Sunday, November 16, 2008

Geotagging Digital Photo's

All digital cameras record the date and time that each picture is taken, within the image file (in the EXIF data fields). This allows you many years later, to see when the pic was taken... but not where the pic was taken.

With the advent of GPS devices, it is now possible to record the exact location that each pic is taken.

Some new cameras have built-in GPS receivers, some allow you to connect any GPS receiver.

However, it is quite easy to use GPS tracklogs to automatically check exactly where you were at any given date and time, then embed the Latitude and Longitude (and altitude and speed) into the image file. Some software can do this for you completely automatically. Simply tell it where you store your pics and where you store your tracklogs and it looks for which tracklogs include the same date/time as each pic, then looks for the tracklog point closest to the time the pic was taken. The EXIF data fields are updated automatically.

Many different programs can now read and use the location data in digital images.

Yesterday, we flew our paramotors from Stellenbosch Airfield and did some awesome sightseeing among the Bottlery Hills. Below is part of my tracklog on Google Earth, along with the exact location that each picture was taken.



And below I have zoomed in on the exact same view on Google Earth, as one of the pics (embedded in the top-right of the image).

Click on image to open a new Tab with a larger image

I think this is pretty amazing technology!


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