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Tagging Photos With GPS Coordinates

Posted by timothy on from the good-for-areas-51-through-67 dept.

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."

18 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Coralized links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    camera mod project

    tagging photos with GPS coordinates

    EXIF data schema

  2. Exif already has fields for GPS by MDMurphy · · Score: 3, Informative

    See exif.org for info.

    Robophoto, OziExplorer support tagging the images from live GPS or from a log file.

    1. Re:Exif already has fields for GPS by LS · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is true. EXIF 2.1 defines an IFD section specifically for GPS. From page 56 of the EXIF 2.1 standard:

      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

      --
      There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
    2. Re:Exif already has fields for GPS by bobbis.u · · Score: 3, Informative
      You beat me to it... sort of. Here is a full, human-readable list of the fields supported in exif 2.2.
      • GPS tag version
      • North or South Latitude
      • Latitude
      • East or West Longitude
      • Longitude
      • Altitude reference
      • Altitude
      • GPS time (atomic clock)
      • GPS satellites used for measurement
      • GPS receiver status
      • GPS measurement mode
      • Measurement precision
      • Speed unit
      • Speed of GPS receiver
      • Reference for direction of movement
      • Direction of movement
      • Reference for direction of image
      • Direction of image
      • Geodetic survey data used
      • Reference for latitude of destination
      • Latitude of destination
      • Reference for longitude of destination
      • Longitude of destination
      • Reference for bearing of destination
      • Bearing of destination
      • Reference for distance to destination
      • Distance to destination
      • Name of GPS processing method
      • Name of GPS area
      • GPS date
      • GPS differential correction
  3. Done along time ago by kraksmokr · · Score: 3, Informative

    This was done along time ago with Kodak cameras. The cameras actually run a scripting language. A script can be written to read from a serial port and superimpose the coordinates onto the picture much like the time/date stamps.

  4. This mod doesn't actually timestamp the photos by JustAnotherBob · · Score: 2, Informative

    All this did was record time and gps cordinates on the Garmin GPS unit, and have the camera continiously take pictures at a rate of 800 photos an hour. You still have to process the GPS data from the garmin unit and corrolate it with the app USAPhotoMaps to trace it out.

  5. Interesting link by bluewee · · Score: 3, Informative

    It seems that there is also a software based solution as well: http://www.inertia-llc.com/sandbox/topofusiontest/

    --
    [blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
    1. Re:Interesting link by 3dr · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have been using the featured software, TopoFusion, for nearly a year to map trail networks. It keys photographs to positions by matching timestamps, a very easy and effective technique.

      It's great software if you're into this kinda thing.

  6. The new Nikon D2x supports this natively by neile · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's almost enough to make me give up my Canon. Almost, except for all those pesky Canon lenses I have... :)

    "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?ci d=7-6459-7204-7205.

    Neil

  7. It's been done before. by sakusha · · Score: 2, Informative
    Nikon has a new camera with a connector to GPS units.

    ...GPS support for the recording of location information with shooting data: Location information such as latitude, longitude and altitude can be transferred from a GPS device and recorded with the shooting data for an image. Nikon has developed the new MC-35 cable (optional) for connection to NMEA0183-compatible GPS devices.
  8. Re:EXIF already supports GPS tags by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you're using GDI+ on a Windows machine... ... you're fucked!

    (Well, unless you successfully patch all your affected apps.)

    --
    Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  9. Re:synchronize before and correlate later by xmas2003 · · Score: 2, Informative
    An easier approach (if you can afford it) is to buy a late model DSLR that supports this "natively" - for instance, here is Nikon's writeups about it which tags the image are you take it. Combine that with wireless base unit (the latest one support 802.11g instead of b) and you are ready to rock-n-roll. Digicam vendors have historically used the USB port mostly for sending images OUT ... but they are realizing it may be "interesting" to use it to feed information IN as in this case.

    Don't really need it for static stuff such as my christmas lights but if you do something like climb Longs Peak it would be really nice to know exactly where you shot the pictures ... plus with the GPS feed, you have exact timestamping.

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  10. Kodak DC390 by Multispin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Um, my Kodak DC390 (and other Digita-based cameras) supported this ages ago. Someone wrote a Digita app that talked to a GPS via the serial port and added EXIF tags to the images. Heck, I think that Kodak even sold a Garmin GPS and a special bracket that screwed into the tripod hole to hold the GPS.

  11. Some GPS resources by SlideGuitar · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't my web site but I wish it were:
    http://www.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/

    In the same vein, check out:
    http://apps.ecy.wa.gov/shorephotos/index.html

    I haven't evaluated this: http://www.robogeo.com/home/

    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/

    At the above location, they happen to sell the Ricoh model that can record GPS out of the box.

  12. Has been done already by canavan · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the past there was a kit for some Kodak cameras to connect a normal handheld GPS receiver with NEMA output to the serial port of the camera. I think they overlayed the coordiantes as text onto the picture. I doubt the newer cameras even have a serial port, but the old ones are dirt cheap now.

    Here's an article on connecting a GPS to a Kodak digital SLR, and if you google a bit, you will find that most of the old digita-OS based cameras (e.g. DC290) support this.

  13. Always fun by snillfisk · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is not really a new way to do stuff, and as several other has pointed out, the EXIF-standard already has fields for geographical placement. A new dimension is provided in the data, and allows us to do a whole new range of applications. We've built a small application on Symbian OS (currently running under Personal Java, and another solution in development running under Symbian OS natively) which tags images, audio and other information on a cellular phone (we use the Ericsson P900) with location (provided by an gps with a bluetooth interface).

    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. This is part of Project OneMap, 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. :)

    --
    mats
    One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  14. Re:3D Jigsaw puzzle by pbrammer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Focal length is recorded in most high-end digital cameras... The Canon 10D I own does.

  15. in Japan camera phone's have GPS built in by greggman · · Score: 2, Informative

    and you can tag your pictures.

    Here's a way cool example:

    http://www.downgoesthesystem.com/devzone/exiftest/ final/