Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#1

Post by Devlin_Donnelly » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 8:45 PM UTC

I am working on a web-based application and I want to read in GPS coordinates provided by the user's browser and output a specific location such as the name of a city or other locality.

Thanks for any tips.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#2

Post by belbn » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 8:46 PM UTC

http://www.google.com/search?q=GPSDATA

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#3

Post by gspyrou » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

Try using Google maps reverse geocoding https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/#...

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#4

Post by Devlin_Donnelly » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 10:59 PM UTC

gspyrou wrote: post #3

Try using Google maps reverse geocoding https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/#...

Thanks for the idea, but apparently google only allows the use this service in conjunction with Google maps, so it won't work for my project.

Maybe there are some open source map databases of GPS coordinates mapped to political/municipal localities?

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#5

Post by bartonfink » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 11:13 PM UTC

Devlin_Donnelly wrote: post #4

gspyrou wrote: post #3

Try using Google maps reverse geocoding https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/#...

Thanks for the idea, but apparently google only allows the use this service in conjunction with Google maps, so it won't work for my project. Maybe there are some open source map databases of GPS coordinates mapped to political/municipal localities?

MapQuest offers a geocoding service which doesn't tie you to MapQuest's maps the way Google does. It's free up to some usage amount (I think it's 5k requests a day). You can see more here:

http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#6

Post by Devlin_Donnelly » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 11:37 PM UTC

bartonfink wrote: post #5

Devlin_Donnelly wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the idea, but apparently google only allows the use this service in conjunction with Google maps, so it won't work for my project. Maybe there are some open source map databases of GPS coordinates mapped to political/municipal localities?

MapQuest offers a geocoding service which doesn't tie you to MapQuest's maps the way Google does. It's free up to some usage amount (I think it's 5k requests a day). You can see more here: http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/

Thanks it looks like this one might work for my needs.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for converting GPS data into a location name?

#7

Post by got2surf » Fri, Dec 28, 2012, 7:59 AM UTC

If by chance you're using Ruby on Rails, then http://www.rubygeocoder.com/ is great.