroomify. It has a simple id set up where you can select different traits of the mushroom you have, and it will give you a list of mushrooms it might be, as well as warn of dangerous lookalikes. I can understand why you wouldn't want to include this due to the risk of poisonous mushrooms though.
• todo list, with the ability to set a time to remind you of a list or list item
• Survival guide such as the guide you linked to. I think this would be important to include in trail sense because people may not know about those apps/resources, but if they find themself in a survival situation without internet, they won't be able to look up those guides or download them. This could be solved by adding a warning to the app description to tell people to go download those too, but I think the best solution would be to simply include it in trail sense. Alternatives already exist for many of the tools included in trailsense, but they are still included anyways since they're so useful for survival/hiking situations (e.g. flashlight, pedometer, photo maps, level, clinometer, clock, timer, notes, packing lists, unit converter, and white noise), so I think it would make sense to include some guides as well. I think this justification also applies to the wim hof breathing tool and mushroom id ideas, yes there are other apps for those things but people may not know about them or think they don't need them.

Thanks for your time, consideration, and the great app!

FYI there is already a nice open source, small, and totally offline app for this: https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual

[jm355]

I know, I brought up a few reasons why I think it makes sense to include in trailsense anyways

[kylecorry31]

Apologies if these have been requested, I didn't see them when I searched (except survival guide, which I see you mentioned but I wanted to chime in my support for including it in this app as well)

• Wim hof breathing guide. I think this would be useful for someone in extreme cold, the wim hof breathing method has great results for helping people manage cold and I think having functionality in the app to take you through each step/stage of the method is really helpful. An example is https://inner-breeze.app/. More research is needed, but there are reports of the technique being useful for reducing acute mountain sickness https://www.healthline.com/health/wim-hof-method
• Mushroom ID (with many warnings to only eat mushrooms you're certain of the identity of!), for example shroomify. It has a simple id set up where you can select different traits of the mushroom you have, and it will give you a list of mushrooms it might be, as well as warn of dangerous lookalikes. I can understand why you wouldn't want to include this due to the risk of poisonous mushrooms though.
• todo list, with the ability to set a time to remind you of a list or list item
• Survival guide such as the guide you linked to. I think this would be important to include in trail sense because people may not know about those apps/resources, but if they find themself in a survival situation without internet, they won't be able to look up those guides or download them. This could be solved by adding a warning to the app description to tell people to go download those too, but I think the best solution would be to simply include it in trail sense. Alternatives already exist for many of the tools included in trailsense, but they are still included anyways since they're so useful for survival/hiking situations (e.g. flashlight, pedometer, photo maps, level, clinometer, clock, timer, notes, packing lists, unit converter, and white noise), so I think it would make sense to include some guides as well. I think this justification also applies to the wim hof breathing tool and mushroom id ideas, yes there are other apps for those things but people may not know about them or think they don't need them.

Thanks for your time, consideration, and the great app!

Thank you for the suggestions.

1. I'll look into this: Breathing guide #2537
2. As you mentioned, there's risk involved in mushroom foraging (or any foraging) and for that reason I don't want to be the source of that in Trail Sense. I'll look into adding Shroomify as a recommended app (I have it on my phone). Recommended app: Foraging guides #2538
3. I have plans to add this: Add checklist support to the notes tool #542 and Notes: Reminders #1974
4. This is a difficult one. I personally would like to include a survival guide in Trail Sense, but there are a variety of reasons why I will likely not do that in favor of recommending the Offline Survival Manual. 1) I don't have the time or skills to create and maintain a full survival manual, so I would be looking to embed a guide if I add this 2) the license of the Offline Survival Manual is not compatible with embedding it into Trail Sense, even with attribution (GPL 3). If there's a survival guide that you know of that has a permissive open source license, I'll definitely look into embedding that into Trail Sense and maybe look into making it more recommended to download the Offline Survival Manual. Here's an issue to track potentially embedding a guide: Survival guide #2539

[jm355]

That's a bummer that the license is incompatible. I'll keep an eye out if I come across any that are open source or public domain

Adjacent to the wim hof breathing idea, there could also be panic button with a guided meditation or breathwork to reduce anxiety, especially if someone has found themself in a really bad position or gotten lost? Might be able to see if sam harris (from the waking up guided meditation app) would be willing to record one oriented towards a survival situation? I know in the waking up app they have a couple "in case of emergency" guided meditations oriented towards people going through really difficult moments like loss of a loved one.

And then adjacent to that and the white noise feature, there are guided sleep meditations I've found really useful when I had trouble sleeping, and there's also yoga nidra / non-sleep deep rest (nsdr) which I've had good experiences with when I've been super tired but didn't have time to take a nap, and could be good for someone who wasn't able to get a good nights sleep while in the backcountry and it's impacting their ability to do what they need to. Huberman has a 10 minute and 20 minute guided nsdr, not sure what if any specific licensing applies to it though. https://www.hubermanlab.com/topics/nsdr-meditation-and-breathwork

For guided meditations like these, it may even be possible to use TTS to avoid having to store big sound files. I'm sure it wouldn't be as calming as a pre-recorded one, but for the purposes of trail sense it might be good enough

[kylecorry31]

That's a bummer that the license is incompatible. I'll keep an eye out if I come across any that are open source or public domain

Adjacent to the wim hof breathing idea, there could also be panic button with a guided meditation or breathwork to reduce anxiety, especially if someone has found themself in a really bad position or gotten lost? Might be able to see if sam harris (from the waking up guided meditation app) would be willing to record one oriented towards a survival situation? I know in the waking up app they have a couple "in case of emergency" guided meditations oriented towards people going through really difficult moments like loss of a loved one.

And then adjacent to that and the white noise feature, there are guided sleep meditations I've found really useful when I had trouble sleeping, and there's also yoga nidra / non-sleep deep rest (nsdr) which I've had good experiences with when I've been super tired but didn't have time to take a nap, and could be good for someone who wasn't able to get a good nights sleep while in the backcountry and it's impacting their ability to do what they need to. Huberman has a 10 minute and 20 minute guided nsdr, not sure what if any specific licensing applies to it though. https://www.hubermanlab.com/topics/nsdr-meditation-and-breathwork

For guided meditations like these, it may even be possible to use TTS to avoid having to store big sound files. I'm sure it wouldn't be as calming as a pre-recorded one, but for the purposes of trail sense it might be good enough

I think for guided meditations, I would prefer a recommended app rather than bake that into Trail Sense, as that is starting to stray outside of the supported use cases. If you have recommendations, I would be happy to research them and list them in the guide. I'm also planning on making the white noise have custom audio files, which may allow you to upload meditations of your choice.

[jm355]

I like the idea of custom audio files and then having a list of different meditations people could download and load. Couldn't white noise be generated on device without needing a file though? As well as other noise colors like pink and brown?

[kylecorry31]

I like the idea of custom audio files and then having a list of different meditations people could download and load. Couldn't white noise be generated on device without needing a file though? As well as other noise colors like pink and brown?

Yes, white noise (technically it is pink noise) is generated on device. I have plans to improve it: #2506