Google Maps-Based Pedometer
Category: Cycling/Running/Fitness... Internet...
Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 09:23 AM [GMT-6]

I'm constantly amazed at the cool things Mis_nomer runs across and shares over at Pencil Shavings, and her discovery of Gmaps Pedometer is not only cool, but very timely.

Gmaps Pedometer is another Web 2.0 variation using the Google Maps API, and it's brilliant in its simplicity and addictive in its usefulness. If you're a runner, cyclist, or walker, it's a good tool for laying out a route and measuring its distance.

Using the Pedometer is simple, especially if you're accustomed to the standard Google Maps interface. Just locate your starting point and click the Start Recording button. Double-click on the map to add your starting point, then double-click along the route to extend it. You can adjust the zoom setting at any point, or click-and-drag to reposition the map without affecting the points or the route. Once you've finished, you can save your route. The Pedometer will automatically mark each mile point on your route (unless you toggle that option off), and it keeps track of cumulative mileage for your route. If you the Calorie Counter On button and enter your weight in the resulting input field, the Pedometer will also computer calories burned (presumably for walking or running; it doesn't allow you to specify another type of locomotion).

If you make a mistake on setting a point, there's an Undo button.

One caveat: the "Complete there and back route" option should be exercised only at the turnaround point of an actual out-and-back route, because clicking that link causes the Pedometer to assume that the point at which the click is made is the halfway mark, and it doubles the mileage at that point. That's not a big deal – except you cannot undo this particular action. I learned this the hard way after spending fifteen minutes laying out a precise route, and clicking the "complete" link thinking it would compute the mileage back to the starting point using the same route that going the other direction (I'm not explaining this very well, am I?), and finding that it doesn't work that way at all.

A variation on this application is Sanoodi, which is almost identical to Gmaps Pedometer except that it requires only one click to set a point, and it attempts to compute elevation changes along your route. I suspect the latter is of dubious accuracy, but we don't have a lot of relief in our landscape out here to measure it against. The neat thing about Sanoodi is that it allows you to describe your route, categorize it, and then store it in a personal account. You can also share those routes with others, and add Flickr tags if you provide photos taken along the route. It's just a little more community-oriented than Pedometer.

I mentioned at the beginning that this discovery was timely. We recently replaced both tires on our tandem, and the new tires are slightly different sizes than the ones they replaced. This necessitated a recalibration of our cycling computers, as the distance and speed measurements are tied to tire circumference. And, since the front and rear tires are different diameters, I couldn't measure just one and use the setting for both.

As you might guess, even though I thought I did a precise job in doing a roll-out measurement of each tire, after our first ride with the recalibrated computers the mileage on my unit was different than that on my wife's, and by a fairly significant amount. Just as the man with two watches never knows what time it is, so it is with two bike computers giving different readings. We weren't sure which reading was accurate. After entering our route into Sanoodi, we have a baseline that I can use to re-adjust both computers.

All the accountants in our family can now sleep a little better, having overcome this significant obstacle to our cycling happiness.

Technorati tags: Gmaps Pedometer | Sanoodi | OCD Cyclists