GPS (lamp.gps)

Records the device's GPS coordinates. Depending on the device and battery level, the data source may alternate between GPS antennae (high accuracy), cellular triangulation (moderate accuracy), or WiFi triangulation (lower accuracy).

Configuration

• SensorSpec: lamp.gps
• Sampling: Discrete (default 1 Hz — 1 sample per second)
• Platform: iOS, Android
• Permissions: Location "Always" required

Configure sampling rate via the API.

API settings fields

Setting	API Field	Type	Default	Max
Sampling Rate	frequency	number (Hz)	1	5

Quality Factors

• Location permissions must be set to "Always" (not "While Using").
• Accuracy depends on GPS reception — best outdoors, reduced indoors.
• Battery optimization can restrict background location access.

Usage

GPS data is collected continuously in the background. No participant action is required. The sensor automatically selects the best available location source (GPS, cellular, WiFi) based on conditions.

note

GPS data is recorded as raw latitude/longitude coordinates. Coordinates are not hashed or anonymized in the raw data.

Data

Fields

Field	Type	Description
latitude	float	Latitude in degrees
longitude	float	Longitude in degrees
altitude	float	Altitude in meters above sea level
accuracy	float	Accuracy radius in meters (68% confidence). 0.0 means no accuracy could be determined.

Example

{
  "timestamp": 1649859212042,
  "sensor": "lamp.gps",
  "data": {
    "latitude": 42.3601,
    "longitude": -71.0589,
    "altitude": 12.5,
    "accuracy": 10.0
  }
}

Cortex Features

gps (raw) → significant_locations, trips (primary) → hometime, entropy, trip_distance, trip_duration (secondary)

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