What is SkyFreeGPS?
SkyFreeGPS
What is SkyFreeGPS?

SkyFreeGPS is an open source software developed by Alina Burca within the framework of her Bachelor of Arts thesis at the University of
Geneva in 2008. The idea of this project belongs to Michel Deriaz, assistant of the Information Systems and Communications Department at the
University of Geneva, who also supervised the entire project.

SkyFreeGPS is a tool for location based applications developers. The application is developed on Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) and can
be used in the Sun's WTK emulator. For more information about how to install and use the application, please refer to the User Guide section.

Context

Today we are witnessing an expansion of the GPS world in our daily life. More and more GPS receivers are being integrated in different kinds of
gadgets from mobile telephones, watches, PDAs to Personal Computers. The rapid expansion of the GPS applicability fields will certainly lead to
an increase in the number of GPS oriented applications, whether they will be freeware or not. In this context location based applications for
mobile telephones are becoming a common thing.

All development projects related to a location based application for a mobile phone involve tests processes. In order to perform these kind of
tests, a GPS receiver hardware is necessary, which means test must be performed under satellite access conditions. This can sometimes lead
to a tedious and time consuming test process, not always evident to perform, especially in the first phases of development when one prefers to
test the application directly on the development support - the PC. A Bluetooth GPS simulator could be an easier answer, saving time and energy.

Description

SkyFreeGPS is an open source software developed on Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) for simulating a Bluetooth GPS receiver hardware.
SkyFreeGPS generates two types of standard NMEA sentences: RMC and GGA.
SkyFreeGPS runs on the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit and is available in English.