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Geotagging Photos - 3 Simple Methods

Published
by
Zz85
on June 21, 2008
in Interesting Stuff, Photos and Technology
. 1 Comment

What’s Geotagging?
Geotag. “Geo” + “Tags”. Tagging with geographical information or GPS coordinates.

The meaning is so simple, there isn’t a need to look up its meaning. Geotagging is one of the interesting stuff that makes me think about it, its brings more fun after having a GPS receiver, and the possibilities is really up to one’s creativity.

Lets take for example if write a traveller’s blog, you could look for posts categorised by time, by categories and by subject tags. Imagine having each post is tagged with its location, not only you know the location reading a post, you could easily navigate and search for posts by location and visually on a map. (Geojoey’s a free blog service for geotagged enabled blogs.)

Basically anything you wish to keep geographical information or data to be organise by location could be “geotag”, secret places (search geocaching), treasures, objects, animals, friends etc. It will be cool to have microblogging/status updates services support geotagging. Twitter tackles “what are you doing” but perhaps geotagging answers “where are you”.

Why Geotag Photos?
There’s should be some good reason why Google’s and Yahoo’s services supports this other than competition. When organising photos, you group them by usually by time, albums, folders etc. As the photos collection grow quickly, we need more to search and locate and there’s where descriptions, keywords tags comes into place. Perhaps with sophisticated software, we could find them by colours, mood, faces (I hope).

With the addition geotags, we know easily and exactly where a photo is taken, we could easily find photos taken in or around an area, we could layout photos over the world map and visualise where we had been before. (See SuperGeoTagged for flickr photos on google earth/maps)

3 Methods.
Likely, you need to know only 1. Make a choice.

Method 1: Automated Package.
You take a photo with your camera, and the location gets tagged to the photo automatically. Sounds simple but how? This usually requires some equipment. Either your camera has built in GPS, or you attach it to a GPS addon which is usually costly. A more practical situation is using mobile phones (and software) which takes advantage of its built in (or connected) GPS and camera. (Here’s a product for nikon cameras. Zurfer is a mobile software/service for automating and uploading geotagged photos from cameras phones)

Method 2: Map Assisted Geotagging
A little manual work but nevertheless the most affordable method. Select photos, then pinpoint it on the map on the computer to tag them. Since yahoo, google and microsoft already have their own map services, they already have services and software which allows users to do so easily. At the same time, there are software and online services and tutorials for providing such geotagging mashups. (examples: flickr, locr)

Method 3: Syncing GPS Logs
With a little work, this provides the most flexibility at affordable costs. Have a device to record GPS logs while you shoot away on a separate camera. Since GPS has multiple purposes, it would be a waste just to use it for tagging photos. With a GPS receiver, you could use it for navigation, finding directions, displaying routes and travel statistics, and while doing all these, record your tracks. With these track logs, a software would be able to extract the geographical data and tag locations to photos taken based on time contained in photographs.

My Choice.
Method 3. Since I already own a cheap bluetooth GPS receiver, I run the cool free trekbuddy on my mobile phones which tells me my location, speed, distance at the same time recording my travel tracks. The logs transferred to the computer would be synced with the photos, and coordinates are written to the photos’ EXIF and automatically displayed on maps with comptible services. The freeware I used is Geosetter, which is very good and powerful.

Photos on a boat

The benefits of a GPS Log can been seen here using Geosetter. Not only it shows you the path you took, it can shows you at exactly which spot you took the photos. On the boat, while Trekbuddy was tracklogging, its CMS can provide accurate ETA if you set target waypoint at the jetty. Click here for another screenshot.

More Examples.
Google supports geotagging in various services/products. Both Panoramio their community photo site, Google Maps (enable show photos under More) can view tagged photos, and Google Earth, Google Web Albums supports tagging. Microsoft’s softwares Virtual Earth and ProPhoto supports geotagging.
For method 3, you could purchase a gps data logger, but if you have already own a gps mobile phone, all the more its similar. A simple, free software like GPS Track could do the gps logging easily for you. Trekbuddy also provides inbuilt geotag for camera phones when u record a waypoint. (Method 1) Other free GPS software for mobile phones of interest are VlkGps and Mobile Trail Explorer.

More Links and Resources
Google’s Picasa Web Album - allows geotagging of albums
Yahoo’s Flickr - their organz feature allow you to geotag photos
Google’s Panaramio- service mainly to upload and specify coordinates. Photos on this service are shown in Google earth
Locr - A photo sharing site mainly with geotagging capabilities and location sharing (using maps by google, yahoo, microsoft)
Zooomr - another photo sharing community with Geotagging support.
Everytrail - For recording of tracks mainly but supports syncing for photos uploaded
Trekbuddy - Free powerful GPS j2me software for mobile phones
Geocoded Photo A similar article on wikipedia.

Mr Lam Ah Kow

Published
by
Zz85
on June 17, 2008
in Beliefs and Church
. 0 Comments

Mr Lam passed away last Tuesday morning at the age of 90. Our hearts throbbed when we heard the news. He loved us and the people from the church and we in turn loved him. His wake held over only that night was the shortest and funeral I’ve attended. The simpleness reflect upon his life and faith he had.

Ah Cek and Ah Cim

His name “Ah Kow” means no.9, likely referring to his position among his siblings, but we addressed him “Ah Cek”. He was a construction worker until he lost his sight and his wife took care of him thereafter. Despite the lost of sight, he senses were amazing sharp. He knew the monetary value of notes by touching them, and was always happy and generous to give out “ang pows”. When we used to take the bus back together, he always knew when the bus arrived home without anyone tell him. “Kam Sia Zhu” (感谢主, or “Thank God”), the phrase he never failed to say in Hokkien as he prepares his walking stick as the bus makes turns in the carpark to his block.

Always excited when we visited him at his home, he asks and talks events which happen recently and the people who visited him. Never do we hear him grumble or complain. Each time, he would reside the bible verses he memorised, sing the favorite hymns in dialects (十字架，主我赐平安 etc) and pray.

Mr Lam sense of time is very good. Even with my sight to see day and night, calendars and time, often I am ashamed that he could tell and remember dates and time better than I. Not too long ago, Mr Lam fell sick, stayed in a hospital before staying at a home. About 2 weeks back the last time I met him, we visited him at the home. Not being able to see, hard of hearing, without the appetite to eat, I thought that was a difficult time for him but alas, not a sign of complain or murmuring he shows us.

Instead he sings, gives praise and shared his testimony with Hokkien mixed with some other dialects. 91 years old he says he was (thats quite accurate). And he shared how he was saved when Rev Ang reached out to him in the 80s. While he was speaking, I noticed tears flowing from his closed eyes. I thought he was perhaps in pain and because we just woke him up from his sleep. But I now know his tears were of hope, and somehow he knew he was going his meet his Redeemer soon.

Burial Service

There may be many reasons why we loved him, but the faith he had was why we have to look up to him.

p.s. This is the 3rd elderly men I know passed away in the past 7 months. I wrote this post earlier in my book. After numerous procrastination I decided to post it online.

DVBS

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 7, 2008
in Church
. 2 Comments

前几天真高兴能够参帮忙儿童们的假期圣经班,能接触许多可爱但顽皮的孩子们！

这一回与”佳*老师”帮忙手工。

首先折纸星！

也折纸心！（有押韵呢，哈哈）

“张先生”和”大姐”在竞争比他们的微型纸心

剪刀

胶水

针线

金属丝

手工完成了！

想起来，本人与学生身份参加应该有六年了吧！也想起第一次帮忙弹琴时擦一点出大祸，呵呵。


虽然我也许不再是小孩子了，但能够与孩子一起同享幸福也很不错！

Cooking Fried Rice (with taiwan sausages)

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on May 20, 2008
in Food
. 2 Comments

One of my goals this holidays is actually to cook all my favorite dishes from Zi Char 煮炒 (zhu2 chao3) literally meaning ‘cook & fry’ or restaurant style.

So I started with fried rice 炒饭. How’s how I did it.

Cooking Ingredients

(left to right)Pepper, soya sauce, 2 eggs, corn cooking oil, sausages (used because I didn’t get char siew)

Standby Ingredients

Cooled cooked rice. Sliced sausages and chopped cabbages.

Crack eggs into a bowl

Stir, add soya sauce, stir, add pepper, stir.

Add oil to wok

Fry rice in the oil.

Add the eggs mixture.

Throw in sausages.

Stir-fry.

Throw in cabbages.

Done.

The mess I made of my home’s kitchen.

Time to clean up!

Completed dish, yum yum.

Other variations of fried rice can be created with different ingredients - using small onions(my dad’s method), spring onions, char siew, slice carrots, samba, peas etc etc…

Links
Yang Zhou Fried Rice on Baidu’s “Wiki” (in chinese)

A Letter from Prison

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on May 10, 2008
in People, Stories and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

While going out from home a few days ago, a neighbor approached me asking me to translate a letter she received. So began my attempt to be a english-chinese translator while reading the letter simultaneously. Following is a rough impression of its contents

Dear nephew,

I’ve been recently sentenced x years imprisonment and will be release on xx.xx.20xx. As you know I’ve did not study much in the past so this letter was written with the help of my cellmates. I hope you would study hard and not follow in my footsteps.

Do not worry about me as I’m well taken care here. Let my children know and give them my prison cell id, so they can visit me or write to me.

… … …

The letter, was written on a “prison paper” letter format with very neat handwriting. My neighbor, not understanding english and worried something bad had happened, decided to clarify with me.

Fortunately (or maybe not), it turned out the letter was sent to the wrong destination. The block and unit number were correct, but the recipient’s name and street address was wrong, so I suggested returning the mail.

Although this few short minutes was insignificant, it provoked a few thoughts of mine.

1st, it made me realised how personal letters were. Emails are still personal, but perhaps not at the same level as written letters. Perhaps the early believers would have been very encouraged when they received letters John wrote to the church while in prison.

2nd, it shows the prison in another light away from Prison Break and Mal Selamat saga. Its sad if you know if a friend or relative is in prison but jailed time spent would be worth if it is able to change a man’s life, and the lives around the man.

Another little incident that day for thought: While looking at when the rain would stop, a passerby threw the classified section of the newspaper on a bench and walked off hurriedly. An inconsiderate or courteous action? Well, I took that newspaper to shelter my head back home, then dump that into the recycling bin.