Richard's Tech Reviews

Blackberry Bold - Geocoding Photos

Paul Hobson reports success with Blackberry Bold in-device photo geocoding.

... the additional Lat/Lon EXIF data is working fine and dandy.

You can see his mapped photos in his posting Blackberry Bold Geotagging Photos.

There is additional information in the Flickr for Blackberry Smartphones guide.

You can only turn on geotagging if your BlackBerry smartphone has built-in GPS capabilities. When you turn on geotagging, you can use Flickr Uploader for BlackBerry smartphones to add location information—such as latitude and longitude coordinates—to pictures that you upload.

   1. On the notification list screen, press the Menu key.
   2. Click Options.
   3. Select the Enable Geotagging check box.

Flickr for BlackBerry Smartphones - Getting Started - Turn on Geotagging

Additional location management features are provided on a per-photo basis.  Location: Where I am...

screen images from Share Your Photos with the World with FlickrTM Uploader for BlackBerry Smartphones - Geotag

It's great to see another leading-edge phone provide this capability.

Nikon GP-1 GPS unit

Nikon has introduced an official GPS accessory for some Dx models, the Nikon GP-1.
It includes cables to connect to the new D90, as well as to the 10-pin connector on other models like the D200 and D300.

The tech specs don't give any information about the GPS sensor used.  The main info available is:

Time required for satellite acquisition: Approx. 45 sec. (cold start), approx. 5 sec. (hot start)

Power source: Supplied from camera body

http://nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Photography-Accessories/Miscellaneous/25396/GP-1-GPS-Unit.html

The geocoding is done in-camera, and links to maps will be is provided by ViewNX version 1.2 software.  The download is available from Current Versions of Nikon Software.

via Geotagging Flickr

UPDATE 2008-09-26: I have been working to get additional information from Nikon, I asked them a number of questions.  I do have an answer from them on how the GP-1 (and the P6000) will handle the issue of lost GPS fix (e.g. inside a building).

My Question #3. How are you managing the positioning in either challenging environments (urban canyon) or zero-GPS environments (inside buildings)?  Does it use the last good position fix?

Nikon Answer: Like the COOLPIX 6000, the GP-1 GPS Unit has the ability to offer to the customer the choice (via menu settings) how long the GPS will hold the last position in the event satellite reception is lost.

ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2008-12-09: CNet Underexposed blog reports on December 3, 2008 that the GP-1 has finally showed up in some online store listings, at a price of U$210, but not in stock for ordering yet.  (No sign of it in Amazon.com at all so far.)

UPDATE 2008-12-11: Further digging at Amazon.com uncovers a listing, but it says Currently unavailable. In case it helps you with your searching, the Nikon part number they're showing is VWD-100-01

UPDATE: 2009-01-26: Amazon is now showing GP-1 units available for purchase.  At U$238 it's still more than twice the price of an average stand-alone GPS logger, but it has a huge convenience factor by providing in-device geotagging.

Photosynth geotagging step-by-step

Once your Synth is uploaded, you can position it on a map.
The following explanation uses screenshots from the Photosynth website in Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP (both the Photosynth viewer and the Virtual Earth viewer work fine with Firefox).  NOTE: Photosynth does not work at all with Mac.

First click on the Globe icon (indicated here with an arrow overlay)

Next you will have to search for your starting location, in this case Florence, Italy (Firenze).

Once there, you can use Aerial and/or Bird's Eye view to narrow in on the exact location.

As you can see above, I took advantage of Microsoft's great Bird's Eye data, and the fact that you can rotate the Bird's Eye view to see different sides of buildings, to get an almost exact match to my starting photo.

A few things to note:

• You can't geotag individual images, only the entire Synth, so you'll have to decide where it should be logically positioned.  I've positioned mine at the starting point of the Synth.
• Although "pinning" (saving) the position in Bird's Eye will APPEAR to work, it won't actually remember the position.  Use Aerial for the final save.
• Once you have saved the position, there won't be any indication in the main Synth interface - you'll have to click the globe again to see the position.
• It won't read any existing EXIF-GPS position information in your photos; currently this manual option using Virtual Earth is the only way to add the position to your Synth.

A saved position shows as a Photosynth icon placed on the map, with a pop-up square showing more information.

You can view the final result at

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=647b73f0-9549-4fa3-adc7-93e509517ffc

Previously: August 21, 2008  Photosynth geotagging

Photosynth geotagging

Microsoft has released Photosynth, an application for creating a navigatable 3D environment from photos taken at different angles and zoom levels.  It requires downloading an application for Windows XP or Vista, but it is mostly compatible with Firefox in addition to IE.  There is no Mac version.

It goes beyond traditional panoramas to full 3D shots, without requiring you to do any special alignment of shots in advance - it will fit them all together for you.

According to the support site, it is possible to geotag the created "synth" manually.  Unfortunately it doesn't read any EXIF-GPS information in the photos yet.

After you finish creating your synth, go back and view the synth, and be sure to add some fun or informative description (and more tags, if you want).

There's a globe button on that page (below and to the left of your description) that lets you geo-tag your synth using an interactive map from Virtual Earth (maps.live.com).

Unfortunately, I think that the current system ignores any geo-tags already in the images (JPEG EXIFs).

Rick Szeliski, Live Labs Employee, replying in support thread "Can the Synth be GeoTagged?"

Note: The site is available at both Photosynth.com and Photosynth.net

Also, please be aware that due to an "overwhelming" response, the service has been unavailable almost all day today (Thursday August 21, 2008).

Previously:
November 11, 2006  3D photo environment - MS Photosynth Tech Preview

Nikon P6000 camera with GPS and Ethernet announced

The Nikon Coolpix P6000, MSRP US$500, availability September 2008.

my Picturetown with Wired LAN enables viewing and uploading of your pictures anytime, anywhere. Simply connect the camera to your Ethernet cable for your wired LAN and the camera will automatically upload your pictures to Nikon’s my Picturetown photo storage and sharing service. Store up to 2GB for free.

New GPS capability  will automatically geo-tag your photos with the exact location of where you shot that picture.  Upload pictures directly to my Picturetown, then conduct searches based on the location of where your pictures were taken.  You can also view them all at once.  A great way to have instant organization of your photos!

from http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-Camera/26135/COOLPIX-P6000.html
(also see Canadian info at http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=16681 )

This is one of the first consumer cameras to have built-in GPS (the GE E1050--which now seems to be called the E1050TW--is also supposed to offer this feature).  I wasn't able to locate any detailed technical information on the GPS technology that Nikon is using.  It will be interesting to see how they manage power usage, and the lack of signal indoors.

via The Map Room

UPDATE 2008-08-21: P6000 is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com

UPDATE 2008-10-05: Now in stock at Amazon.com

Previously:
February 2, 2008  Jobo and Geotate digital camera GPS approaches