fix(live): stop the item pin from tracking the bearing arrow

The pin sat dead ahead of the heading arrow no matter which way the
user turned, so the arrow looked like it was aiming at the item and
the item looked like it was always straight down the path of travel.

The cause is geometric, not a UI link. addSample() only accepts a
sample after 5 m of movement, so every sample lies on the line the
user walked. gradientBearing() correlates RSSI against centred
position, and on a collinear track each centred position is t*u for
a single unit vector u along the walk - so the sum is exactly
parallel to u regardless of the signal. The "estimated" bearing was
the direction of travel, echoed back.

That bearing then placed the pin in three separate paths:
preliminaryEstimate() projects along it, solve() overrides a
converged trilateration with it, and consensusEstimate() averages
the result. All three produced a pin straight ahead.

Refuse the bearing until the track has real width across its own
axis - the smaller eigenvalue of the position covariance, against
max(4 m, meanAccuracy/2). A straight walk with GPS jitter measures
about 1 m of spread and is rejected; an L of two 20 m legs measures
about 5 m and is accepted. Distances still place the item off-axis
on a straight walk, but which side is a real mirror ambiguity, so
the UI now says so and asks for a leg at 90 degrees instead of
inventing a side.

Also drops showFallbackPin(), which projected the pin along the raw
compass heading whenever no estimate was solved - a fourth route to
the same wrong place. With no estimate the pin now shows the item's
last known GPS fix, or nothing at all.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
n0tst3v3
2026-08-19 09:10:26 -06:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 15baafc9be
commit 5d98f474ae
2 changed files with 73 additions and 31 deletions
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class SpatialGradientEngine {
/**
* Metres of spread the sample track needs across its own axis before a
* signal gradient means anything. See {@link #gradientBearing}.
*/
private static final double MIN_TRACK_WIDTH_METERS = 4.0;
public static class Estimate {
public double latitude;
public double longitude;
@@ -150,12 +157,34 @@ public class SpatialGradientEngine {
return result;
}
/**
* A bearing solved from samples that all sit on one line is not a
* measurement, it is an echo of the walk.
*
* Centre the positions and the correlation below is a sum of
* (position - mean) * signal. On a straight walk every centred position
* is t*u for one unit vector u along the track, so the result is exactly
* parallel to u no matter what the RSSI does - the "estimated" bearing
* comes back as the direction the user is already walking, the pin gets
* projected dead ahead, and the compass arrow appears to point at it.
*
* Distances alone still place the item off-axis, but which side of the
* track it lies on is a genuine mirror ambiguity. It takes a leg at an
* angle to resolve, so report NaN until the track has real width and let
* the caller ask the user to turn.
*/
private float gradientBearing(double[] xs, double[] ys) {
double meanX = 0, meanY = 0, meanRssi = 0;
double meanX = 0, meanY = 0, meanRssi = 0, meanAccuracy = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < samples.size(); i++) {
meanX += xs[i]; meanY += ys[i]; meanRssi += samples.get(i).rssi;
meanAccuracy += samples.get(i).accuracy;
}
meanX /= samples.size(); meanY /= samples.size(); meanRssi /= samples.size();
meanAccuracy /= samples.size();
if (perpendicularSpread(xs, ys, meanX, meanY) <
Math.max(MIN_TRACK_WIDTH_METERS, meanAccuracy * 0.5)) {
return Float.NaN;
}
double east = 0, north = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < samples.size(); i++) {
double signal = samples.get(i).rssi - meanRssi;
@@ -168,6 +197,28 @@ public class SpatialGradientEngine {
return (float) degrees;
}
/**
* Spread of the sample track across its own dominant axis, in metres:
* the smaller eigenvalue of the position covariance, square-rooted.
*
* Straight walk plus GPS jitter lands around 1-3 m. An L of two 20 m
* legs lands near 6 m.
*/
private double perpendicularSpread(double[] xs, double[] ys,
double meanX, double meanY) {
int count = samples.size();
if (count < 3) return 0;
double sxx = 0, syy = 0, sxy = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
double dx = xs[i] - meanX, dy = ys[i] - meanY;
sxx += dx * dx; syy += dy * dy; sxy += dx * dy;
}
sxx /= count; syy /= count; sxy /= count;
double half = (sxx + syy) / 2.0;
double gap = Math.sqrt(Math.pow((sxx - syy) / 2.0, 2) + sxy * sxy);
return Math.sqrt(Math.max(0, half - gap));
}
public synchronized Estimate preliminaryEstimate() {
if (samples.size() < 2) return null;
Sample origin = samples.get(0);