Altimeter app

Hello everybody!

I'm an app developer and a few times a year I also go climb mountains.
I noticed that most apps in the App Store that measure your height aren't accurate and really don't look good.
So, my question is if anyone would be interested in such an app and if so which features it should really include.
Feel free to drop all your thoughts below!
If their is enough interest I will make an accurate altimeter app, I already searched a bit on the internet and I'm convinced that making a really accurate altimeter app, that requires no internet, is possible.

Thanks in advance,
Matis

Maverick does a good job with altitude, and works with just GPS, as long as you have the maps you want downloaded.

No downloaded maps, no internet, no frills. Just pull the phone out, hit a button and the elevation pops up. Maybe just a conversion setting M/Ft. No frills

Great app idea

Great idea Matis. FYI Though, there is at least one on the market already though. Survival GPS. I've been using it on my iPhone 5 &6 for a while now and it is fairly accurate! Has full GPS with declination correction/altitude/flash light/speed and units in feet and meters. It works accuraty with only GPS connection. Usually I have my phone in airplane mode in the backcountry and all I do is turn airplane mode off, wait half a minute or so and then open the app. It takes about another minute after that to give me a reading. Last trip I compared it to the known elevation at several spots and it was within 10-20 feet accurate every time. After I get my reading I put the phone back in airplane mode to save battery. No maps needed. If you could improve on this app, maybe add more features or something, that would be great. Make a better user interface too. I like this app but not the interface.

Ive been hoping for something that fits the previous criteria mentioned!

What Nick said.

Nick Turtura wrote:No downloaded maps, no internet, no frills. Just pull the phone out, hit a button and the elevation pops up. Maybe just a conversion setting M/Ft. No frills Great app idea

Hi Nick,
thanks for your response!
I was actually thinking of something like that too. I already made something: see picture
screenshot
However I included a little map option right below, I hope it won't annoy anyone.
What do you think of it? Something to improve?
The background picture changes depending on you altitude:
If you're below 0 you see fish, at 380 m you see the Eiffel Tower,...

I hope you like it.

Rude Boy wrote:Great idea Matis. FYI Though, there is at least one on the market already though. Survival GPS. I've been using it on my iPhone 5 &6 for a while now and it is fairly accurate! Has full GPS with declination correction/altitude/flash light/speed and units in feet and meters. It works accuraty with only GPS connection. Usually I have my phone in airplane mode in the backcountry and all I do is turn airplane mode off, wait half a minute or so and then open the app. It takes about another minute after that to give me a reading. Last trip I compared it to the known elevation at several spots and it was within 10-20 feet accurate every time. After I get my reading I put the phone back in airplane mode to save battery. No maps needed. If you could improve on this app, maybe add more features or something, that would be great. Make a better user interface too. I like this app but not the interface.

Thanks for your response, I was actually thinking of something more simply, with just your altitude.
What do you think of that? Would you ever download an app that just does that?

This one works well, is accurate, and has a simple interface.

hrtapps.com/proaltimeter/

I like that Matis. Great idea with changing the background. A suggestion on that though.......if this is geared toward climbers you should make the back ground change to different mountains that correspond to the altitude. Make the numbers a little bigger and centered. Personally I like the map idea and GPS would be a good option too. To keep it simple make an option in settings to turn maps and GPS on/off for those who do or don't want to see that. Kinda makes the thing modular depending on what you want......just my 2¢.

Matis,

How would you know what the vertical accuracy is?

Looks good. I guess I could further explain myself by saying that I don't like a lot of frills due primarily to the fact that I usually have gloves on and do most of the screen touching with my nose. So as long as the elevation is seen on the main app's page, we're good. I like the backdrop thing.

Rude Boy wrote:I like that Matis. Great idea with changing the background. A suggestion on that though.......if this is geared toward climbers you should make the back ground change to different mountains that correspond to the altitude. Make the numbers a little bigger and centered. Personally I like the map idea and GPS would be a good option too. To keep it simple make an option in settings to turn maps and GPS on/off for those who do or don't want to see that. Kinda makes the thing modular depending on what you want......just my 2¢.

I added the mountain pictures as you suggested.Today, the app finaly went online. Be sure to watch it on the following link ;)
appsto.re/be/clDg7.i
I hope you like it. The app is already really accurate and in further upgrades I promise I will make it even more accurate.
It costs 0.99c because I worked on it a while and really believe this Altimeter is better than others. I also need to charge this 0.99c because I'm only 15 years old and need to pay 90€ a year to be allowed to make apps on the App Store. I hope you can support me ;)

15 years old?

Freakin Awesome!

Good job Matis!

Gunks Jesse wrote:I bought it and I'll give it some use in the coming weeks.

Thanks! This really means alot to me!
If you want anything to change, just tell me I can have an update online in a couple of days.
I hope the app will come in handy the next weeks.

Tom-onator wrote:15 years old? Freakin Awesome! Good job Matis!

16 actually,it was a typo ;)
I've been programming since the age of twelve. This is my fourth app now.
Thanks for your support!

appsto.re/be/clDg7.i

Android option?

Climber.H wrote:iOS 7 option? Looks great, but can't get it...

Update is coming soon! I will notice you when its online. Also support for Apple watch will be added.

Kyle Curts wrote:So...for the phone to know altitude it can either access your location and look the altitude up on a topo map, or the actual phone can have a barometric altimeter that measures the air pressure to determine altitude. I don't know of a phone with an altimeter, and the topo map solution is not practical or accurate on a vertical wall. Easy to make an app for hikers, really tricky to make one for climbers.

Iphone 6 has a barometer and here GPS is used to get the altitude so no internet needed!
appsto.re/be/clDg7.i

Gunks Jesse wrote:Now it's to 1008 feet with a 53 foot accuracy. It is jumping between the 1008 foot mark and a 1120 foot mark. Is this not an issue with iPhone 6?

GPS altitude has a couple sources of "error". One is the way the geometry works means the satellites best positioned for an accurate calculation are blocked by the earth.

Another is that GPS altitude is based on the ellipsoid (flattened sphere) and sea level is calculated against the geoid (which approximates mean sea level, and is not a nice smooth ellipsoid).

However, you likely are getting multipath errors from being within the airport; the receiver gets confused by reflected signals and when it does the math, sometimes it uses the "wrong" numbers. (This also happens around canyons and cliffs.)

The most accurate solution would be to pull the local METAR data from the airport, which will give you the local air pressure. With the iPhone6 (or the Android models which also have a barometer), you can use that to calculate your altitude to within a meter or two.