Using "Include context" option to add multiple possible locations for tasks

[Alexey Lyubarets]

Hi guys,

I have the following scenario:

1. There is a list of purchases I need to make.
2. I can buy things in any of Shop1, Shop2, Shop3
3. I want my purchase list to be shown in Nearby widget if I am in any of these shops.

What I expected would work:

1. I created three contexts for each shop and setup coordinates for each of them. Radius 0.2 km.
   
2. I created a ShoppingList context where I added my shopping tasks. I did not setup location for it.
   
3. I added my shop-contexts from step 1 as Included contexts to ShoppingList.
   
4. I setup Nearby Radius to be 0.5 k

So, I expected that whenever I am near by one of the shops ShoppingList context becomes "active" (as it includes all shops) I can see my entire shopping list on "NearBy" widget.

It does not work in this way. Andy advice on this?

Thank you,

Alexey

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Alexey. You have done a great job of documenting a feature called "Location Inheritance" which has been requested by several different users but which the MLO developers have not yet decided to implement. While you wait for them to pick up on the idea, you canachieve what you want a little less conveniently, by entering something along the lines of

@Shop1; @Shop2; @Shop3.

-Dwight

[Alexey Lyubarets]

Hi Arthur,

May I also ask you why NearBy widget which is set to radius 0.1 km in settings shows a shop which is 0.285 km away from my location according to the widget itself?

Thank you,
Alexey

[Dwight]

Hi, Alexey. I'm guessing that you are using an iphone, right? I don't know much about iphones and if that's what you are on I'd ask someone else to help with the explanation.

On my Android device there are three factors.
1. The  radius defined in "contexts and locations" for each location that you have set up. This one defines how big the location is. You would set a smaller value for an urban streetcorner than for a major sports stadium.


2. The radius defined in settings>nearby. This one defines how far from the target location you can be and still consider it "nearby"

3. The third one, I will call location precision. If I am using GPS, the location the device thinks it is at is within 5 to 15 meters of its actual location on a good day while outside. When GPS is off to save battery, and I'm outside the range of wifi transmitters known to Google,  and I'm in an area with low density of cell towers, I have had my device identify a location as much as 5km from where I am. You should probably set a value for your nearby radius that is no smaller than your location precision.

If you look at the map in the nearby view, and if you tap the pin for the location involved you will see a circle around the pin with a radius set in #1 above, and a dot for your device's estimate of your current location, with a circle with radius set in #2 above. First check to ensure that your actual location falls somewhere in the nearby circle. If so, then check if the nearby circle and the location circle touch each other. If they do, then the distance between your device's presumed location and your target location is less than the target radius plus the nearby radius and the target is considered nearby.
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

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-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2
-Dwight
Mlo betazoid on Android sgn2

[Alexey Lyubarets]

Hi Dwight,

I am using Android version.

Let me clarify some points:

•  You wrote "First check to ensure that your actual location falls somewhere in the nearby circle." As I understand, NearBy circle (transp. grey) is always built  around my current location. So, it cannot happen that my current location is not in the NearBy circle.
• So, it is enough for NearBy radius and Context (green) radius to cross each other for a task to appear in NearBy view? Because MLO blog says "include". I thought that Context radius is only used to show Location based alerts when my location is within Context radius (or blue circle cross green circle because blue circle represents my possible location) and has nothing to do with NearBy view.
  
• It still does not explain why on the map Location radius and NearBy radius have different length - I set them both to the same 0.1km value in Settings for NearBy and in Location settings for Context. It seems like NearBy radius can change and depends on location precision. I would understand if NearBy radius (grey) was always bigger then location radius (blue) by the distance set it in Settings for NearBy (0.1km in my case), but it changes. Expressing this in numbers I would expect that if location radius is 200m then NearBy should be 200 + 100 = 300m, or location is 1000m and NearBy is 1000 + 100m = 1100m, but on the map it looks like NearBy is 2xLocation: 400m - location -> 800m NearBy (however it should be just 410m). Do you understand what I mean?

Can it be reported to developers and asked for clarification? Maybe I incorrectly understand functionality behind this feature.

Regards,

Alexey

From MLO blog:
So to summarize the usage of different radiuses in NearBy functionality:
1. The contexts will be included to NearBy view if context’s radius (a) included to NearBy radius (b).
2. You will get an alert when your location precision radius (c) included to the context radius (a).

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Alexey.

This is getting complex. If at any point you want to pursue the converasation with the MLO Support staff instead of continuing with the forum, you can reach them at support [at] mylifeorganized [dot] net

You wrote "it cannot happen that my current location is not in the NearBy circle" - I'm afraid that I didn't explain about location precision well enough. The place that you are actually at is one thing, the place that your device thinks it's at is another. If your location precision is good the distinction between the two may be very small and therefore unimportant. If your location precision is poor then this may be a significant factor. If my device's calculated location is 5km away from my actual location and I have a nearby radius of 1km, then the Nearby widget will be showing locations that are near the device's calculated location instead of locations that are near your actual location.

It sounds as though this is not your problem so let's move on.

I'm not really clear on what the blog meant by "if context's radius included to NearBy radius." I think maybe there is a translation problem. If my understanding is correct, the blog should have said something like "Each context will be included in the NearBy view if a circle with center = device's current calculated location and radius = NearBy radius intersects or contains a circle with center at the context location and radius = the context radius'

Or, to put it more simply, if the distance between the device's calculated location and the context location is less than the sum of the Nearby radius and the Context radius.

I don't really understand the difference between contexts that get included in the NearBy view versus contexts that result in location alarms. I hope that someone else chimes is with the answers that you want, or that you canget them from support.

I also do not understand why a location which the device considers to be 285m away would be included in NearBy if the Nearby radius and the Context radius were both set to 100m. Unless it had to do with location precision. Under some circumstances, MLO makes a circle with radius set to Nearby radius plus location precision. If location precision were 85 m or worse, then the object which is apparently 285m away might still be nearby - you could possibly be 85m closer to the object than the device has calculated and if that were true then you would be within the 200m combined radius.

-Dwight
MLO Betazoid on Windows, Cloud and Android SGN2

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[Alexey Lyubarets]

Hi Dwight,

Thanks for helping.
I will try to reach a support team when I have enough time to put it all together.

Regards,
Alexey