Satellite Year Zero: delivering safety info from off-grid to LEO satellites 🛰 with Android DTC (Direct to Cell) complete guide
summary
An Android-focused session about implementing Direct-to-Cell (DTC) via LEO satellites in Japan: it describes building a hiking safety app (anzenmap) that auto-sends location SMS over au’s DTC service, lessons from ~30 hours of field tests, and Android 15 APIs that expose satellite connection state. The talk explains practical constraints (few satellites, brief contact windows, unreliable connection flags), and the app-level approach used to maximize delivery: offline satellite pass prediction, terrain masking with government elevation tiles, scheduling transmissions, and an SMS gateway to validate real-world usability and battery impact.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (14)
- 0:00Satellite Year Zero intro
- 1:25Direct to Cell services
- 6:44Satellite orbits basics
- 9:15Starlink Direct to Cell tech
- 11:24Coverage areas and limits
- 13:34Android SDK for satellites
- 15:22OS with satellite connectivity
- 17:09Messaging app satellite mode
- 21:25Safety app mountaineering
- 25:16Hardware field testing
- 29:33Detecting satellite states
- 33:40Native app implementation
- 36:28Real-world battery results
- 37:53Summary
related talks
17mSpace Race: What matters in NTN IoT LoRaWAN
14mLightning Talk: Where the Heck Am I? Understanding Location in your Application
53mNo Signal, No Problem: How We Collect Data in the Most Remote Places
05mCrisis Mapping
50mDo you know where you are? How satellites keep us from getting lost
41mBuilding Exceptional Android Location Experiences with Mapbox
14mThe Future of Android Location Services
37mWhere the Heck Am I? Understanding and Managing Location in Your Application