distance - Generating random locations nearby?

I am trying to create random locations nearby my location. What i want is to create random latitude/longitude pairs inside a 200 meters circle surrounding my location.

This is the formula i came up with (with the help of people at StackOverFlow): (Random number between -1 and 1)*radius + (old longitude) = new longitude within radius of old longitude

(Random number between -1 and 1)*radius + (old latitude) = new latitude within radius of old latitude

The thing is that something weird is happening with my implementation because all the random locations are too near of my location center, it seems that the formula does not cover the whole radius.

Any idea of what could be wrong with my formula?

Edited to show the current java implementation:

public static Location getLocation(Location location, int radius) {
    Random random = new Random();

    // Convert radius from meters to degrees
    double radiusInDegrees = radius / METERS_IN_DEGREES;


    double x0 = location.getLongitude() * 1E6;
    double y0 = location.getLatitude() * 1E6;
    double u = random.nextInt(1001) / 1000;
    double v = random.nextInt(1001) / 1000;
    double w = radiusInDegrees * Math.sqrt(u);
    double t = 2 * Math.PI * v;
    double x = w * Math.cos(t);
    double y = w * Math.sin(t);

    // Adjust the x-coordinate for the shrinking of the east-west distances

    double new_x = x / Math.cos(y0);

    // Set the adjusted location
    Location newLocation = new Location("Loc in radius");
    newLocation.setLongitude(new_x + x0);
    newLocation.setLatitude(y + y0);

    return newLocation;
}

I am not sure what i am doing wrong, because the new locations are created in the middle of the sea.

Any idea?

Answer

This is tricky for two reasons: first, limiting the points to a circle instead of a square; second, accounting for distortions in the distance calculations.

Many GISes include capabilities that automatically and transparently handle both complications. However, the tags here suggest that a GIS-independent description of an algorithm may be desirable.

1. 
   

   To generate points uniformly, randomly, and independently within a circle of radius r around a location (x0, y0), start by generating two independent uniform random values u and v in the interval [0, 1). (This is what almost every random number generator provides you.) Compute

   
   

   w = r * sqrt(u)
   t = 2 * Pi * v
   
   x = w * cos(t) 
   y = w * sin(t)
   

   
   

   The desired random point is at location (x+x0, y+y0).

   
   


2. 
   

   When using geographic (lat,lon) coordinates, then x0 (longitude) and y0 (latitude) will be in degrees but r will most likely be in meters (or feet or miles or some other linear measurement). First, convert the radius r into degrees as if you were located near the equator. Here, there are about 111,300 meters in a degree.

   
   

   Second, after generating x and y as in step (1), adjust the x-coordinate for the shrinking of the east-west distances:

   
   

   x' = x / cos(y0)
   

   
   
   

   The desired random point is at location (x'+x0, y+y0). This is an approximate procedure. For small radii (less than a few hundred kilometers) that do not extend over either pole of the earth, it will usually be so accurate you cannot detect any error even when generating tens of thousands of random points around each center (x0,y0).