• Go to content
• go_foot
• go_foot

Holux

22 July 2008

 

Bruce appeared from the internet, along with his better half Simone, and equipped me with a Holux M-241 logger for our little jaunt around Malham Cove on Sunday.

 

Up till now my GeoTagging has been by finding positions on Google Maps by either MapMaker or dragging images onto a Google map within Picasa, which also gives you the chance to save a kml file for Google Earth, but the chance to automatically log the positions of my photos was not to be missed.

Bruce has left the Holux with me for a short while and so for the purposes of having a bit of fun, I also set out on my daily Rufus walk yesterday, with logger on-board and my iPhone.

To get all this logged data actually embedded in the photos, I will be using an open source Java application called GeoTag by Andreas Schneider, which runs on a Mac, but only if you have 64-bit Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.5 – it needs Java SE 6 runtime. (Following on from our GeoTagIcon exploits, Bruce, Frank and I were asked to come up with an icon for this.)

Note: This GeoTag application is launched (in Mac OSX) usually from the geotag.jnlp file, which resides within the GeoTag folder – being a java application you don’t get the normally compiled application – and you will see com.sun.javaws.Main in the Menu Bar, instead of the more usual application title. In some of my screen shots, you may see GeoTag in the menu bar – this is because I’m running it as an application proper from a test file that Andreas sent me – this method of building the application has so far not been able to be replicated with the downloads you get from the GeoTag site.

BT747

Before you begin with GeoTag however, you will have to get the log out of the Holux; for this see Bruce’s work-through and this How-To don’t forget to use the latest BT747 (I initially ran into trouble by using an older version). The transfer worked just fine over Bluetooth and the Holux’s single AA battery did both outings and data transfers.

GeoTag

Using the GeoTag application is actually very straightforward and there is a very useful and pertinent What next? under the Help menu:

• First import your photographs

• load your tracks: File > Load tracks from file… (which is the gpx file)

You will now have a panel full of image data which displays the selected image below and a hover-over image.

 

• then to link the two: Find locations > for this image/for selected images/for all images – you may as well select all images at once, they can be individually deleted later if you want. (Theses links are now found by a contextual-click on a selected line of data, not from the menu bar)

• Show on map

Map

I dumped the whole lot across to the map (which comes-up in your default browser) and now we see the general accuracy, and the fact that due to my lack-of-knowledge in using the Holux, both days tracks are displayed with a time link between the two.

Now, I have (I think) a time related problem with the iPhones’s photographs, so they’re all stacked just before I set out. I have tried to alter the photographs time setting in GeoTag, but I can’t seem to be able to alter that – the time-offset yes – but not the photos time. So, it’s been a manual reposition here.

There seemed to be quite a variance of positional error, one of the largest was this example (before and after correction):

However, it is easy to move markers and easy to identify them (see popup image window shot below) – within your default browser window – once moved by click hold and drop, they are automatically updated within GeoTag.

Direction

There is a nice feature whereby you can show the direction that your photo was taken in. I was hoping to see this materialise in some way within Google Earth after export as a kml file, but that export seems to be a little disappointing in that none of the images actually show automatically in GE, they have to be selected form the side list and only display individually.

and on the map you drag the Camera icon to show direction:

Saving

When you are happy with the positions – but, be careful, once saved, they cannot be undone – you have to delete that entry and import the original image again and load the track for it. (Slightly annoying that the finder is more Windows orientated and does not have an image preview to identify it by – especially if your images are fresh from the camera and just a number string.)

• select from the contextual menu: Save new locations: This image/Selected images/All images

• the save progress is shown at the foot of the application:

• a line of saved Data is signified by being grey rather than bold text:

• the original is added to file name in Finder:

To check the images have taken the geo data, open in Preview and show the Inspector from Tools menu, or simply open in iCab – if you have it.

KML

I couldn’t get the Google Earth > Show in Google Earth link to work and as I said before, I was disappointed with the output of the saved kml file;

so, I’ve prepared the same using Picasa and saved that kml file for comparison. Interestingly, the Winterburn Wood photos automatically got attached to the Google Map in uploading to Picasa, whereas the Malham Cove ones didn’t – must have inadvertently altered a setting somehow(?)

Malham Cove

Malham Cove.kml Malham Cove Picasa.kml

Winterburn Wood

Winterburn Wood.kml Winteburn Wood Picasa.kml

It’s very useful being able to log your photos and have them geotagged so easily and I will be acquiring some kind of logger/GPS device soon, but I think with my up and coming requirements – I’ll be going for something like the Garmin GPSMAP 495 – thanks for the loan of the Holux Bruce, I promise to return it soon!

gear, geotag, software