Contents tagged with GPS
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The world (map) should be free!.
With all of the open source movement going around and new licenses like the creative commons you would have expected someone should be able to grab a simple jpeg or a png of the world map for free, without any licensing issues. Well, I’m not sure when I actually started looking for one, but at some point in time I did, and couldn’t actually find an appropriate map of the world countries that’s free to download and royalty free to use in projects. Sure some of you would say that Bing and Google maps have their own maps and API which is great for some purposes. but just grabbing a simple map world map with countries borders and without any companies watermarks or restrictions is just not available. (and if you do happen to find one , please let me know).
So anyway I’ve decided to play the role of a cartographer and create my own maps and share those with the rest of the world , for free!. the first step was to find a reliable data set of country borders . Took a look in the CIA world Fact book which was good but not enough , took also a look here in this database which seemed very outdated. Eventually, I’ve stumbled upon this marvelous Natural Earth Data website. here is the Natural Earth Data site’s description -
Tagging Images with GPS coordinates. Now the lightweight app.
In one of my previous posts I showed how to embed GPS coordinates to jpeg images using C#. It is mainly useful if you're using a maps+pictures services such as panoramio.com or everytrail.com or any other kind of mapping and pictures solutions.
My GPS buddy is a nifty HOLUX M-241 GPS among the regular location, speed, direction, time it can also records tracks, and on top of that it's rather cheap.
But unfortunately its image GPS coordinates embedding feature doesn't work so well. -
GPS Coordinates in JPEG C# Example - Looks like there is a western side to the world as well
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An informative GeoTagging Getting-started Article
A friend at work , sent me this well documented and informative article on geotagging.
He got the feeling I was hooked onto this technology after I nagged him about whether his Nokia N95 can take pictures with embedded GPS coordinates (No it can't if you're asking) as a research for my Embedding GPS coordinates and other info in JPEG images with C# post.
I recommend reading it , especially if you're into digital photography or into technologies mesh ups. -
Embedding GPS coordinates and other info in JPEG images with C#
GPS and images are a dynamic duo. GPS modules are becoming cheaper and cheaper which means that we would see more gadgets embedded with a GPS as a standard. Cameras and phones are probably the ones that would be on the front line of GPS embedding early adoption. Currently there is the Nokia's N95 cell phone and there might be soon to see camera's with embedded GPS modules (??) and some funny looking , cumbersome integrations .
So having these two modules is a blessing for geotaggers.
What is geotagging you ask?
Taken from wikipedia
Geotagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as websites, RSS feeds, or images and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though it can also include altitude, bearing, and place names.
And if you're lucky enough to have a GPS that can track export it's data , you can embed the GPS coordinated into the JPEG images. Which means that on top of storing things like the camera model and time of picture taken , it can also store the specific location where the picture was taken. And to take it even further , there are image loading web services that locate on a map pictures that were embedded with their respective GPS coordinates . Panoramio.com is my favorite, Flickr used to support this by simply putting the latitude and longitude as tags , but it looks like it is no longer supported. Use Panoramio , it does the job.
