Tagging Photos With GPS Coordinates 123
ptorrone writes "As part of a camera mod project to make a low-cost aerial photography device we started finding other uses for the camera hack. This first part of this series is tagging photos with GPS coordinates by automating a camera and GPS unit, it's a DIY Black Box for now with interesting applications and other uses. Ideally, this may encourage the next EXIF data schema to support GPS and other information."
3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:5, Interesting)
That way some sort of virtual vacation wiki could be constructed from it.
Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:1)
Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:2, Informative)
Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:2)
I so totally thought of all that two years ago. It was going to be my senior research project for my major and I'd get all sorts of kickass attention for it. Evil bastard that I am I planned to patent it and make enough money from that that I'd never have to actually get a real job and just stay in school for another decade.
It was all born out of an idea of mine to take all of my pictures and put them on my website. Then I'd draw up a map of my home, town, and university with little camera
Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:2)
Good idea (Score:2)
Summarizing:
1. A 2 axis accelerometer (mounted on camera, to get orientation of body)
2. An electronic compass (mounted on camera, to get absolute heading - GPS isn't good for this when walking)
3. GPS coordinates (to get Lat., Long., altitude, time)
4. Camera focus and zoom information (rangefinder)
Data from these 4 things gives enough information for different pic
Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle (Score:1)
To make the location info complete... (Score:5, Interesting)
It would also be nice to get altitude and the direction (in 3-D) the picture was taken.
Re:To make the location info complete... (Score:2)
Neil
Flightgear Scenery! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:To make the location info complete... (Score:1)
Direction is much harder to include. You need to have a magnetic compass and level added to the camera. The compass gets you magnetic north; using the latitude(sp?) and longitude portions of the GPS coordinates, you can get the magnetic declination for that location, and now you have true north and the direction the camera is pointing.
The level tells you wh
Re:To make the location info complete... (Score:3, Insightful)
Camera orientation can be determined extremely cheaply with a cheap electronic compass in a gimball and (optionally for more precision) a 3 axis accelerometer. The accelerometer can be pretty much the cheapest type available since it doesn't even have to be really precise, it just has to be able to determine the direction of gravi
Re:To make the location info complete... (Score:1)
crime and porn (Score:3, Funny)
The first thing I thought of when reading the article (I know.. I'm not supposed to read it before commenting...) was to imagine the chat-room housewife who doesn't realize that her camera is capturing her GPS coordinates as she does a strip show for the boys in a chatroom. Next thing you know, 100 local geeks co
Re:To make the location info complete... (Score:1)
GPS coordinates
Compass direction
Altitude
Pitch (useful for shooting at a down or up angle)
Heading direction in 3 axis (different than compass) (think rocket, boat or car nav system taking the pix)
Elapsed time (since start of day/race/vaca)
Sequence number (how many pix since start of day/race/vaca)
Photos-this-camera (how many since camera was new)
camera operational details as in previous posts and that are already in exif
Degree confluence project (Score:3, Interesting)
Coralized links (Score:3, Informative)
tagging photos with GPS coordinates [nyud.net]
EXIF data schema [nyud.net]
Re:Do you know about the related links section? (Score:1, Troll)
Hint: it's not the process of listing one per line.
Re:Do you know about the related links section? (Score:1)
Exif already has fields for GPS (Score:4, Informative)
Robophoto, OziExplorer support tagging the images from live GPS or from a log file.
Re:Exif already has fields for GPS (Score:4, Informative)
Table 12 GPS Attribute Information
(I munged this into a list and is highly abridged. I tried 10 different ways to post the table but Slashdot's fuckwitted lameness filter is fucking lame itself):
GPSVersionID, GPSLatitudeRef, GPSLatitude,
GPSLongitudeRef, GPSLongitude, GPSAltitudeRef, GPSAltitude, GPSTimeStamp, GPSSatellites, GPSStatus, GPSMeasureMode, GPSDOP, GPSSpeedRef, GPSSpeed, GPSTrackRef, GPSTrack,
GPSImgDirectionRef, GPSImgDirection, GPSMapDatum, GPSDestLatitudeRef, GPSDestLatitude, GPSDestLongitudeRef, GPSDestLongitude, GPSDestBearingRef, GPSDestBearing,
GPSDestDistanceRef, GPSDestDistance
LS
Re:Exif already has fields for GPS (Score:4, Informative)
and cameras have had this capability for years... (Score:2)
Further, VERY early digital SLRs such as the ones made by Kodak(the ones with the giant packs underneath the Nikon body) had means of recording GPS coordinates with the image.
Far as I know, nobody ever cared to actually use it, which is why only a handful of cameras even claim to do it in their specs, and even if they do, there's no way to actually use it (no cables available, no software or instructions, etc).
I doubt that will ever change much. Yeah, it's a toy. Yeah, cameraphones have GPS and camera
Re:and cameras have had this capability for years. (Score:2)
which is why
(1) that kodak also recorded which direction it was looking
(2) the exif format can includes full GPS constellation and time info, as well as just lat/long -so you can do post-processing to get a better position
I'm OUTRAGED! (Score:5, Interesting)
But instead of a specific data source (the GPS unit), why not develop a standard and just have a data plug in the side of the cam to plug *whatever* data source into? GPS, keyboard, clock, speedometer, altimeter, whatever ...
Re:I'm OUTRAGED! (Score:1)
This not flamebait. It is insightful.
why not develop a standard
Great idea. Make this ability standard for other means of embedding data and other operations via USB.
Also, I agree. I think we would be outraged if the gov't was developing this.
Why is this flamebait? MODUP
Re:I'm OUTRAGED! (Score:1)
Screw the cables! I want this to work over bluetooth.
--
Re:I'm OUTRAGED! (Score:2)
Perhaps, but I'm happy with 20% troll.
This would be a beautiful standard... (Score:3, Interesting)
High resolution? No need for that... it's just a nice little trap for people trying to say a staged photo proves something that it really doesn't. If the original film indicates a year after the date you're claiming or that you were nowhere near the place you claim the photo was taken, then you're a liar and we can forget everything you had to say...
patent? (Score:2)
Re:patent? (Score:3, Funny)
EXIF already supports GPS tags (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're using GDI+ on a Windows machine you can add the tags into your image pretty easily using either native code or your favourite
Neil
Re:EXIF already supports GPS tags (Score:3, Informative)
(Well, unless you successfully patch all your affected apps.)
Re:EXIF already supports GPS tags (Score:2)
-russ
libexif already supports GPS tags (Score:2)
Great! (Score:3, Funny)
been done.. ask around (Score:5, Interesting)
-molo
Re:been done.. ask around (Score:1)
Done along time ago (Score:3, Informative)
Similar (Score:3, Interesting)
It worked well, but I was not able to get altitude nor direction data, I plan on the future hooking up two servos to allow for directional and azumuth data to be entered as well.
This mod doesn't actually timestamp the photos (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This mod doesn't actually timestamp the photos (Score:1)
synchronize before and correlate later (Score:5, Interesting)
While new cameras offer GPS hookups, I imagine compatibility and logistics is a hassle.
Sometime, there'll be GPS in the camera, but then you have to take pictures with the camera itself in a position to receive GPS signal, and the long camera wakeup times will be even longer.
K I S S. Use a GPS that can be enhanced and specialized. Use a camera that is made for taking pictures. Correlate the data as convenient.
Re:synchronize before and correlate later (Score:3, Informative)
Don't really need it fo
Re:synchronize before and correlate later (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think you'd want to lug a 6 pound camera plus lenses up Longs Peak if you could carry a small camera and a small GPS unit. If you're not making poster-sized prints of your hiking trips, the correlation method would be fine. Just use a GPS unit that can store a track (i.e., points every 1 seco
Re:synchronize before and correlate later (Score:1)
just use a bluetooth GPS (Score:1)
You could then keep the GPS in your pocket or strapped on your backpack.
Clever. (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, I recently saw a TV show where they had to track down a killer based off of some digital pictures a murder victim had snapped shortly before getting killed. This technology would have made that murder much easier to solve... of course this probably has never happened in real life.
May become a "standard" feature in a few years... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:May become a "standard" feature in a few years. (Score:1)
The Navman GPS4410 is a bluetooth GPS module, which has a battery life of 30 hours. See here [navman.com] for more details.
While it's primarily used for car navigation, you can get GPS NMEA data out of it (here [vancouver-webpages.com] is a good info site) which is the standard for GPS receivers.
It would be relatively easy to write a Palm/IPAQ/other app to record coordinates/tracks so you could tie them into your photos later.
Rob :)
Battery Life... (Score:2)
Are you sure about that? My (rather old) Garmin handheld GPS runs for about 12 solid hours continuously on a set of new AA alkaline penlight batteries. But, my digital camera is only good for about 2 hours on a set of the same AA batteries, and only about 20 minutes if I leave its LCD screen turned on.
Re:Battery Life... (Score:2)
Re:May become a "standard" feature in a few years. (Score:2)
You should mail this to yourself, keep it sealed, and submit it as prior art when XYZ corp gets a patent for it.
Re:May become a "standard" feature in a few years. (Score:1)
No need, it's now SlashArchived with date and time stamp (and when Google cache it it will be GoogleArchived as well - long enough for the Wayback Machine to get it too?)
The web can usefully (and worryingly/annoyingly) persistent.
Interesting link (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Interesting link (Score:3, Informative)
It's great software if you're into this kinda thing.
The new Nikon D2x supports this natively (Score:4, Informative)
"External GPS units that adhere to the NMEA 0183 specification are supported (the new MC-35 adapter cable, which connects to the 10-pin remote port on the camera and provides both an RS-232 serial port and 10-pin remote port, is required); latitude, longitude and altitude can be stored in a photo's metadata. The D2X's date and time can also be set automatically when a GPS unit is connected"
Full walkthrough of the new features in the D2x at http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?c
Neil
Re:The new Nikon D2x supports this natively (Score:1)
http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/digitalcam era/slr/d1x/ [nikonimaging.com]
I hacked up a cable to plug into my D1X, as they didn't provide one. Not sure if the D2X's interface is similar or not.
Here's a link to an outfit that will apparently sell you a premade one for the D1X : http://pfranc.com/projects/g45contr/nikon.htm [pfranc.com]
It's been done before. (Score:3, Informative)
I've *so* wanted this for a long long time (Score:1)
- Location
- Direction
- Altitude
Just the first one would be nice, but everything would be really neat.
Especially neat would be software that could take advantage of this information and create 3D models complete with textures by stitching together the files.
Same here, for point scouting (Score:1)
You can also correlate the data later (Score:1, Redundant)
I did this a while ago, with the program outputting an SVG map of my track history, with clickable dots everywhere a picture was taken. Click the dot, see the picture. I overlaid it all on a sattelite map of the city (Winnipeg), just because I could.
The critical step is that you need to t
Re:You can also correlate the data later (Score:1)
Re:You can also correlate the data later (Score:1)
Principle looks good (Score:1)
I'd like to see a stripped down version that could be more readily used in model plane applications.
A guy I work with has stripped down an old Palm Pilot and is hacking it to process air speed data in order to adjust the flaps. I don't know how much a glider could carry. If you could have automated flight, GPS, images and some form of communications that would be such a cool toy.
What kind of plane are you planning on mounting
kodak had this during digicam hayday (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/profession
They seem to hava abandoned it. Silly to do for such a simple and useful feature. Hope the new project takes off.
Kodak DC390 (Score:3, Informative)
Some GPS resources (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.geosnapper.com/ [geosnapper.com]
There exist Japan only (not ever marketed in the US) point and shoot cameras that already record GPS data directly. (Rioch... and some other brand I haven't heard of.)
And of course various Nikon pro models have this capacity, such as that used here:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/ [californiacoastline.org]
In the same vein, check out:
http://apps.ecy.wa.gov/shorephotos/index.html [wa.gov]
I haven't evaluated this: http://www.robogeo.com/home/ [robogeo.com]
But I do own this, and it works well, as advertised to get a GPS read for each time at which you take a picture: http://www.geospatialexperts.com/ [geospatialexperts.com]
At the above location, they happen to sell the Ricoh model that can record GPS out of the box.
Sony Pro Cameras... (Score:1)
Re:Sony Pro Cameras... (Score:3, Insightful)
or, more precisely, where the camera was when the photo was taken.
Re:Sony Pro Cameras... (Score:1)
or, more precisely, where the rear half of the camera was when 29.97 photos per second were taken.
perhaps you could find better use for your time? 0.o
Re:Sony Pro Cameras... (Score:2)
Has been done already (Score:4, Informative)
Here's an article on connecting a GPS to a Kodak digital SLR [kodak.com], and if you google a bit, you will find that most of the old digita-OS based cameras (e.g. DC290) support this.
Always fun (Score:4, Informative)
We've done several interesting projects in relevance to this, and the probably biggest field of usage would be the utility and maintenance industry.
We're currently submitting the data from the phone, tagged with a location or a track, to a Java-based server. This server can in turn store the data locally to be retrieved from another phone with additional information (like a regular map) and/or pass the data on to a webserver where the repository can be browsed from a normal web browser. The application may be tested on The OneMap GeoMeta Browser Client [onemap.org]. This is part of Project OneMap [onemap.org], a project where we aim to build a completly free and freely managed geodata repository.
There is still much work going on in this field, but the japanese are 2 years ahead of everyone else. Several of their phones already have built in GPS-receivers and tag the images they capture automagically (this was done as early as in 2002). There still isn't any regular consumer interest for this in Europe or the US, but we could all hope for a better future.
Photo album with GPS coordinates (Score:2, Interesting)
I did this last Spring (Score:1)
The picture component of the system didn't work for my trip but the XMLRPC through the Treo worked great. It was a trip to the East Coast from Chicago, and it got everything till we hit the dark territory of PA, when we lost the connection.
It was a bloody mess of w
Where's Waldo? (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm confused (Score:2, Insightful)
"... and here's a picture of me in my tin-foil hat at coordinates XY..."
Umm Yeah? (Score:5, Interesting)
Works great... and has for several years
Re:Umm Yeah? (GPS on a Nikon Coolpix 950) (Score:1)
My old Japanese camera phone did this (Score:2, Interesting)
Exciting when collaborated (Score:1)
BE!
.
-shpoffo
Flickr Mod (Score:3, Interesting)
It also would make for some interesting searches. In theory, if they kept track of points, vectors, and times... and lets say that you kept track of the same info, then you could search for all photos that include you!! Also, depending on if th
This might help.... (Score:1)
How about tagging video...? (Score:2, Interesting)
Nikon (Score:1)
You're making this too complicated... (Score:2)
Cameras timestamp their photos. GPSs can maintain tracklogs of where they go with timestamps. You don't have to connect them with a tangle of wires. Just keeep the time on your camera relatively close to right and post process the tracklog when you download the pictures.
Yeah this is great news!! (Score:1)
"Support for GPS, a very nice feature of D1X and D1H, has quite unexpectedly been removed from D2H."
So this isn't exactly a new thing though..
Microsoft's World-Wide Media Exchange (Score:1)
http://wwmx.org/ [wwmx.org]
The World Wide Media Exchange project is geared towards sharing GeoCoded Photos. The project is cool but I found more interesing the downloads section which have some slick tools for downloading tracks from Garmin GPS devices as well for stamping images with location info. A GPS is not required for geocoding the images since the Location Stamping tool allows for manual stamping using MapPoint maps. There is also a tool for creating a w
Hot shoe maybe (Score:1)
being essentially a switch it shouldnt be too difficult to use this as a trigger
signal "picture taken" to trigger the collection of time stamped gps data.
just a thought
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Kodak Field Imaging System FIS265 (Score:1)