Extract GPS Data From Digital Image

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"On Film" <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
wrote in message news:erljr0pj306u3pibps5sfmicnf389dpimk@4ax.com...
> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>
> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>
> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> goal.

Are you talking about retrofitting a camera itself, or would you capture the
images to a laptop or something? I could see writing code that adds some
sort of custom header field to a JPEG on the fly.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Film <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com> writes:

> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>
> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>
> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> goal.

There are a few cameras out there with a direct connection a GPS. The
California Coastline project (http://www.californiacoastline.org/) for
instance uses Nikon D1x camera to automatically record the information.

There is also software that integrates the record points in most GPSs with the
EXIF infomration in the photo to automatically determine where a photo was
taken, based on the time. Here is one such software, but I recall there are
other tools that do this also: http://oziphototool.alistairdickie.com/.

If you write perl code, the Image::ExifTool library (and perl script for use
from the command line) can parse the GPS information. The author is busily
adding write support to ExifTool. You can get it from any CPAN mirror, or
from the site: http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

--
Michael Meissner
email: mrmnews@the-meissners.org
http://www.the-meissners.org

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"On Film" <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
wrote in message news:erljr0pj306u3pibps5sfmicnf389dpimk@4ax.com...
> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>
> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>
> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> goal.
>

The only cameras that support a GPS unit are the Nikon D1X and D2X. Your
separate GPS unit plugs into the camera, and the data is saved in the EXIF
data. So, in order to do that through the camera, you have to get either of
those two cameras, get a compatible GPS unit, figure out a way to carry the
two items, and you're in business.

HMc

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"On Film" <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
wrote in message news:erljr0pj306u3pibps5sfmicnf389dpimk@4ax.com...
> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>
> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>
> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> goal.
>

Here are some web sites.

http://pfranc.com/projects/g45contr/nikon.htm

http://www.nikondigital.org/articles/gps_setup.htm

http://www.geospatialexperts.com/

HMc

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Another utility I have seen (but not used) is Robogeo
that will take your tracklog from the GPS and your
folder of digital images and correlate the two putting
the location from the tracklog in the EXIF info of the
image. http://www.robogeo.com/home/ --- make
sure your GPS and camera clocks are set the same
unless you want strange results !!!


"Michael Meissner" <mrmnews@the-meissners.org> wrote in message
news:m3y8g57wmb.fsf@tiktok.the-meissners.org...
> On Film <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
writes:
>
> > [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> > digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> > capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> > computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> > the GPS data to be associated with the description.
> >
> > I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> > Is there a site that would be helpful?
> >
> > Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> > goal.
>
> There are a few cameras out there with a direct connection a GPS. The
> California Coastline project (http://www.californiacoastline.org/) for
> instance uses Nikon D1x camera to automatically record the information.
>
> There is also software that integrates the record points in most GPSs with
the
> EXIF infomration in the photo to automatically determine where a photo was
> taken, based on the time. Here is one such software, but I recall there
are
> other tools that do this also: http://oziphototool.alistairdickie.com/.
>
> If you write perl code, the Image::ExifTool library (and perl script for
use
> from the command line) can parse the GPS information. The author is
busily
> adding write support to ExifTool. You can get it from any CPAN mirror, or
> from the site: http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
>
> --
> Michael Meissner
> email: mrmnews@the-meissners.org
> http://www.the-meissners.org

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 17:16:18 GMT, On Film
<OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com> wrote:

>[Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
>digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
>capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. [...]

Here's some info on georeferencing photos. I did a Google search this
summer to check current state of the technology. There are cameras
available that have GPS data ports, but they were expensive and I
wanted to use what I already have. The solution for me was to find
software that matches the GPS track with that of an image (via the
timestamp) and embed the GPS data into the image's EXIF fields. There
are a variety of solutions, ranging from free to several hundred
dollars. I liked WWMX as it is free and it also provides an easy
interface for placing images where no GPS tracklog exists (this is
missing from many of the programs).

Here's a "Brief Introduction to GPS Photo Linking"
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/06/15/gps_ph...

The thread where I found out about WWMX
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11024219~mode=fl...

in that thread, also check out
http://www.californiacoastline.org
G7ToWin
Exifer

The piece of software that I'm using, WWMX Location Stamper, is on the
World-Wide Media eXchange server.
http://wwmx.org/Download.aspx

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I have a D1X that I plan to use. I had found sources for the GPS
device and the connecting cable layout but the extracting of the GPS
data to a text file had eluded me. Perhaps I need a refresher course
in use of a Thesaurus!

Thanks to all for the very helpful information that has been posted.
Mike

On 10 Dec 2004 18:29:02 -0600, "Howard McCollister"
<nospam@nospam.net> wrote:

>
>"On Film" <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
>wrote in message news:erljr0pj306u3pibps5sfmicnf389dpimk@4ax.com...
>> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
>> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
>> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
>> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
>> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>>
>> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
>> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>>
>> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
>> goal.
>>
>
>The only cameras that support a GPS unit are the Nikon D1X and D2X. Your
>separate GPS unit plugs into the camera, and the data is saved in the EXIF
>data. So, in order to do that through the camera, you have to get either of
>those two cameras, get a compatible GPS unit, figure out a way to carry the
>two items, and you're in business.
>
>HMc
>
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"On Film" <OnFilmNowExpungethis@expungethismail4me.ccexpungethrucom.com>
wrote in message news:erljr0pj306u3pibps5sfmicnf389dpimk@4ax.com...
> [Given that I am a novice in the digital world]: I want to make
> digital images with a GPS device attached to the camera that will
> capture the GPS locations as part of the stored image. Back at the
> computer, I want to write a short description of the image and extract
> the GPS data to be associated with the description.
>
> I have searched the Web for a tutorial on such but was not successful.
> Is there a site that would be helpful?
>
> Or recommendations on the software and/or technique to accomplish my
> goal.

Speak of the devil, there's an article about it in today's New York Times.
(Free registration required.) It talks about doing it with a D1X and D2X, a
Ricoh Caplio Pro G3, and software that you can use to match up the data
after the fact.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/technology/circuits/1...