Learning tool on location data privacy, that reflects to users, what conclusions can be drawn from their location histories. It is used to record location data over a timespan and analyzing that locally to create inferences - e.g. about where the user might work or live. The app works completely autonomously and doesn't need any internet connection whatsoever. This is part of the SIMPORT project.
Status: prototyping 🛠️
It is intended that one records her/his location data of the course of multiple days/weeks/months using this app. By collecting and analyzing the recorded location history (locally), it is tried to infer information about the user - such as her/his home and work location. Users should be notified, if such inferences can be made in order to reflect to them, what conclusions can be drawn using their location histories. Furthermore recorded trajectories can be exported, external trajectories can be imported and examined using the app as well.
This is an hybrid Ionic app, using Capacitator (a drop-in replacement for Cordova) to access native APIs and Angular for UI.
- git
- node.js (version 16.14)
- Ionic CLI
- Visual Studio Code with prettier
- Android Studio / XCode
For basic UI development you need node.js (version 16.14) installed - further information can be found here. As an IDE you can basically choose by your own taste. Our recommendation is to use Visual Studio Code with the code formatter Prettier using these settings. This guarantees consistent and uniform code.
git clone git@github.com:sitcomlab/simport-learning-appWithin the repository, install the ionic CLI, which is used for most management tasks, as well as the frontend dependencies
cd simport-learning-app
npm install -g @ionic/cli # install the ionic CLI
npm install # install the frontend dependencies- Install the latest version of Android Studio
- on Linux, install to
/opt/android-studio/, as this path is configured incapacitor.config.json
- on Linux, install to
- Download an up-to-date Android SDK (e.g. SDK 29)
- Within Android Studio:
Tools→SDK Manager)
- Within Android Studio:
- Optional: Setup emulators as needed for testing the app on a computer
- Within Android Studio:
Tools→AVD Manager)
- Within Android Studio:
- Make sure to run
Sync Project with Gradle Filesbefore building when dependencies have changed - Built artifact will be
./android/app/build/outputs/apk/app-debug.apk
📝 This only works on macOS.
- Install the latest version of XCode
- Optional: Setup emulators as needed for testing the app on a computer
- Within XCode:
Window→Devices and Simulators→Simulators)
- Within XCode:
- For running on physical devices, XCode requires that you’ve connected a Team to the project → more information here
- Make sure to run
pod installin your terminal before building when dependencies have changed
📝 With Capacitor, the native build projects are supposed to be checked into version control. This avoids duplicate config and simplifies writing native code without creating plugins.
Hot Reloading Server (→ see here)
ionic serveBuild frontend to ./www/ (→ see here)
ionic buildPrepare app builds & open IDE (→ see here)
ionic cap update
ionic cap build androidionic cap update
ionic cap build iosSync app builds (→ see here)
ionic cap sync androidionic cap sync iosUsing Github this project is obviously versioned using git. The branch develop is used as the main branch, while actual developing of new features is done on individual feature branches. These features branches are using the following naming scheme:
feature/<feature name>
When finished (including review) developing a feature, the feature branches are merged develop. For your commits, please use the following commit message if applicable:
#<issue number>: <commit message>
Releases are automatically triggered on push to release-beta using GitHub Actions and distributed to a closed group of beta-testers using Firebase.
A core-component of this learning app is the inference-algorithm. By analyzing the recorded location history, it is tried to infer information about the user with this algorightm - information such as her/his home and work location. The corresponding procedure on how to process user-trajectories in order to generate those inferences is explained with a brief flow-diagram. Furthermore a light class-diagramm that focuses on the inference-components gives an overview how the parts are connected and come together.
Apart from basic component testing (default Angular), the testing framework is used to validate the inference algorithms.
By running the tests via npm run test a few simple trajectories are generated, that are designed to cover some border cases - e.g. variation in location frequency and accuracy. The creation of this test data is based on a few location files located here. The generated test data is based upon the following location pattern, which result from the assumptions of a typical work day (9 to 5).
| Activity | Start datetime | End datetime |
|---|---|---|
| Dwell at home | 2021-02-23T18:00:00Z | 2021-02-24T08:45:00Z |
| Ride to work | 2021-02-24T08:45:00Z | 2021-02-24T09:00:00Z |
| Dwell at work | 2021-02-24T09:00:00Z | 2021-02-24T17:00:00Z |
| Ride home | 2021-02-24T17:00:00Z | 2021-02-24T17:15:00Z |
| Dwell at home | 2021-02-24T17:15:00Z | 2021-02-25T08:45:00Z |
Currently the following test cases are created, analyzed and checked against the given expected inferences:
| Trajectory | Description | Expected inferences |
|---|---|---|
| Empty | Empty trajectory, contains no locations. | None |
| Mobile only | Trajectory, that only contains mobile data. Therefore it contains only the ride to and from work, but no stationary location for dwelling at home or work. | None |
| Simple home and work | Simple trajectory that simulates a usual day of work. The location data contains the assumed movement data stated above with typical point clouds at the dwelling locations. Without any special constraints. | Home/Work |
| Spatially dense home and work | Similar to simple home/work, but stationary data (point clouds for dwelling time) is way more spatially dense, which simulates a lot of movement/higher update frequency during recording. | Home/Work |
| Temporally sparse home and work | Similar to simple home/work, but stationary data (point clouds for dwelling time) is way more temporally sparse, which simulates a less movement/lower update frequency during recording. | Home/Work |
These tests are automatically executed when pushing to the development branch. The last test-result can be seen at the top of this page.
SIMPORT Learning App
Copyright (c) 2022 Sitcom Lab