Science Library Pad

Flickr directly to Google Earth, using KML network link

Flickr has a new &format=kml_nl option, which generates a network link that Google Earth can read to display the selected photos.

Here's an example for my feed, photos taken in France

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/geo/france/?id=48889071218@N01&format=kml_nl

and photos taken in Paris

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/geo/fr/paris/?id=48889071218@N01&format=kml_nl

There's detailed information at

http://geobloggers.com/archives/2007/05/31/flickr-kml-and-a-stroll-down-memory-lane/

via discussion group Geotagging Flickr

citizen journalists - Scoopt photos

You send your news-worthy photos (or videos) to Scoopt, they try to sell them to the media.  (Err, and they also are the media, now that they're owned by Getty Images.)

Interestingly there is a cross-promotion with the Sony Ericsson K800/K790 cameraphone

If you buy a new Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot cameraphone – that's a K790i or K800i with a cracking 3.2 megapixel camera - check out the Internet link on the main menu. There you should find a link straight to Scoopt!

Note: Phone menus will differ depending on cellphone provider and country.

successfully geocoded photos

I have to write this down immediately because the steps are rather more complex than I would like, and I'm likely to forget them again.

1. Download photos from camera
2. Download GPS tracks

2a. Connect GPS logger via USB
2b. Power ON Globalsat GPS logger

(I will have more to say about my new GPS logger in a future posting.)  UPDATE 2007-05-06: See my review of the Globalsat DG-100 GPS data logger for more info.  ENDUPDATE

In my case, use latest version of GS Data Logger Utility S-0PC-0L-07031401 (I downloaded it from the support site).

then

(download all the files TrackRecord->Load Track Points... )

Once you have them all

File->Select All Files
Map->View Point (wait for them all to be processed, it may take a while)
File->Export->GPX File...

3. Determine GMT and camera offsets

Note: RoboGEO measures GMT offsets in minutes GMT is AHEAD of your local time
(the opposite of the way timezones are usually measured)
and camera time error offset in seconds. 

I had of course forgotten to set my camera time, so it was in my local and was a minute slow

4. Set RoboGEO prefs accordingly

File->Preferences->Common Settings

CameraOffset -60 [save]
UtcTimeBias +240 [save] (camera was set to Eastern time zone, GMT-4, so GMT is four hours ahead)

This time setting is so confusing that I am just going to set my camera to accurate UTC in the future.
(I will have more to say about time in a later posting.)

If you're wondering if a minute matters (the camera time offset), the answer is very much yes.  A minute (even when walking) is a very visible difference in location accuracy (basically without this correction, my photos would all be placed several meters behind the actual location they were taken).

4. Load and process in RoboGEO

4a. Select directory with images (Step #1 "Select an entire folder")
4b. Since it's a GPX file, load as tracklog (Step #2 "From a tracklog file")

5. Verify positions in Google Earth from RoboGEO

Step #3 "Export to Google Earth"

Note: RoboGEO does not auto-rotate images (taken in portrait mode 90 degrees), which kinda sucks in terms of Google Earth display for those images.

6. Once positions are verified, write to EXIF from RoboGEO

Step #3 "Write the location data to the EXIF headers"

whew

Just for completeness, if you want to upload to Flickr and have the (now EXIF location stamped) photos automatically mapped, make sure you set

http://www.flickr.com/account/geo/exif

BEFORE you upload, and DO NOT resize using the uploader (it will lose the EXIF location data if you do).

For more info, see my permanent reference page on geocoding photos.

GeoRSS makes Flickr photos in Google maps easy

Standard data formats enable powerful interoperability.
For example, Google's new support for GeoRSS means that (if you have already geocoded your photos in Flickr), you can easily plot your photo feed on a Google Map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne%3Fid%3D48889071218%40N01%26format%3Drss_200%26georss%3Dtrue&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=7&om=1&iwloc=G

Simply locate the feed link on your Flickr page, e.g.

Feed – Subscribe to rakerman's photos

copy the link, add &georss=true on the end, and paste it into the Google Maps search box.

via MAKE - GeoRSS with Google and MyMaps...

Here's what it looks like

shall all have photography prizes?

The Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne Switzerland wants to put your work on their gallery walls. You can upload your photographs via the web and if selected, they'll email you a photograph of your work on display in the gallery. Check out We Are All Photographers Now! for more information on how to participate.

via FlickrBlog

in search of Autumn - a real-world quest

Anyone who has obsessively searched for a piece of information will appreciate this tale from Vanity Fair, about the search for the location of a treasured desktop wallpaper

Autumn and the Plot Against Me

via Digg

my review of the Sony K790 cameraphone

Summary

This is a very full-featured phone, with a lot of great capabilities.  If you're looking for a phone plus an MP3 player, FM radio, and camera, this may be a good choice for you.  The phone does not have built-in GPS.

As low as $200 from Rogers if you take a first-time three-year contract.  As low as $300 from Rogers if you have an existing contract and extend it for three years.  $410 direct from Sony Style Canada, without any contract.

Minimum user available memory: 64 MB (mine actually had about 74MB free).  Expandable with Memory Stick Micro (M2) card.  Used a 1GB card, $55 from Sony Style Canada.  Current maximum available is 2GB.

Headphones, power, USB etc. connect with proprietary Sony Fast Port connector.  Power cable has passthrough to connect another Fast Port accessory while charging.  It also charges automatically when plugged into USB (which may save you hauling around the power cable, e.g. if you have a laptop).  Adapter to use regular headphones is available.

You can semi-automatically geocode photos, but only with the addition of an external Bluetooth GPS (not included) and added software

May be available unlocked from various vendors, in the US you can try e.g. Amazon, searching Sony k790.  Here's a link to one result I found:

Amazon.com - Sony K790a (unlocked) from Soar Dime

Details

This phone has a huge number of features, I will walk through the ones of interest to me item-by-item.
As some background, I had a number of drivers.  I wanted to see what the state of the art was for cellphone as integration platform.  I wanted to have a camera all the time, without having to remember to bring my Canon PowerShot, so that when I'm walking down the street and think "hey, that would be a great shot" I can actually take the photo.  And I dreamed that perhaps the phone GPS + camera capabilities might let me automatically geocode photos.  I also wanted international roaming, but most any Rogers GSM phone on a contract plan would have given me that.

First I did a quick comparison survey to see what advanced phones were available and coming, and picked the K790.  Check the survey for more info about the K790's capabilities.

I learned a few things: one, there is a "conceptual" base unlocked phone, and then there is the actual phone as modified by your wireless carrier - not all features the phone supports may be available.  Also, wireless Internet over cellphone from Rogers is bloody expensive, which limits a lot of the Java Internet stuff you may want to do.

Here's the phone (with strap attached) and the M2 memory card, next to a pen for comparison

It comes with lots of accessories: power cable, USB cable, headphones/handsfree microphone.

(above photo taken with the phone itself)

Computer Features: Supplied Windows Software

It comes with a CD, many many drivers are installed, including modem and Ethernet capabilities.

It does not include the Sony Picture Motion software that comes with some Sony Cybershot cameras, which means that the automatic map integration provided by the Sony GPS-CS1 is not available (you can still use the Sony GPS software and software like RoboGEO - see my GPS-CS1 review for more info).

There are two modes for connection: "Phone mode", in which the phone continues to operate and in which you can do file transfers.  Then, confusingly, USB "File Transfer" mode, in which the phone ceases to operate (in terms of receiving calls), and which is required in order to use the music transfer (Disc2Phone) and photo download (Adobe Photoshop Album Starter 3) software.

Features: Digital Music Player

They provide an application Disc2Phone to move music to the phone. Many formats: MP3 etc. (Although it supports AAC, don't interpret that to mean Protected AAC; it will not play DRMed files from the iTunes Music Store.)

The interface on the phone is the usual navigation by Artist, Track or Genre.  You can also make playlists.

Features: Flight Mode

Can you listen to your tunes on the plane?  Yes.  There is a flight mode that turns off all the radio features (cellphone, FM radio, Bluetooth).  This may seem like a somewhat obscure need, but I actually bought my iPod mainly to listen to audiobooks on the plane.

Features: FM Radio

Requires the headphones (the headphone cord is the antenna).  Works well, nice clean interface.

Features: Blogger

Built-in Blogger integration (mainly intended for photo blogging)

http://www.sonyericsson.com/product/blog/

is not supported by Rogers.

Features: Google Search

Does have built-in Google Search, available from "Activity Menu Key", * Internet->Search Internet

Features: Email

UPDATE 2007-05-08:

Rogers

If you want to avoid data charges, Rogers has an SMS-to-email bi-directional gateway.  Simply compose a text message:

[email protected] (subject) body of message

and send it to address 0000000000

Your email address will be [email protected] where aaabbbcccc is your phone number.  (The client is actually a bit more sophisticated, you can send it a message to set an alias so you can change it to e.g. [email protected] - text alias yourname to 0000000000 - you can also set your name by texting name Firstname Lastname to the same address.)

Built-in Client

The built-in email client is actually quite powerful.  It's available under Messages->Write New->Email or you can access your email inbox and settings (separate from your text message inbox and settings) under Messages->Email.  Note that this will use your data plan.  I set up a Rogers Internet secondary account for my phone, but presumably you could use any POP or IMAP accessible email account (e.g. Gmail).

You may need to get connection settings.  You can go to www.sonyericsson.com/support and get sent basic settings by SMS.  Once you have those settings, here is an example for a Rogers email address.  (Note: You probably don't want to do this with your mail Rogers account, since you'll end up with some of your email permanently on your phone.  That's why I created a new secondary account.)

Messages->Email->Settings

Create a new account - Account Name of your choice

Connect Using: Rogers Internet (there are many choices, this seemed the most logical one)

Email Address: [email protected]

Connection Type: POP3 (I chose this for Rogers) or IMAP

Incoming Server: pop.broadband.rogers.com

Username: foo

Outgoing Server: smtp.broadband.rogers.com

No Advanced Settings need to be set (although you might want to set Your Name).

That's it.  You should now be able to send and receive emails, including sending photos.

Note: Sending photos by email doesn't work from the photo browser (Cyber-shot->View->Send->As Picture Msg.) - even if you select an email address, it will send the photo to picturemessaging.rogers.com and send an email to the selected address to check out the photo there (Rogers trying to lock you in to their online photo service).

In order to email a photo, you need to either

1) use the file browser: File Manager->Camera Album (select image) More->Send->As Email

or

2) select as a file attachment to an email: Messages->Write New->Email select Attachments Add->Picture

ENDUPDATE

Features: Camera

Turn sideways.  Open camera lens cover.  Press focus button - focus button has a slight metal bump next to it - sometimes press bump by mistake.

Flickr

You can upload to Flickr directly, using mobile Internet to

m.flickr.com

Entering in your username and password (and any textual information) is quite tedious though.

The phone seems to have a bit of a split camera/phone personality.
For example, it would seem logical to do

Flickr->Upload a photo
Select

(Phone Menu that came up automatically) Select File->Camera Picture

but when I do that, I get "Another application is running.  Close it, and then start the camera."  What the heck?  So ok fine, I go to the next logical

(Phone Menu that came up automatically) Select File->Picture

but none of my photos are there, just some pre-loaded little images.
It transpires that I have to do

(Phone) Main Sony Menu->File Manager->All Files->Camera Album

then select the image I want, then More->Manage File->Copy->Phone->Pictures

Well, that wasn't confusing or anything.  I have to copy pictures from the... phone... to the... phone.
All completely logical.
Why doesn't Camera Album come up as a choice in the Select Files automenu?  What's the difference between "Camera Album" and "Camera Pictures"?

Anyhoo, once you have the image copied into Pictures it can be... slowly... uploaded.  It is NOT automatically geotagged/geocoded.

Rogers

Rogers has its own, rather confusing, online picture service.

You go to rogers.com/mypix which takes you to

http://www.picturemessaging.rogers.com/

Pictures I had sent were in Messages->Stored Messages, and could be copied to a photo album from there.  It's not clear to me whether "photo album" images can actually be shared on the Internet, or only sent to other phones via MMS.

Sony Ericsson

Provides free storage space, I haven't tested it much.  Go to

http://www.sonyericsson.com/fun/wxhtml/overview1?cc=CA&lc=en&lf_res=ca&remove=?

Photo Quality

Here are two photos, roughly the same shot, taken in nice bright sunlight, first one from the K790 (set to "normal" quality) and then one from my Canon PowerShot S70

I'm afraid I have to characterize the camera in the K790 as merely adequate.  This is not too surprising - there is not much room to put in good lens optics - as it is, the lens is a bulge on the back of the phone.  I find the K790 tends to have substantial blur on edges, rather than having clean sharp lines.  And I am not a particularly picky photographer.  That being said, the camera is more than fine for sending picture messages or even taking casual pics - which is all I wanted.

(I don't think this is a megapixel issue, I took thousands of pictures with my 3 megapixel Canon PowerShot S20 and they were sharp even when blown up to huge 20"x30" prints.)

UPDATE 2007-03-02: There is an option to choose between "normal" and "fine" (higher-quality) photos, in Settings->Picture Quality.  I believe that "fine" mode just adjusts the JPEG compression, thus resulting in larger image files where more of the fine details should be retained.

The camera has many settings, just like a regular digital camera, I won't go into them all.  I recommend the extensive review of the photographic capabilities from Mobile-review.com, as part of their detailed examination of the K790.

ENDUPDATE

On Flickr

Unfortunately Flickr considers all the variant models of the K790 (K800x and K790x) to be completely different.  You can see photos from the various models at

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/k790a/ (North America)

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/k790i/ (international except NA and China)

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/k790c/ (China)

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/sonyericsson/k800i/

Automatically Geocoding

This is a bit of a dream of mine: take a photo and have it automatically stamped with its location.  For more details, see my geocoding photos page.  I can report that we are... almost... there.  Although I had seen the K790 reported as having a GPS, there certainly weren't any Java-accessible built-in GPS features available to the software I downloaded.  (All cellphones must have positioning capability for enhanced 911, but it gets rather obscure rather quickly how many of them have full GPS built-in.)

The software that was best was j2memap.  A bit difficult to get the right version installed (I managed to get 0.914 eventually) but then very smooth - it requested access to the Internet (I assume this is combination of the phone and Java doing the request) and then was able to locate the Bluetooth GPS I had paired with the phone (my Holux GPSlim236).  Pulled down the Google satellite image of where I was standing, very cool (and as I mentioned before, unfortunately very expensive due to Internet costs on the phone).   You can take a picture using the software and it will send it to Flickr  along with the geotags for your location.  Therein lies the "almost" automatic bit.  It's not clear whether Flickr will, in the background, convert machine geotags (geo:lat, geo:lon) into a map link, or whether you have to manually run Flickr's (hidden feature) Geo Import each time.  It also doesn't appear to be possible to set either photo privacy or location privacy when uploading.

Anyway, kudos to the j2memap people for an amazing application - it's a shame I won't be able to use it much, due to the outrageous 3 cent to 5 cent per kilobyte Internet data charges from Rogers.

I also attempted to use Shozu, but it asked for a whole bunch of Java rights settings, and then wanted me to enter a bunch of APN info for Internet access that I know nothing about, and I'm pretty sure they asked for my phone number too.

Features: Strap

The strap itself is thick, but it connects to the phone via a very thin string; I am dubious about the ability of this string to withstand much abuse.  Worst of both worlds - thick inflexible strap with thin connection to actual phone.

Computer Features: Automatic Update

The ability to automatically update the software on the phone is provided.  I do not recommend this procedure, unless you either have a major bug you know will be fixed, or a major feature that will be added.  You are basically doing a firmware replacement - anyone familiar with this term will already be shuddering.  You have to remove the SIM card and place the phone in a special update mode.  The problem: if the update fails, your phone may be dead.  Totally dead.  No power-on, no way (AFAIK) to reset.  As you may guess, this happened to me with the update process, which reported rather bizarre completion percentages, then died partway through, declaring "your phone software is up-to-date".  My phone was, in fact, totally dead.  Very fortunately, I was able to reboot and re-run the update, which completed successfully and brought my phone back to life.

Features: Expand Memory with M2 card

This is easy to do, just stick the card in the side.  As with many such devices, it has quite a strong partitioning between the memory card and the internal phone memory - you have to designate stuff to go to one or the other.

Compatibility: Mac (as USB drive)

While there is no Mac software, you can just plug the phone in as a USB drive on the Mac, if you want to download photos or upload music.  You don't have to do anything special, just put it in file transfer mode and plug it in.  The phone and memory card show up separately.

(I assume it will also work in Linux in the same way, but I haven't tested it.)

Feature: Remote Control (using Bluetooth)

UPDATE 2007-02-24: This phone has so many features I'm sure it will take me months to explore them all.  One I just tried is using the phone as a remote control, over Bluetooth.  The whole procedure went very smoothly (the way these technology things should work, but usually don't).  Turn Bluetooth on in the cellphone, make the phone visible.  Then on my Mac PowerBook (OS X 10.4.8) laptop also turn on Bluetooth and discover the phone.  The Mac detected and paired with the phone no problem, and gave the following capabilitity options: address book, modem and remote control.  I clicked to agree and that was it.  Set the phone into Remote Control - Presenter mode

The above shows the screen that comes up in Presenter mode, showing the remapping of various phone keys.

The main controls for slides are the up/down buttons on the right side of the phone - very nice ergonomics if you're holding the phone in your hand - just use your thumb, no need to even look down at the phone.  Fired up Keynote 3 and started playing a presentation - clicking the slides back and forth just worked automatically.  Also worked fine with Mac PowerPoint X.  My preference when presenting is to be able to walk around, and I've always wanted one of those clickers that some presenters have, but I was never willing to shell out for one, particularly without being sure that it would work with the Mac.

I will definitely be trying this out in my next presentation.  (Although I wonder: what happens when you get a phone call in the middle of your presentation?)

A nifty addition to the phone, and kudos to Sony Ericsson and Apple for making it all work more or less automagically, although it's not entirely clear to me how to reconnect for Remote Control without having to re-do Bluetooth discovery on the Mac again.

Another potential external device consolidated into the phone.

You can find it under Menu->Entertainment->Remote Control

And for the sharp-eyed amongst you, yes, Remote Control - Desktop option makes the phone work like a remote mouse, the mini-joystick on the phone can be used to remotely control the mouse pointer, and you can do mouse clicks and access a limited number of keyboard keys as well.  Also kind of cool although I'm not sure I will ever use Desktop mode in practice.

ENDUPDATE

Other Comments and Notes

Phone so good at power saving it's difficult to tell when it's on. Very quick to black screen.  No time or charging display (when in black screen powersaving mode).  "Themes" create somewhat distracting screen - time for some reason either tiny and hard to read, or larger but faint and hard to read - would prefer to have nice bright clear time on the display.  Couldn't find a built-in theme that didn't interfere with reading the time.

UPDATE 2007-03-01: When the phone is in standby (black screen) mode, you can press the up/down (zoom in/out) buttons on the right-hand side of the phone to briefly display a plain grey screen that shows just the current time (in black).  ENDUPDATE

Yahoo Go is not supported on any Sony Ericsson phones, neither is Yahoo ZoneTag.

You can download MP3 ringtunes from Sony for free, but it won't let you set them (Rogers prevents you from using MP3s as ringtones).

UPDATE 2007-04-17: In response to a comment, the easiest way to get downloads for your phone is to go to

http://www.sonyericsson.com/

then select your country and phone, and go to "Fun & Downloads".

The specific link for Canada K790 is

http://www.sonyericsson.com/fun/wxhtml/download1/download1_1?cc=CA&lc=en&products=K790a

There may also be a built-in link on your phone itself, check your Internet links (click the button on the right face of the phone, between the right -- and the C key, it's the * tab in the display that comes up).

ENDUPDATE

Developer Info

http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/products/phonegallery/k790/p_k790.jsp

Java - Sony Ericsson's Java™ Platform 7 (JP-7) / Java Micro Edition - appears to be the main platform for K790 applications.

In Conclusion

I really am pleased with the phone overall.  I am hoping I can use it in many cases to eliminate carrying an iPod, and in some cases to eliminate carrying a camera.  It's unfortunate that in-phone GPS capabilities haven't caught on yet, but I'm sure this is coming within the next couple generations of phones (the Nokia N95 puts a big emphasis on GPS).  It's also very unfortunately that the extremely high cost of the Rogers data plan means that I will not be running many otherwise cool Internet/Java applications.

PS The Memory Stick Micro M2 really is the size of my thumbnail:

Here are some options for M2 memory from Amazon.com.  UPDATE 2007-08-13: Added 4GB card.

Note: Do not confuse Memory Stick Micro with MicroSD, a completely different, incompatible memory card format.

UPDATE 2007-05-05: In the US, you can get cell phones and plans directly through Amazon; the specific offerings depend on your location.

Ricoh 500SE expensive GPS-ready camera

Camera manufacturers continue to position GPS-enabled cameras at the very high end, either for pro photographers or as GIS-imaging solutions.

The Ricoh 500SE is "GPS-ready", which means you can use it either with an optional Ricoh GPS unit, or with any Bluetooth NMEA GPS (and possibly optionally WiFi NMEA GPS).  It will automatically geocode photos if it can find a GPS - including displaying the location & number of satellites on its LCD screen, and storing the coordinates in the EXIF.

UPDATE 2008-09-18: See information from Ricoh.com and Ricoh-USA.com

The camera itself comes in SE-B (Bluetooth only) and SE-W (wireless plus Bluetooth) versions.

The optional GPS is called the Ricoh SE-1 GPS Module, it attaches to the left side and partially covers the top of the camera, it uses the SIRFstar III chipset.  See the SE1 Product Overview (PDF) for more information.

ENDUPDATE

It's an 8 megapixel camera.

It is not available yet, Ricoh is positioning it to only be available from "Ricoh Geo-Imaging Resellers".
Initial pricing looks like about US$900 for the camera, and US$1100 for the camera plus Ricoh GPS.

You would really have to want an integrated solution in order to pay this much.

via The Map Room

UPDATE 2008-09-18: The Ricoh 500SE is not widely available.  There are only a few sites online that sell it.  If you're interested in a consumer camera with built-in GPS, check out the Nikon P6000, which is priced at U$500.

comparing iPhone, Sony K790, Nokia N95

Also an experiment in exporting a Google Spreadsheet

iPhone Sony K790 Nokia N95 camera megapixels 2 3.2 5 sideways ? yes ? flash no yes yes MP3 yes yes yes GPS no no[1] yes storage internal 4GB or 8GB 64MB 160MB expansion no Mem Stick Micro (M2) MicroSD connections Bluetooth, WiFi, dock Bluetooth, Infrared, USB Bluetooth, WiFi, USB FM Radio no yes yes OS "Mac OSX" (closed) Java + Sony proprietary Symbian S60 in Canada? Q4 2007? Rogers Q2 2007? price 590+ 380 845

Price is in Canadian dollars.  Price is for phone with no contract (note that iPhone is not available without a contract).

K790 is as low as Can$200 with 3 year contract.

UPDATE 2007-02-12: That lower K790 price is for a 3 year NEW contract (no existing phone # with Rogers).  If you have an existing number ("line") or contract with Rogers, the upgrade options are not as good.  I was offered a price of Can$350 with 2 year contract, Can$300 with 3 year contract, plus in either case Can$35 "administration fee".  That makes for a pretty pricey phone once you add in taxes.  I couldn't find any way to buy the phone online from Rogers at the "no contract term" theoretical price.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2007-02-22: You can also buy a K790 (without a contract with any wireless provider) directly from Sony Style Canada for Can$410.  ENDUPDATE

Note [1}: K790 GPS - The K790 developer documentation makes no mention of GPS, and the K790 does not support Java JSR 179 Location API.  Therefore there appears to be no internal  built-in GPS capability on the K790.

I think I am going to get a K790.  The iPhone is underfeatured, not to mention unavailable, and the N95 is over-expensive.

What remains unknown is whether it will be possible to auto-geocode photos, embedding their GPS locations as they are taken.

UPDATE 2007-02-23: I got a K790, for more info, see my K790 review.  With additional software and an external GPS, photo geotagging is possible.  ENDUPDATE

"Sideways" in the camera section means that you turn the phone landscape mode to take a photo, very much like a regular camera.

Information sources:

• http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/specs.html
• SonyEricsson - K790i specifications
• Nokia Press Release - N95
• All About Symbian - N95
• Wikipedia - iPhone, Sony Ericsson K800, Nokia N95

UPDATE 2007-02-26: There is some more technical information about the N95 at

http://forum.nokia.com/devices/N95

UPDATE 2007-05-05: In the US, you can get cell phones and plans directly through Amazon; the specific offerings depend on your location.

all the world's a geotag

Interesting idea (and exercise in trust).  Not sure exactly where you were when you took a photo?

Post it to Flickr Group Geotag Me Please and maybe someone else will know the correct location.

building on data: Yahoo TagMaps

Q. What are TagMaps?

A. TagMaps are a new way to visualize text on geographic maps. TagMaps can be used to communicate key characteristics of location-based data in an easy-to-understand way.

...

Q. How can I contribute to World Explorer?

A. You may have contributed already! If you have a public, geotagged image on Flickr, then it was part of our computation. If you added tags to the photo, these tags were also analyized - and your photo might appear in the visualization (look for it!). We update our tag maps every few weeks, so newly uploaded photos could influence the next version of World Explorer.

http://tagmaps.research.yahoo.com/

via Flickr Groups - Geotagging Flickr

the cellphone as technology integration platform

I carry way too many devices around

It makes sense to me that many of them could integrate together on the cellphone, specifically:
- cellphone :) that works anywhere in the world
- camera (at least 3 megapixels, turn the phone sideways so that it works like a regular camera)
- GPS (including ability to record tracks and download them to computer, as well as share the GPS to other devices using Bluetooth)
- MP3 player
- Bluetooth (and ideally USB) connections for additional external devices

If you want to go a bit beyond that, also nice would be
- WiFi and voice over ip (VoIP)

I don't think you can make your cellphone also a PDA, really a PDA should have a large screen and ideally a slide-out keyboard.  Cellphone should be able the size of a small camera - I don't know if it's practical to also have a large screen, although to be sure some small cameras do use most of their back space for a screen.

There are of course already cellphones that have GPS, but they don't make it externally accessible and I don't think they record tracks.  There are some with MP3.  And there are some with the turn-sideways 3 megapixel camera.

AFAIK the Sony Cybershot K790 is currently the closest to this spec.

The Nokia N95, with its 5 megapixel camera and strong GPS features, should also be a good contender, but it's not available yet - so far there's just CES coverage and such.

A good opportunity for Apple... and in fact there are rumours that the iPhone will include a camera, GPS, and iPod capabilties, and that they may even put GPS chips in their laptops (which would introduce the usual "easier to recover when stolen / but a potential loss of privacy" set of issues).

IT directions for National Library of Australia

Libraries, IT and Everything
Mark Corbould
Assistant Director-General
Information Technology
National Library of Australia (NLA)

presented at Library and Archives Canada (LAC)
December 15, 2006

presentation notes by me, Richard Akerman

- strategic vision of the national library of australia

- function: basically, maintain a national collection and make it available

- 479 staff
- over 550,000 [physical, presumably] visitors
- 110 million page views on website, up 59%

~ 9 million items (including 2 million manuscripts and 2 million serials)

Access

- 365,000 physical items delivered
- 45,000 reference enquiries (4,000 via Ask Now)
- 13 million digital objects delivered

~80 TB of digital object storage, including Australian Web Domain Harvest
- main stuff digitized is unique cultural heritage
- 40% of digital collection is oral history

Web Site Usage

- nice chunk on PictureAustralia, new chunk on MusicAustralia

- IT Strategic Plan (3 years, annual update)

Strategic Directions [phase] 1

* for a long time it was build, describe, preserve and provide access to the physical collection

Strategic Directions [phase] 2 [in addition to phase 1]

* since 2000 "to provide rapid and easy access..."
- outcome: online federated discovery services with "no dead ends"

Looking Outwards

* Internet-enabled collaboration
- lots of freely available content
- organizations are making their content available for remixing and repurposing
- low barries to participation
- light-weight trust models, no MOUs
- sharing personal views of contemporary events
- creating social networks around areas of interest
- near enough is good enough
- loss of control
- need to be less risk averse

Strategic Directions [phase] 3 [in addition to previous]

* In 2006, "to enhance learning and knowledge creation by further simplifying and ... services..."
[slide switched before I got the rest]

Key IT Outcomes

1 ensure collecting record of Australia
2 To meet user need for rapid
5 Ensure relevance

[yes, he skipped a couple]

IT Goals

many including
* Develop and deploy new full-text search software
* Provide online spaces to support publishing, collaboration, contribution and interaction

The rest of the world wants to find stuff in Google etc.
"we've got to get our data out there"
worked with Google to get their books in Google Scholar

Get this item

* Bookshops
* Suppliers

Also A9.com - Libraries Australia is searchable by using OpenSearch lightweight protocol

working to do federated search across museums and other organizations, using OpenSearch

Libraries Australia [national union catalogue I think]

* considered replacing individual library catalogues (as a starting point) with
"Libraries Australia, as the  primary database to be searched by users"

to do this you need to be able to integrate well with all the OPACs, which of course is a problem

Expanding Borrowing

* Wake-up calls: statistics and commentary
- [Lorcan] Dempsey "Materials are not being united with users who want them" [not sure of quote,
switched to next slide]
[You can see the entire quote and more info in Kent Fitch's presentation A New paradigm for “getting” (PowerPoint) from Libraries Australia Forum 2006 (LAF06)]
- Long Tail argument

Current Fulfillment
- charge $13 for ILL, total cost actually $49

steady decline in ILL

ILL: Strong disincentives to participate
- Expensive
- Slow
- Loss of control of assets
- Inconvenient / impossible

Fulfillment

Making "Search, find, get" seamless

* Lend directly from library to reader - NetFlix model - "NetBooks"

Also get your presence into e.g. Amazon.com "Borrow this book from Libraries Australia" (using greasemonkey)

PictureAustralia
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/

includes pics from Flickr
about 6000 images harvested

  "All you need in Aussie" - by Alicia Zappier 
  Originally uploaded by desertgirl.

MusicAustralia

* bought metadata catalogue of australian contemporary music - will interface to ecommerce gateway

Model

* "metadata discovery should be free, but you may have to pay for fulfillment"
* or I would say "easy access is more important than zero cost"

AustraliaDancing

* "Take Part" - customized wiki

There's more...

* People Australia, based on using authority file
* Open Access Journals - "really cheap and easy, blurs between publishing and collecting"

Issues

* Sustaining existing services
* Managing expectations
* Supporting innovation
* Enabling rapid prototyping
* Being vibrant and relevant

Ok, but how

* Reorg IT

* Review IT Architecture
- Service Oriented [emphasis mine]
- Consolidate metadata repositories
- "single business" model

* Create an IT-aware organization
- Communicate, collaborate and train

42 IT staff, over 400 library staff

Additional tech notes
- using Lucene full-text search
- using Confluence - new IT architecture is on a wiki
- training business analysts in BPM

Q: How does IT decide on priorities for projects?
A: Through the operational plan, reviewed by Corporate IT Group that sets the priorities

If necessary, escalate to corporate management.

Q: Web Harvest?  How made accessible?  Federated discovery - what challenges?
A: Paid the Internet Archive.  Ran for 6 weeks.  About 180 million files.  On a PetaBox, installed in
Australia.  Internal access but not public.  Also the Internet Archive will put it up.

Permissions/legal issues within Australia.

Issues with robots.txt - if you follow robots, you may not get inline images or CSS.

Federate search is basically around OpenSearch, plus may need to add relevance ranking.

Q (me): How are you doing relevance ranking?
A: Currently Teratext

but going to use Lucene.

Google Earth Geographic Web

Google Earth has added a new layer of content, at the top of the layers pane there is now a folder called Geographic Web.  It is interesting because it includes geotagged Wikipedia items, as well as photos from Panoramio (a photo sharing site).

via Google Earth Blog - New Geographic Web Layers, POIs for Canada

You can also check out my web page with more resources on geocoding photos.

the Internet as a community-creation engine

From the earliest days of USENET, with its main.subgroup.subsection.subsubsection format, the Internet has enabled people to form communities of interest that are highly specialised.  Like most anything enabled by technology, this has its good and bad aspects.

Yes, jihadists can get together and tell one another what a wonderful thing it is that they are doing,
but so can anti-jihadists.

My favourite example of this narrowcasting, or nanocasting, is Flickr groups.  There are of course huge Flickr groups devoted to topics of typical photographic interest, like Sunrises and Sunsets (12,453 members).  But there is also the "I didn't think anyone else was interested in that" sort of groups.  For example, I like to take photos that are empty of people.  I consider humans to be noise that messes up the framing of my shots.  As luck would have it, I can submit my photos to the Flickr group

The Last Person on Earth (1,036 members)

(or see just my contributions)

This isn't even the only "no people in the photo" group, there's also

No people

Beyond that, in Lonely City, you can't even have animals in the photos.

Another fave of mine, mostly because I always like to see the fallibility of our technology pointed out, is Public Computer Errors.

Anyone else have favourite Flickr groups?

Last Person on Earth found via Darren Barefoot - Photos of an Empty Earth.

Virtual Earth Tech Preview

This actually kind of freaks me out a bit.  You move the car around in the bottom of the display, and you see the images they took in the upper area of the display.  Only Seattle and San Francisco so far.  And, for once for Microsoft, it works in Firefox.

http://preview.local.live.com/

I think we should expect geo-everything to become very... intrusive over the next few years.  Between high-res satellite, aerial images, and photo-mobiles, everything everywhere shall be visible online.

3D photo environment - MS Photosynth Tech Preview

Microsoft Photosynth builds a three-dimensional environment you can fly through by comparing and aligning photos taken in a particular location.  It's one of their Live Labs projects.  Unfortunately, they haven't released the capability to build your own photo environments, they say it is "very compute intensive" but hey, isn't that what distributed computing is for?  You can only fly through some pre-built environments they have made, and of course, only in IE6+, only in Win XP+.

Flickr Uploadr resize loses metadata

Summary: If you want to preserve EXIF-GPS and IPTC metadata in your photos when uploading to Flickr, do not use the auto-resize feature in Flickr Uploadr.

Details:

Picasa allows you to embed some useful metadata directly in your photo files.  These metadata include IPTC keywords, IPTC caption, and EXIF-GPS location information.  Flickr has the capability to automatically detect these metadata, saving you from having to retype or re-create them (keywords are turned into tags).

I noticed some odd behavior with the Flickr Uploadr, so I decided to do a systematic test.

Using Picasa 2.5 + Google Earth
* geocode image
* IPTC tag image
* IPTC caption image

Windows Uploadr 2.3 (and 2.5)
Mac Uploadr 2.2

Scenarios
1. Windows Uploadr (already resized)
2. Windows Uploadr (auto resize to 800)
3. Windows direct web upload
4. Mac Uploadr (already resized)
5. Mac Uploadr (auto resize to 800)
6. Mac direct web upload

1 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
2 IPTC no, EXIF-GPS ok *
3 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
4 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
5 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS no *
6 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok

So if you resize in Windows Uploadr, it will lose your IPTC tags and keywords, while, just for variety, if you resize in Mac Uploadr, it will lose your EXIF-GPS.

UPDATE 2007-08-09: Incredibly, Flickr Windows Uploadr 2.5 still loses IPTC metadata on resize.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2008-09-28: Flickr Windows Uploadr 3.0.5 doesn't have this issue, IPTC metadata is preserved on resize; they have fixed the problem.  ENDUPDATE

I used an image of the London Millennium Wheel.
First I added IPTC keywords using the little-known CTRL-K option in Picasa.
The only drawback is you can't have multi-word keywords.

I also added a caption in Picasa.
(Minor disclaimer: I initially spelled Millennium wrong and fixed it after.)

Last but not least, I geocoded the photo using the Picasa-Google Earth integration (you can read more about this capability in a previous posting).

With the file now geocoded and IPTC tagged and captioned, I verified it in IrfanView.  (I also used IrfanView to do a resize of the photo to 800x600 for some of the upload tests.) As you can see from the IrfanView photo information inspection, the image now contains both EXIF-GPS and IPTC keywords.

Now, when it all works, it's great.  The photo arrives at Flickr and the metadata are automatically read and filled in for you.

But when you let Flickr Uploadr resize the image on Windows, goodbye IPTC info

On the Mac, just for variety, Uploadr resize keeps the IPTC, but loses the EXIF-GPS.

I hope you've found this report useful, and I hope it leads to Flickr fixing the Uploadr immediately.

Here's the photo itself (the #1 upload, with all the metadata intact)

NY Times on photo geocoding

Kathleen Bennett recently bought a device that keeps track of her location with help from the satellites of the Global Positioning System. But unlike many other people in Seattle, Ms. Bennett is not, by her own description, “an outdoor person” and will not be using it to find her way through the wilderness.

Instead, the new gadget is an accessory for Ms. Bennett’s personal passion, photography. She is one of many people who have taken up geotagging, which, broadly speaking, is the practice of posting photos online that are linked to Web-based maps, showing just where in the world the shutter was pressed.

New York Times - Pictures, With Map and Pushpin Included - November 2, 2006
(or use this link from the NY Times Link Generator)

As of this writing, the number of geocoded photos on Flickr stands at over 6,540,000.  That's pretty amazing considering it was 1.2 million just two months ago on August 30, a day after the feature was announced.

via The Map Room

The NY Times didn't mention my site though :(

I have lots of info on my page about geocoding photos.

You can also find some of my related postings about geolocation topics in my Mapping category.

my 10,000th digital photo

IMG_0100-2000100
Copyright © 2006 Richard Akerman
Taken October 7, 2006

UPDATE 2006-10-11: I have also made a Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/10000th-photo/
ENDUPDATE

In case you're wondering about the file numbering...

Canon goes from IMG_0001 to IMG_99xx and wraps around to IMG_0001 again.  Oh, good use of 8 characters there, wouldn't want to lose that vital IMG_ in front of the number.

I had assumed it would go to IMG_9999 and wrap, but in my case it didn't.
You may not know it, but (for Canon at least) in your image EXIF is the sequential image number from your camera.
Canon counts in blocks of 100, starting with file directory / sequence #100.

100 - 0001 (1000001) = your first image
100 - 0100 (1000100) = your 100th image
101 - 0101 (1000101) = your 101st image

this, I assumed, would proceed in an orderly fashion through

198 - 9900 (1989900) = your 9900th image
199 - 9901 (1999901) = your 9901th image
200 - 0001 (2000001) = your 10,000th image

but for reasons known only to Canon, it skipped directory sequence #199 altogether.

So my photos go

198 - 9900 (1989900) = 9990th
200 - 0001 (2000001) = 9991st
200 - 0100 (2000100) = 10000th

I used Irfanview with rename pattern $N-$E80 to renumber all files starting at IMG_0001 to e.g. IMG_0001-2000001 ($E80 is the Irfanview pattern to retreive the Canon image number from the EXIF).

That way every file name is still unique.

I don't have my original first-light image #0001 but I do have my 19th digital photo, from June 14, 2000.  (See previous posting.)  So 10,000 photos in just over six years.  The photos span two cameras, my original S20 and my current S70.

my review of the Sony GPS-CS1 datalogger with photo geocoding

[This information is from 2006. For the latest information on GPS loggers, please see my other blog, Richard's Tech Reviews.]

Summary

Compatibility: Microsoft Windows.  Intel Macs with Mac OS X 10.4.9.  PowerPC Macs not supported.  Leopard 10.5 and 10.5.1 not supported.  Supported on Intel and PowerPC Mac OS X 10.5.3+ (You can check a blog about using the GPS-CS1 on a Mac, but so far no one has reported success on PowerPC or Leopard.)  Various versions of Linux are also reported to work.

Hardware: A simple, well-designed GPS receiver (with no display) and data logger, creates NMEA format GPS log files that you can download over USB.  It is a completely self-contained unit - there is no Bluetooth or GPS mouse capability.

Software: GPS Image Tracker is a very basic and somewhat confusing version 1.0 Windows application that will match GPS tracks with photo times and stamp the location into the photo EXIF (geocode the photo).  It does not require photos from a Sony camera.

Conclusion: This device does a great job of easily and automatically recording your location, for later use in geocoding photos (or any other application where a GPS track would be useful).  You may, however, want to use a different software package to do the actual photo geocoding; the software provided with the unit is incredibly basic.

Note: I did not evaluate the additional software for Sony cameras, as I don't have one.

You can purchase the Sony GPS-CS1 immediately.  I got mine in Canada from SonyStyle.ca for C$130.  One place it's available online in the USA is Amazon.com - Sony GPS Unit For Sony Digital Still Cameras (note that they don't ship electronics outside of the States).  In other areas, check your Sony stores as well as camera and electronics stores.

UPDATE 2007-03-03: Sony has released a new model, the GPS-CS1KA, they're calling it a "GPS Unit Kit".  As far as I know, the main difference is that it adds the Picture Motion Browser software (otherwise you would need a Sony camera to get this software).  They also provide a soft carry case.  They now clearly state "compatible with virtually all digital still cameras".  They're available now in the USA: Amazon.com - Sony GPSCS1KA GPS Unit Kit for Most Digital Still Cameras.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2007-11-23: See Sony GPS Logger On The Go - bridge to your Mac for one possiblity to use the Sony GPS-CS1 with a Mac or any other device that supports USB storage.  Also see my posting about Mac GPS loggers for more info about this issue.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2007-12-15: You may want to check out my review of the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite DPL700, which has a better chipset and software than the Sony, but with a similar form factor.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2008-01-16: The AMOD AGL3080 has the same "driverless" USB storage design as the GPS-CS1, but with a better GPS chipset and compatibility with Windows, Mac, and Linux.  I recommend it over the Sony unit for almost all scenarios.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2009-02-08: Sony has announced a new model, the GPS-CS3KA.  ENDUPDATE

Photo of GPS-CS1

(battery and pen included for comparison; neither is included in the package)

Specs

• Approx. 10 hours battery life with LR6 AA alcaline battery
• GPS 12 channel all-in-view tracking, -150 dBm sensitivity, L1 band C/A code (1575.42 MHz)
• Approx. 31 MB internal memory (can hold approx. 360 hours of GPS data)
• USB 2.0 full speed interface
• Logging approx. every 15 seconds
• Operating range 0 to 40° Celsius
• Approx. 87mm x 36mm x 36mm
• Approx. 55g without battery

Observations / Full Review

The unit is smaller than I expected.

What's in the package? (battery and pen not included - shown for comparison purposes).

Takes one AA battery, which it says will last for 10 hours (alcaline).
Battery not included.

The carabiner is a good idea but I am a bit concerned about the implementation - I'm always sceptical of the strength of plastic.  You can either use the detachable string part, or you could connect it directly to the ring below the carabiner - neither look particularly sturdy to me.  I'd be more including to just run a small carabiner itself through the attachment point at the top of the GPS.

Also, having it hanging off your belt loop may seem like a handy idea, but in practice this means it bangs on your leg with every single step - off of a backpack would be a better choice.

There are three LEDs and two buttons - GPS LED shows whether you have a location fix, battery lamp (steady green is good, flashing red means below 20% battery power remaining), MEM full LED shows you when you have filled all 31 MB of the device.  Power button and a Clear button, both designed so they can't be activated accidentally.

Software install was as basic as you could get - one choice is the GPS Image Tracker application, the other is Sony Picture Utility Update Program, but the latter only works if you have pre-existing Sony camera software.

Operation is quite simple.  Install the battery.  Go outside and turn it on.  Within a minute or so it should have aquired a GPS fix (indicated by a slow, single flash of the green GPS LED).  It will automatically save the current GPS position to its internal storage every 15 seconds, until you turn it off.  Each time you turn it on, it creates a new log file in the internal memory, the format is WG + date + somenumber.log (the number probably has something to do with the current time) e.g. WG20060913210637.log

Note: This is not a Bluetooth unit, nor does it provide live serial GPS data - you can only download the log after the fact to find out where you were, you couldn't use this device e.g. for live car navigation - there is no display of your current location, and you have to download the file.

You have two options for accessing the logs: you can use the provided GPS Image Tracker software, simply connect the unit, start up GPS Image Tracker, and select "Import Log Files..."  However, you can just as easily browse it like any USB drive, the files are all stored in a directory called, appropriately enough, GPS, you can do anything you would do with a normal USB thumbdrive.  That means you can use the data in other applications - it's in standard NMEA sentences, nothing proprietary.  UPDATE: It appears to only mount on Windows; it doesn't show up as a USB drive on my Mac OS X 10.4.7 PowerBook G4. ENDUPDATE

Let's walk through GPS Image Tracker.

As you can see, it's version 1 software.  Or version 1.0000 software, to be more precise.

First, you get a log file, using Import Log Files...
The software asks for your timezone, I found this very confusing, due to Daylight Savings Time.
Does it want to know my permanent timezone (GMT-5)?  Or the current timezone, which is GMT-4?
The answer is, the current timezone, with any DST adjustments included (so I changed the dialog box shown below to GMT-4).  I also unchecked "Delete all log files".

Here's my timezone info, so that you can see what I'm talking about

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=188

Then you select Add Picture Files...
The photos are automatically matched with any GPS logs it finds, as they are loaded.

Any images that support EXIF 2.1, with time stamp info, are fine; it doesn't have to be Sony camera photos.  In the example below, I am using images from my Canon PowerShot S70.

Now, all that remains is to Save All... of the photos, at which point the location information will be added the photo metadata, the EXIF.  Once this is done, any application that reads the EXIF (such as Flickr) will automatically be able to map the photo.

It next asks you if you want to update the EXIF, or save separate copies of the photos.  I chose to replace the photos with the updated ones.

At this point, I'm not sure what happens if you have Sony images.  If you do not, it gets VERY confusing.  As I mentioned, I am using photos from my Canon S70.  It said "Applying GPS information to the photo [photoname] is not supported.  Do you want to continue?"  At that point, I was quite disheartened.  But it turned out, if you say yes, it will stamp the location to the photo EXIF.  So when it says "do you want to continue", really it means "do you want me to try to update the photo EXIF anyway".

I have uploaded three photos that I geocoded using this software, they're in my Flickr set Sony Geocoded.

How good is the location match?  Have a look at the map.

Not bad.  The first one is pretty much exact.  The second two are off by a few metres.  If you want 1 metre accuracy, you're going to be disappointed with most any GPS I would expect.  As long as you consider +/- 15 metres or so "good enough", you'll be pleased.  In the photo below, I have indicated with arrows and green dots where the second two photos were actually taken - keep in mind this may also be a slight registration issue with Yahoo Maps - it's hard to get everything to line up accurately on the scale of meters.

In my previous posting I had posed some questions, now I have some answers.

1. Do you have to buy the GPS-CS1 to get "GPS Image Tracker"?

A: Yes.

2. Is GPS Image Tracker new software, or just a Sony rebranding of some existing package?

A: It appears to be new software, given its version 1.0 nature.

3. Is the GPS-CS1 outputting standard GPS data in standard formats - e.g. could you connect it as a USB device to any computer and get the data out, or will it only talk to the Sony software?

A: The data is standard text file NMEA logs and you can connect the CS1 to any computer that supports USB (e.g. Mac, PC).  UPDATE: I have only been able to get this to work in Windows; it doesn't show up on my Mac.  ENDUPDATE  When you plug it into USB it shows up like a regular USB drive.

4.  If I don't have a Sony camera, could I still use the GPS-CS1 (and any bundled software) to geocode photos from e.g. my Canon PowerShot S70?

A: Yes.

5. Conversely, could you use other GPS logs as the data source for photo geocoding in GPS Image Tracker?

A: Yes, with some hacking.  The Sony logs start with a line "@Sonygps/ver1.0/wgs-84".  If it doesn't see that, it will say something like "unrecognized log file".  But you can just use a text editor to add it onto any regular NMEA log file, then GPS Image Tracker will load it.

6. How does the GPS-CS1 / GPS Image Tracker bundle compare with other existing photo geocoding options?

A: The hardware is good.  The software is pretty weak.

Is there support information?

A: So far as I could find, only on the Japanese site at present.  Neither US nor Canadian Sony support listed the GPS-CS1.

Does it have to be powered on to read the files over USB?

A: No.  Just plug it in with the device power off - it works fine using the USB power from the computer.

Lastly, you may be wondering about the GPS unit itself.  At this point, I get way out of my expertise.

The Sony is a 12 channel unit, it doesn't say what chipset it uses.  As long as you're moving slowly (e.g. walking around), in good GPS conditions (e.g. unobstructed outdoors) I would guess you're going to be fine.  I did some comparison tracks with my Holux GPSlim236, which is a 20 channel GPS receiver using the SIRFstarIII chipset (the most advanced chipset for consumer GPS I am aware of).  I'm not going to give you the raw data, but as you can see from a screencap, the Holux (orange) fares slightly better than the Sony (red) in a downtown setting with midrise skyscrapers as I rode the bus to work.  (Ideally, both should be tracking the street grid exactly, as the bus stayed on the road....)  The Holux is recording a bit differently though - I was using Navio on an Axim, set to 10 seconds and 10 metre change, while the Sony only records at 15 second intervals.

This last point may be an annoyance to hardware hackers, but a boon to those who love simplicity: as far as I can tell, you have no access to the Sony GPS hardware at all - that means no settings you can change, but also means no way for you to screw up the GPS settings.

All in all, I find it a great tool - I turn it on, stick it in my backpack, and wander around taking photos, what could be simpler?  Given the rather hopeless state of the current software, I bought RoboGEO instead.

In order to use RoboGEO, just get the .log file from the GPS, convert it to GPX using e.g. GPS Visualizer, and then input it in RoboGEO step #2 "from a tracklog file".  (Don't use the seemingly obvious "From a NMEA file" - whatever it is RoboGEO expects, it's not in either of the NMEA log files I have from the Sony or from Navio.)

If you want more information about this topic in general, I have an entire web page on geocoding photos.

Buy in the USA from Amazon.com

mobilized data: Flickr georeferencing after one day

It's amazing what people will do when you give them the tools.  Flickr has a new blog posting about Geotagging - one day later.

24 hours in, there were 1,234,384 geotagged photos (and now more than 1.6 million geotagged photos as I write this, about 9 hours later)

I don't know how many of those were already tagged and just got imported, and how many are newly georeferenced photos, but I'm guessing many hundreds of thousands and perhaps even the majority were just done yesterday.

They also talk about the scale of Flickr and the challenges of searching in real-time.

More than 228,000,000 photos have been uploaded, with over a million new photos being added on a good day. There are billions of bits of data that go into the search (more than half a billion tags alone), along with privacy controls, group membership, and so on.

As well, they have released the geo API, in case you'd still rather see your photos on Google Maps or in Google Earth etc.  As far as I understand, you should consider location a separate meta attribute - it will no longer show up as a tag and it won't be inserted by Flickr into the EXIF.

I think this is a very interesting topic, I'm trying to find the best way to attach the geographic coordinates in a mostly automated fashion, by GPS timestamp correlation.  I have more info on various geocoding options on my geocoding photos page.

UPDATE 2006-09-04: There are now over 2.5 million (2,574,649) georeferenced photos on Flickr.

ECDL 2006: pre-visiting Alicante in photos

I must say, I am totally shocked by the number of photos that are already geocoded in Flickr.
There's a Korean restaurant that just opened a week or so ago, a couple blocks from me - there's already a photo of the food someone ate there, conveniently geocoded.  That's freaky.

Anyway, if you're gearing up for ECDL 2006, you can pre-visit Alicante through Flickr geocoded photos, see

giant Flickr URL

There are 65 photos coded there as I type this.  It looks quite beautiful.

UPDATE 2006-09-02: There is also a good set of Lucentum photos (the Roman ruins near Alicante).

And there are now 285 photos in the area - the incredible pace of geocoding continues at Flickr.

ENDUPDATE

In case you're wondering, yes I will be bringing ridiculous amount of electronics, including GPS gear, with the hope of auto-geocoding all the pictures I take.

UPDATE 2006-09-19: See my category ECDL2006 for more blogging on this topic, and see my Flickr images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rakerman/tags/ecdl2006/

Flickr's built-in geocoding - your photos on Yahoo Maps

Flickr has released a built-in manual geocoding interface for photos, which uses Yahoo Maps, naturally (Yahoo owns Flickr).

In Organizr, you bring up the map tab, and then drag and drop photos (or groups of photos) to locations.

In your photo view, you will NOT see geotags (tags giving latitude and longitude).  Instead you see a new item with a map link.

But the super-cool part is "Explore photos taken near this one"

so bringing that up, I see

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rakerman/49297177/map/?view=everyones

http://www.flickr.com/map/?&fLat=55.678825&fLon=12.575568&zl=5&min_upload_date=946713600&min_taken_date=1970-01-01%2000:00:00

including below my photo a browser of photos "very near" my image, leading to this geocoded photo of the Rundetaarn from outside.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluespot/164258580/

This is going to be quite amazing, as you can now discover an entire universe of photos through a map interface, with lots of people likely to code their photos.

via FlickrBlog Great shot - where'd you take that?
via The Map Room Flickr Adds Geotagging

I still have lots more to explore, I will update this posting as I do.

For one thing, it's clear that Yahoo needs to buy a lot more detailed road-level information worldwide - they have hardly any road/street map info for Copenhagen, although their satellite image is good.

Also see my page of resources on geocoding photos as well as previous entries in my Mapping category.

UPDATE 21:51 - It appears the default is for Flickr to ONLY map-ify photos that were geotagged, that is, that had tags "geotagged", "geo:lat=x", "geo:long=y".

UPDATE 22:13 - If you have geotagged photos that were NOT properly imported, try

http://flickr.com/account/geo/import/

If you have geocoded photos (photos with lat, long in the EXIF) I don't know if there is any way to retrospectively map them.  There is a new preference at

http://flickr.com/account/geo/exif/

That will automatically Flickr-mapify any NEW photos you upload that have EXIF-GPS info.
I have tested this by uploading a Picasa-Google Earth geocoded image and it worked fine... sort of.

There is a potentially major issue: the location it is showing in Google Earth is off by a couple metres from the location in Yahoo Maps.  If a couple metres is not a big deal to you, then this will be ok.  Compare:

Picasa-Google Earth location

Flickr-Yahoo Maps location, from EXIF

The image itself in Flickr is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rakerman/227784994/

UPDATE 2006-08-29: You may wonder (particularly based on the above) what happens if you adjust an EXIF-coded photo to a new location.  Based on what I've read at Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection, Flickr won't touch the EXIF - the new map position will only be accessible through the Flickr interface and API.

old photos and records provide climate data

I thought this was an interesting news story from Nature, that perhaps suggests some ways that science libraries could connect with their local communities.

Climate researchers and ecologists are usually known for using complex computer simulations to study environmental change. But Boston University researchers are using more humble sources to determine the effects of climate change on local flora and fauna.

For the past three years, Richard Primack and Abraham Miller-Rushing have asked Massachusetts residents with long memories and a record-keeping habit to show how rising temperatures over the decades have changed the nature around them.

The data they have collected from amateur naturalists, farmers, landscape gardeners and photographers show that trees are sprouting leaves earlier in spring, birds are changing their migratory habits, and the patterns of flowers' blooming is changing.

"It's a good way to show that something is really happening, to species that people know," says Primack, who presented the work at the meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Memphis, Tennessee. "It will help us make the argument that global climate change is a reality even more convincing to the public."

Family albums highlight climate change

Interestingly, they also "data mined" an arboretum, to see what state of development plants used to be at a particular time of year in the past.

Primack, a CAS professor of biology, and graduate student Abraham Miller-Rushing (GRS’08) have recently reported that the [Arnold Arboretum]’s flowering denizens are blooming more than a week earlier on average than a century ago. The advancing bloom times correspond to Boston’s rising annual temperatures, which since 1885 have increased by nearly three degrees Fahrenheit. “These plants have been flowering about eight days earlier than they did at the beginning of the 20th century,” Primack says, “and the earlier flowering is in response to warming conditions.”

While scientists have seen similar trends worldwide in the past 20 years, this study is the first in North America to draw extensively upon historical data reaching back to the late 19th century. Primack found the data in the arboretum’s herbarium, a museum of 80,000 dried and flattened plant specimens mounted on cardboard, many of them in flower, and labeled to show when they were collected. During the summer of 2003, Primack and undergraduates Carolyn Imbres (CAS’06) and Daniel Primack (CAS’06) combed the herbarium for records of when plants flowered in the past. They focused on 229 plants, all still alive and blooming in the arboretum. The oldest specimen was cut from a flowering lilac in 1885.

B.U. Bridge: In flowers, BU botanists see global warming - September 2004