Data Hacking

Chapter 12 — GPS Games
Make faint lines by doing one pass. To make lines that are thicker or bolder, do multiple
passes along the same route. The more passes you make, the darker and thicker the lines
will appear. You can also use lines consisting of various numbers of passes as shading.
The slower you go, the thicker and darker the line will appear. Therefore, the thicker
lines will represent areas you’ve traversed several times slowly, and the faintest ones will
represent areas you’ve covered only once, and fast.
You might find it handy to use small markers as you draw. Depending on the area you are
in, you could use stones, sticks, or golf tees. The easiest terrain to GPS draw in is sand.
Don’t worry if you make minor mistakes — these are common. Just pick up from where
you went wrong and continue.
After you are done, save the log of your track to prevent it from being deleted or overwritten
(consult your GPS manual for information on how to do this).
Finally, if you have mapping software, import the log of the track into that for a
better view.
For more information on GPS drawing visit www.gpsdrawing.com.
Hide-and-Seek
Why search solely for inanimate objects with your GPS? Geocaches and benchmarks are very
well and good, but you can put a new twist on hide-and-seek with your GPS.
For this game, you need a GPS and a walkie-talkie. The walkie-talkie enables you to transmit
your coordinates to the other players.
To play this game properly, you really need more than two people, preferably two teams. One
team does the hiding while the other team does the seeking. You can add all sorts of variations
to this game (such as playing it at night as a stalking game in which the seeking team has to
sneak up undetected on the hiding team).
You can also employ some aids in this kind of game to help it along. One such aid is the Garmin
Rino GPS receiver. This is a combination GPS receiver and walkie-talkie that enables you to
transmit coordinates from one unit to the other (as well as transmitting voice). This is known
as an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS).
Garmin Rino GPS/walkie-talkie hybrids are also excellent for families that want to keep in touch
while on the move outdoors.
You don’t need Garmin Rino GPS receivers to do this, however. If you have a GPS such as a
Garmin eTrex (in fact, all modern Garmin units as well as Magellan units will do) and two
FRS (Family Radio Service) two-way radios (these need to have headphone and microphone
connectors on them in order to interface), you can do the same thing — well, you do need two
other kits: One is called a TinyTrak3 and the other is a Terminal Network Controller (TNC).
You will also need to make a few cables.
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