Surely this wheel has already been invented? We have a need to geotag spectrum analyzer screen captures AND enter some very simple data for each capture about what it is measuring. So for example assuming a cell site, we might want Site#, sector, spectrum, and maybe a general-purpose numeric user entry field. Our S/A allows file-naming, but it's just too cumbersome to use. We typically just use whatever name is offered next, i.e., "File001.png", etc... where 001 increments.
So, if using an external device or even an iPhone app, then it would be nice if you could set the starting file number out of the S/A and have this increment on the widget (the device should be small and just clip-on on velcro to the S/A). Then, when in the field taking measurements, you could push a few keys to describe the very basics of the measurements and store them off to Excel or whatever later on.
It's not that we're lazy - (we are) -kidding! but we very often take a series of 24 measurements at a shot, and it really is time consuming to try to do what I've hopefully explained above. Character-by- character data entry on a jog-wheel is stupid for what we do. Plus, that doesn't address the GPS requirement (which our S/A does not have).., well, not for a reasonable price anyway.
So to recap: We want a GPS DataLogger with a few user-defined buttons for SIMPLE numeric-only data entry. Must be portable, and can be an iPhone app though the preference is for a small widget we could clip onto the analyzer. DC Power is avail from one of the S/A ports, but stand-alone battery operation is greatly perferred.
I thought about that approach already. We would have to then visually match up a trace with an iPhone pic, and (I guess) manually copy the coordinates, etc.. A visual match-up could be problematic. The data export / extration is obviously do-able, but is probably more hassle than just using the S/A jog wheel.
I guess what I'm really looking for is: SITE - DATE/TIME - FILE - SECTOR - SPECTRUM - NUMERIC USER FIELD (General Purpose, maybe 2 characters), and an LF/CR. Would be really nice to embed this data back into the EXIF fields for the S/A's original PNG files, but I don't recall if PNG's even have lat/lon in their EXIF's. For the other fields I guess I could find some unused and populate/ over-write them.
I've seen photo loggers that "sort-of" provide this function, but not to the extent we need.
Foregoing an automatic EXIF re-write to the S/A's SD card PNG files, a simple *.txt would be the preferred output. Note that all of that avoids having to do a visual look-up on a tiny iPhone screen. (Not that my vision is THAT bad... yet!)
I got a feeling I might have to build this - but I'm a little surprised there aren't more general purpose GPS dataloggers out there with user input capability. Writing an app would avoid all hardware development. Most of us have (un-jailbroken) iPhones, so that could be a problem.??
On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:02:30 -0600, the renowned hamilton wrote:
Look at the Exif information in some program such as Photoshop. If you upload a geotagged photo to flickr.com it can stick a virtual map pin into where the camera says it was photographed.
Also stored is a bunch of information on camera model, lens, whether the flash fired, etc.
Here's a free tool:-
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Here's info from a geotagged photo I took in February at Harvard:-
ExifTool Version Number : 8.90 File Name : P1010014.JPG Directory : XXX File Size : 4.7 MB File Modification Date/Time : 2012:02:19 11:50:12-05:00 File Permissions : rw-rw-rw- File Type : JPEG MIME Type : image/jpeg Exif Byte Order : Little-endian (Intel, II) Make : Panasonic Camera Model Name : DMC-ZS7 Orientation : Rotate 90 CW X Resolution : 180 Y Resolution : 180 Resolution Unit : inches Software : Ver.1.2 Modify Date : 2012:02:19 11:50:13 Y Cb Cr Positioning : Co-sited Exposure Time : 1/30 F Number : 4.3 Exposure Program : Program AE ISO : 400 Exif Version : 0221 Date/Time Original : 2012:02:19 11:50:13 Create Date : 2012:02:19 11:50:13 Components Configuration : Y, Cb, Cr, - Compressed Bits Per Pixel : 4 Exposure Compensation : 0 Max Aperture Value : 3.3 Metering Mode : Multi-segment Light Source : Unknown Flash : Off, Did not fire Focal Length : 17.0 mm Image Quality : High Firmware Version : 0.1.2.0 White Balance : Auto Focus Mode : Auto AF Area Mode : 1-area Image Stabilization : On, Mode 1 Macro Mode : On Shooting Mode : Program Audio : No Data Dump : (Binary data 8200 bytes, use -b option to extract) White Balance Bias : 0 Flash Bias : 0 Internal Serial Number : (F60) 2010:11:29 no. 0108 Panasonic Exif Version : 0300 Color Effect : Off Time Since Power On : 00:00:06.80 Burst Mode : Off Sequence Number : 0 Contrast Mode : Normal Noise Reduction : Standard Self Timer : Off Rotation : Rotate 90 CW AF Assist Lamp : Enabled but Not Used Color Mode : Normal Optical Zoom Mode : Standard Conversion Lens : Off Travel Day : n/a World Time Location : Home Program ISO : n/a Advanced Scene Type : 1 Faces Detected : 0 AF Point Position : 0.5 0.5 Num Face Positions : 0 Intelligent Exposure : Off Faces Recognized : 0 Flash Warning : No Title : Baby Name : Location : Country : USA State : MASSACHUSETTS City : BOSTON Landmark : PALMER DIXON COURTS Intelligent Resolution : Off Maker Note Version : 0133 Scene Mode : Off WB Red Level : 1306 WB Green Level : 1054 WB Blue Level : 2484 Flash Fired : No Text Stamp : Off Baby Age : (not set) Transform : Off Flashpix Version : 0100 Color Space : sRGB Exif Image Width : 4000 Exif Image Height : 3000 Interoperability Index : R98 - DCF basic file (sRGB) Interoperability Version : 0100 Sensing Method : One-chip color area File Source : Digital Camera Scene Type : Directly photographed Custom Rendered : Normal Exposure Mode : Auto Digital Zoom Ratio : 0 Focal Length In 35mm Format : 104 mm Scene Capture Type : Standard Gain Control : High gain up Contrast : Normal Saturation : Normal Sharpness : Normal GPS Version ID : 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude Ref : North GPS Longitude Ref : West GPS Time Stamp : 16:46:40 GPS Satellites : 4 GPS Status : Measurement Active GPS Measure Mode : 2-Dimensional Measurement GPS Dilution Of Precision : 1.8 GPS Map Datum : WGS-84 GPS Processing Method : GPS GPS Date Stamp : 2012:02:19 PrintIM Version : 0250 Compression : JPEG (old-style) Thumbnail Offset : 11776 Thumbnail Length : 7944 MPF Version : 0100 Number Of Images : 2 MP Image Flags : Dependent child image MP Image Format : JPEG MP Image Type : Large Thumbnail (full HD equivalent) MP Image Length : 579661 MP Image Start : 4344320 Dependent Image 1 Entry Number : 0 Dependent Image 2 Entry Number : 0 Image Width : 4000 Image Height : 3000 Encoding Process : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding Bits Per Sample : 8 Color Components : 3 Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling : YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1) Advanced Scene Mode : Off Aperture : 4.3 Blue Balance : 2.356736 GPS Date/Time : 2012:02:19 16:46:40Z GPS Latitude : 42 deg 22' 8.16" N GPS Longitude : 71 deg 7' 36.67" W GPS Position : 42 deg 22' 8.16" N, 71 deg 7' 36.67" W Image Size : 4000x3000 Preview Image : (Binary data 579661 bytes, use -b option to extract) Red Balance : 1.239089 Scale Factor To 35 mm Equivalent: 6.1 Shutter Speed : 1/30 Thumbnail Image : (Binary data 7944 bytes, use -b option to extract) Circle Of Confusion : 0.005 mm Field Of View : 19.6 deg Focal Length : 17.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 104.0 mm) Hyperfocal Distance : 13.68 m Light Value : 7.1
Here's info from a photo on Digikey's website- here:
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No GPS info, but lots of other stuff. I don't know why they didn't batch-strip all that garbage except maybe for a copyright notice:-
ExifTool Version Number : 8.90 File Name : BQ25504EVM-674.JPG Directory : XXXX File Size : 144 kB File Modification Date/Time : 2012:04:28 14:17:09-04:00 File Permissions : rw-rw-rw- File Type : JPEG MIME Type : image/jpeg Exif Byte Order : Little-endian (Intel, II) Photometric Interpretation : RGB Make : Canon Camera Model Name : Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi Orientation : Horizontal (normal) Samples Per Pixel : 3 X Resolution : 72 Y Resolution : 72 Resolution Unit : inches Software : Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows Modify Date : 2012:01:31 14:40:24 Y Cb Cr Positioning : Co-sited Exposure Time : 1/4 F Number : 16.0 Exposure Program : Manual ISO : 100 Exif Version : 0221 Date/Time Original : 2012:01:23 05:42:22 Create Date : 2012:01:23 05:42:22 Components Configuration : Y, Cb, Cr, - Shutter Speed Value : 1/4 Aperture Value : 16.0 Exposure Compensation : 0 Max Aperture Value : 5.2 Subject Distance : 0.31 m Metering Mode : Multi-segment Flash : Off, Did not fire Focal Length : 45.0 mm User Comment : Sub Sec Time : 65 Sub Sec Time Original : 65 Sub Sec Time Digitized : 65 Flashpix Version : 0100 Color Space : sRGB Exif Image Width : 640 Exif Image Height : 640 Interoperability Index : R98 - DCF basic file (sRGB) Interoperability Version : 0100 Focal Plane X Resolution : 4865.603645 Focal Plane Y Resolution : 4876.712329 Focal Plane Resolution Unit : inches Custom Rendered : Normal Exposure Mode : Manual White Balance : Manual Scene Capture Type : Standard Compression : JPEG (old-style) Thumbnail Offset : 1214 Thumbnail Length : 6272 Current IPTC Digest : cb5a402e8c4aa0c90c1c7b09dfdc06d1 Coded Character Set : UTF8 Application Record Version : 108 Time Created : 05:42:22+00:00 IPTC Digest : cb5a402e8c4aa0c90c1c7b09dfdc06d1 Displayed Units X : inches Displayed Units Y : inches Global Angle : 30 Global Altitude : 30 Copyright Flag : True URL :
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Photoshop Thumbnail : (Binary data 6272 bytes, use -b option to extr act) Photoshop Quality : 10 Photoshop Format : Standard Progressive Scans : 3 Scans XMP Toolkit : Adobe XMP Core 5.0-c060 61.134777,
2010/02/12-
17:32:00 Metadata Date : 2012:01:31 14:40:24-06:00 Creator Tool : Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows Serial Number : 1070323200 Lens Info : 18-55mm f/? Lens : EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Image Number : 0 Flash Compensation : 0 Firmware : 1.0.9 Already Applied : True Date Created : 2012:01:23 05:42:22.065 Legacy IPTC Digest : 7078F40D00546F9FEF59195E8B4BE90C Color Mode : RGB ICC Profile Name : sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Format : image/jpeg Instance ID : xmp.iid:2A130FC74B4CE111AB54F3B12FF63994 Document ID : xmp.did:83C1E50E4A4CE111AB54F3B12FF63994 Original Document ID : xmp.did:83C1E50E4A4CE111AB54F3B12FF63994 Web Statement :
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Marked : True History Action : saved, saved History Instance ID : xmp.iid:83C1E50E4A4CE111AB54F3B12FF63994, xmp. iid:2A130FC74B4CE111AB54F3B12FF63994 History When : 2012:01:31 14:34:18-06:00,
2012:01:31 14:40:24
-06:00 History Software Agent : Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows, Adobe Photoshop C S5 Windows History Changed : /, / Profile CMM Type : Lino Profile Version : 2.1.0 Profile Class : Display Device Profile Color Space Data : RGB Profile Connection Space : XYZ Profile Date Time : 1998:02:09 06:49:00 Profile File Signature : acsp Primary Platform : Microsoft Corporation CMM Flags : Not Embedded, Independent Device Manufacturer : IEC Device Model : sRGB Device Attributes : Reflective, Glossy, Positive, Color Rendering Intent : Perceptual Connection Space Illuminant : 0.9642 1 0.82491 Profile Creator : HP Profile ID : 0 Profile Copyright : Copyright (c) 1998 Hewlett-Packard Company Profile Description : sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Media White Point : 0.95045 1 1.08905 Media Black Point : 0 0 0 Red Matrix Column : 0.43607 0.22249 0.01392 Green Matrix Column : 0.38515 0.71687 0.09708 Blue Matrix Column : 0.14307 0.06061 0.7141 Device Mfg Desc : IEC
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Device Model Desc : IEC 61966-2.1 Default RGB colour space - sRGB Viewing Cond Desc : Reference Viewing Condition in IEC61966-2.1 Viewing Cond Illuminant : 19.6445 20.3718 16.8089 Viewing Cond Surround : 3.92889 4.07439 3.36179 Viewing Cond Illuminant Type : D50 Luminance : 76.03647 80 87.12462 Measurement Observer : CIE 1931 Measurement Backing : 0 0 0 Measurement Geometry : Unknown (0) Measurement Flare : 0.999% Measurement Illuminant : D65 Technology : Cathode Ray Tube Display Red Tone Reproduction Curve : (Binary data 2060 bytes, use -b option to extr act) Green Tone Reproduction Curve : (Binary data 2060 bytes, use -b option to extr act) Blue Tone Reproduction Curve : (Binary data 2060 bytes, use -b option to extr act) DCT Encode Version : 100 APP14 Flags 0 : [14] APP14 Flags 1 : (none) Color Transform : YCbCr Image Width : 640 Image Height : 640 Encoding Process : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding Bits Per Sample : 8 Color Components : 3 Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling : YCbCr4:4:4 (1 1) Aperture : 16.0 Date/Time Created : 2012:01:23 05:42:22+00:00 Image Size : 640x640 Scale Factor To 35 mm Equivalent: 9.2 Shutter Speed : 1/4 Create Date : 2012:01:23 05:42:22.65 Date/Time Original : 2012:01:23 05:42:22.65 Modify Date : 2012:01:31 14:40:24.65 Thumbnail Image : (Binary data 6272 bytes, use -b option to extr act) Circle Of Confusion : 0.003 mm Depth Of Field : 0.004 m (0.308 - 0.312) Field Of View : 5.0 deg Focal Length : 45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 412.5 mm) Hyperfocal Distance : 38.62 m Lens ID : Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Light Value : 10.0
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Interesting. Not sure if I have that EXIF Tool. I will check it out for sure. I had downloaded some from CNET a while back. One of them expired and quit working. The other had some quirks, but basically did the job. (At the time, I wanted an EXIF editor - I forget exactly why...)
As to mapping in general, we have a non-disclosure with the client, and it would extend to putting photos on any publicly available (or at least non-password protected) URL / resource. Last I checked, a lot of those services weren't terribly secure.
As to the EXIF Data and you comment re: batch stripping.. Exactly!! We could use the "Baby Name" field for our purposes. Is that a real EXIF defined field? I wonder... :) Sometimes I think EXIF is like the early days of RS-232. So many "flavors"!!
[Snipped content - if I did it right - my 2nd try!]
Interesting. Not sure if I have that EXIF Tool. I will check it out for sure. I had downloaded some from CNET a while back. One of them expired and quit working. The other had some quirks, but basically did the job. (At the time, I wanted an EXIF editor - I forget exactly why...)
As to mapping in general, we have a non-disclosure with the client, and it would extend to putting photos on any publicly available (or at least non-password protected) URL / resource. Last I checked, a lot of those services weren't terribly secure.
As to the EXIF Data and you comment re: batch stripping.. Exactly!! We could use the "Baby Name" field for our purposes. Is that a real EXIF defined field? I wonder... :) Sometimes I think EXIF is like the early days of RS-232. So many "flavors"!!
Does the existing screen capture from the SA also save the date/time ? If so, just save also the GPS time from the logger, and then later compare and match the two times to associate the correct GPS record with the SA record.
You can of course also time tag any manual note taken too, and reference them to the data as well.
--
Regards,
Adrian Jansen adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net
Note reply address is invalid, convert address above to machine form.
Thanks all, so far... Geo-coding is easy. Loads of solutions for that, and as most here have noted, the process simply compares the date/time of the co- located GPS, somehow affixed or attached (cliped-on) to the S/A. The part that is proving to be a challenge is to ALSO have the ability to hit a few keys and have this data collected / embedded right along with the GPS, AND PREFERABLY, included in the EXIF as a permanent record with the PNG or JPG file itself.
I did stumble on an iPhone app that looks promising: "Tap Forms LT". It's not perfect, but it's a long way towards the goal - and avoids hardware development. It auto-increments, allows one-click selection (or multi-click which we won't need) of user pre-defined fields. It geo-codes current date/time, etc.., and even allows photos or spoken notes. I'm doing a trial on the "free" version now limited to 15 records. For the $7 app purchase price, if this is as close as I think it might be to the "ideal" solution, then this will be the route we choose.
Personally i would kick up from a phone to a tablet with a data logging program with a few user programmable fields. Should be a lot easier to connect the SA data to the geo data that way.
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