Geodet

Overview & Motivation

Three dimensions, that's what we perceive as we go through life, but the mere act of living silently carves a trail through a fourth dimension: Time.

We're all aware of it on some level, but it is easy to underestimate the importance of this vector and the role it plays in the shape of a life. The first time I became starkly aware of my own shape in this fourth dimension was when I tried Google's Timeline (previously Latitude & Location History). It fascinated and scared me to an equal degree, because even then I could see the immense value of what I was looking at, both for myself and for a third party, and what a profound violation of my privacy it was that this data lay in the hands of another.

What if your footsteps throughout history were yours, and yours alone?

Points that look like mere coordinates and timestamps in isolation gain so much more weight when woven together. They reveal the physical geometry of your habits: the road you take to work, whether you travel by bus, car, or on foot, and whether you explore the world around you or exist entirely within the narrow strip between work and home. Seeing that represented on a map gives you insight into your own past that mere human memory can never quite match. At least in my experience.

This is why I created the Geodet suite:

Geodet is an Android application to record, encrypt, and temporarily store your GPS location throughout your day. Geodet Server securely receives that data, decrypts it, and stores it long-term with weekly backups to make sure potential corruption can be handled safely. Finally, Geodet Atlas, a Linux KDE Plasma based faux-wallpaper renderer, gives you the tools to visualize your own timeline, plotting you in the fourth dimension. Your life.

Once on your secure server, the data lives in an unencrypted, standard database, meaning it remains completely free and open to be used by you for whatever else. All of this happens on your own hardware, at your own pace, and most of all: with your permission.

It is currently in active private development and being prepared for an initial open-source release on GitHub.

Key Highlights

• Encrypted & Private: Your data on your hardware, all encrypted during capture and transfer.
• Three parts, one suite: Geodet, Geodet Server, and Geodet Atlas. Use what you need and discard the excess.
• KDE Plasma integration: Geodet Atlas runs on PyQt6 and integrates into the Plasma desktop as a dynamic wallpaper.
• Free and Open Source: Apache 2.0 License.