StrayCat 🐱

Location Simulation & GPS Tracking for Android

---

Note

This has started as a final project on Coroutines Mastery 2025

Overview

StrayCat is a Android application for location simulation and GPS tracking. Perfect for testing location-based features and route simulations.

Features

• 🎮 Full Playback Control - Start, pause, resume, stop, and replay
• ⏩ Touch Seeking - Tap or scrub the progress bar to jump to any position in the simulation
• 📍 Route Simulation - Replay predefined routes with realistic timing using TomTom Routing SDK
• ⚙️ Configurable - Speed multiplier, interpolation, noise injection, looping, and more
• 🔄 Map display - via TomTom Maps SDK
• 🔍 Search Locations - Find points of interest using Google Places Search SDK

Playback Controls

• Play / Pause / Resume - Full playback lifecycle control
• Stop - End the simulation; transitions to a Replay button
• Replay - Restart the simulation from the beginning after it ends (naturally or manually)
• Seek - Tap anywhere on the progress bar to jump to that position; drag to scrub in real time

Simulation Configuration

• Speed Multiplier - Control playback speed (0.1x - 10x)
• Delay - Add a fixed delay between location updates (in seconds)
• Loop Mode - Continuously replay the simulation
• Realistic Timing - Use actual route timing vs fixed intervals
• Noise Level - Add GPS signal variance (in meters)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Android device or emulator with API 26+
• Location permissions enabled

Prerequisites

• Android Studio Hedgehog or newer
• local.properties in the project root with the following keys:

  tomtomApiKey=YOUR_TOMTOM_API_KEY
  googlePlacesApiKey=YOUR_GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY
  

  The build will fail with a clear error message if either key is missing.

Permissions

The app requires the following permissions:

• Location Access - For GPS tracking
• Foreground Service - For background operation

Permissions are requested at runtime on first launch.

Usage

Basic Controls

1. Start - Begin simulation; tap the play button after setting a route
2. Pause - Temporarily suspend updates (state preserved)
3. Resume - Continue from where you paused
4. Stop - End current session; the button transitions to Replay
5. Replay - Restart the simulation from the beginning
6. Seek - Tap or drag the progress bar to jump to any point in the simulation

To begin simulation, long-press on the map to set origin and destination points, which will generate a route.

To clear and start over, long-press on the map again after a route has been generated.

Roadmap

v1.2 (Current)

• ✅ Route simulation with replay
• ✅ GPS location tracking
• ✅ Pause/resume functionality
• ✅ Speed control and looping
• ✅ Error handling and recovery
• ✅ Speed multiplier UI
• ✅ Loop mode toggle
• ✅ Realistic timing option
• ✅ GPS noise injection
• ✅ Touch-seekable progress bar (tap or scrub to any position)
• ✅ Replay button after simulation ends
• ✅ Build-time and runtime API key validation

TODO

• 🚧 More elaborate testing strategy
• 🚧 Comprehensive documentation

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.