googleMap-ing with R; Communte Loop

There are two main routes I can take to get to work each day, the two make a comically circular commute when both are taken.

I thought I'd use that commute to try out yet another cool use case for R, GPS plotting with dynamically created HTML/JS using the googleVis package.

First we need some data points.

For simplicity I logged the GPS data using my phone with the GPS Logger for Android app. This app provides coordinates logged to .gpx, .kml, or comma delimited .txt files at a chosen interval.  A few metrics are included like elevation, speed and bearing.  I plotted my morning and evening commutes while driving two different routes to the office.

The code for this very simple, the gvisMap call to the Google  Maps API does almost all of the heavy lifting.  We simply pass gvisMap the latitude and longitude coordinates in the expected format (lat:lon) and then an optional label for each point plotted as a "Tip".  Here I chose elevation relative to sea level, but any parameter in the set could be chosen.

#googleVis must be installed
library(googleVis)
 
#Read in the gps files.  I used .txt, but .gpx can be used also, with preparation
gps418 <- read.csv("20140418.txt")
gps418_2 <- read.csv("20140418_2.txt")
 
#Add morning and evening commutes
gps418<-merge(gps418,gps418_2, all.x=TRUE, all.y=TRUE)
 
#Prepare Latitude and Longitude for gvisMap
gps418$latlon <- paste(gps418$lat,":",gps418$lon, sep="")
 
#Call gvisMap function, here I'm using elevation as a label
gpsTry <- gvisMap(gps418,"latlon", "elevation",
                  options=list(showTip=TRUE, showLine=TRUE, enableScrollWheel=TRUE,
                               mapType='hybrid', useMapTypeControl=TRUE,
                               width=1600,height=800))
 
#Plot (Send gvisMap generated HTML to browser at local address)
plot(gpsTry)
 
#Yeah, it's that easy

Created by Pretty R at inside-R.org


The results are automatically rendered as a local address in your browser with the generated HTML calling the Google API.  I've pasted the relevant portion here to display the map:

Hat tip to Geo-Kitchen, I noticed their post while doing this one.  I like the plot of my alma mater