Tagging Photos With GPS Coordinates

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."

Comments

Coralized links

[Anonymous Coward]

camera mod project

tagging photos with GPS coordinates

EXIF data schema

Exif already has fields for GPS

[MDMurphy]

See exif.org for info.

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

Re:Exif already has fields for GPS

[LS]

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

Re:Exif already has fields for GPS

[bobbis.u]

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

Done along time ago

[kraksmokr]

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.

Interesting link

[bluewee]

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

The new Nikon D2x supports this natively

[neile]

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

Kodak DC390

[Multispin]

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.

Some GPS resources

[SlideGuitar]

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.

Has been done already

[canavan]

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.

Always fun

[snillfisk]

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. :)