GeoTag Icon

What's this all about in a nutshell?

http://www.geotagicons.com/

The Geotag Icon is intended as a web "standard" icon for identifying geotagged content to humans.

The advent of inexpensive GPS devices and free tools like Google Maps or Flickr Map mean that more and more people are associating their content (typically blog posts or photos) with a specific geographic location. Such "geotagging" stores coordinates within metadata or microformat tags—where machines can find them but people can't.

That's where the Geotag Icon comes in. It provides a visual reference to a map link, or if no link is yet made helps viewers recognize the geographic relevance of the content.

It's free, easy to use and helps us all visualize the developing semantic web.

Geotagging via CAN - Camera Area Network

A good article on Geotagging via camera area networking ...

except they left out solutions from Red Hen Systems.

NEW YORK (AP) -- To plan an upcoming hike in the Alps, John Higham scoured scores of photos plotted along his route on a digital map for clues to the steepness of trails and the availability of accommodations or camp sites.

These images were just like all the other vacation photos shared by travelers and amateur photographers, except they'd been tagged with location information in an emerging practice known as ''geotagging.''

Armed with such data, Higham didn't have to search endless combinations of keywords and guess how photographers would describe images in captions. By zooming in on the map, he could easily find geotagged photos along the Via Alpina and gain a fresh perspective.

Nikon GeoTagging - Blue2CAN Nikona Review

RedHen Systems Blue2CAN Review
By Jeff Bower (jdbower)
Blue2CAN Review by Nikonian and Jeff Bower

I recently had the pleasure of testing a RedHen Systems Blue2CAN adapter. This will connect to any Nikon 10-pin remote port (found on the D200, D2Xs, D2Hs, and similar discontinued models) and provide a Bluetooth interface to a GPS unit. If you’re looking for a refresher on GPS usage in photography, please take a look at my preceding article entitled “What is GeoTagging?”


Blue2CAN - The Product

When I first learned about the RedHen Blue2CAN I thought it was tiny but it’s even smaller in person. The Blue2CAN measures 28.5mm high by 18.3mm wide by 9.2mm thick (13.9mm thick including the 10-pin connector) and it weighs in at a whopping 7 grams - no need to get a sturdier tripod when using one! Installation couldn’t be easier: just take the 10-pin remote cap off the camera and push the Blue2CAN on. There’s a small click as it seats into place and a mostly hidden red LED flashes once, then three times rapidly a few seconds later when it’s ready to find a GPS.

Summary

The RedHen Systems Blue2CAN works very well and I would recommend it to someone who already has a BlueTooth GPS and wants as tiny a solution as possible. Battery life is acceptable and slightly better than the hotshoe GPS solutions. The biggest downside is that there is no ability to use an external remote with the unit, but there are workarounds. It also may be worth the investment of a CapKeeper to prevent the Blue2CAN from getting lost if it falls out.

Ken, the Red Hen Wizzard, took note and innovated....

As Suggested :


As Implemented - Your wish is our solution:

Blue2CAN - Take the Picture. Get the Point!

"Photos That Know Where They Were Taken"

Here's how to use geotagging to add location data to your image files.

Part 1 of a special five-part series
Digital Focus - PC World
Dave Johnon
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 1:00 AM PDT

I remember showing photos of my trek through Grand Cayman to a friend a few years ago. "Where were these taken?" she asked me about a particular set of photos. "Hmm," I replied, "I don't remember. The East End, I think. I took so many photos, I can't keep track." At the time, I wished there was some automatic way to tag my photos with location information, so I'd always know where they were taken. Yet another thing I'd never have to remember ever again!

Well, my wish has come true: Geotagging is here. Geotagging is the term for adding location information to your photo files--and it's one of the coolest things ever to happen to digital photography.

The available solutions range from amazingly elegant to somewhat less elegant. Take Red Hen's Blue2Can, for example. In my experience, there's no better geotagging solution.

GeoTagging With NIKON

Put a Billion Dollar System to Use

From Zombie Dinosaurs by Dave Johnson... you know the one?

A few years ago, I went on a little photo trek and showed off the photos. I vividly remember getting grilled about the various locations by a friend of mine. “Where were these taken?” she asked me about a particular set of photos. “Hmm,” I replied, “I don’t remember. I took so many photos, I can’t keep track.” If only there was some automatic way to tag my photos with location information, so they’d be able to tell me where they were taken. Yet another thing I’d never have to remember ever again!.....

I’ve recently been experimenting with what is surely the most elegant geotagging tool ever made. I’m talking about Red Hen’s Blue2CAN.

In my experience, a better geotagging solution does not exist. It’s a small gadget about the size of your thumb that plugs into a small port on the front of several Nikon Digital SLRs, including the D200, D2X, D2Xs and D2Hs. It communicates wirelessly to any Bluetooth GPS receiver (like the kind that comes with inexpensive navigation programs and sits on your dashboard).

More on Blue2CAN - Camera Area Network for Nikon

More on BLue2CAN - Camera Area Network for Nikon

The Blue2CAN connects automatically (and silently) to ANY Bluetooth GPS in range (within 10 m of it's location) The idea is that in the rare event there is more than one Bluetooth GPS in range that any one will do as it's "close enough". However these receivers only connect to one device at a time, so the GPS device must be on, in range, and NOT connected to something else, it's most likely yours. If the GPS is separated from the camera Blue2CAN loses the connection and starts searching again. If the same one, or a different one comes it range it uses it. The advantage is that it is AUTOMATIC, and therefore easy to use.

Connection speed is not really a problem because the Blue2CAN stays connected to the GPS as long as the GPS receiver is on, even when the camera is turned off (yes, Blue2CAN gets power from the camera even when the camera is off). In this way the GPS data is available immediately when the camera is switched on. Note that it is best to turn the camera off when you’re not shooting because the GPS does hold the meter on (Nikon's design) and the meter takes quite a lot of power. Fortunately Bluetooth takes very little power so it does not put much of a drain on the camera battery in any case. The drain is so small that the D200 camera battery can keep the Bluetooth radio working for more than 25 days (and nights). GPS takes a LOT more power, so the batteries in the Bluetooth GPS device will probably not last more than about 14 hours.

If the Blue2CAN is not connected to a GPS when the camera is turned off it will search for 10 minutes longer, if no GPS if found it will turn itself off. It will start searching again when the camera is turned on, and takes about 5 seconds to connect in this case. It usually takes GPS receivers at least this long to get a fix from power up, so when the GPS data is available the Bluetooth is already connected. I'm sorry if this description was too complicated, but the complexity was necessary in the implementation to both manage power and make sure no GPS data was missed when a picture is taken...

The two real advantages of using a Bluetooth GPS instead of a camera powered GPS are that 1) the power systems are separate. And 2) the GPS antenna can be placed in a good position regardless of where the camera is.

Power: The GPS must be on all the time to “keep a lock” otherwise you have to wait for the fix before you take a picture (not a good use model). The GPS takes a lot of power, so it can put quite a drain on the camera battery, if the GPS battery goes dead you can still take a picture, it just won’t be geo-located.

Antenna: To maintain a fix the GPS antenna must have a clear view of the sky, if your shooting from inside a car or other vehicle it’s better to have the GPS on the dash than on the camera. Also if the camera is “stored” between shooting where it will not “see” the sky, a camera mounted GPS will loose lock and may take to long to re-acquire when you get the thing out to take a shot.

Red Hen does offer a camera mounted GPS unit for the D200, D2X as well, it's called the "DX-GPS" we’ve had it available for some time, these are the things we’ve learned from use and customer feedback.

Dividing the Web Images Pie - Who has the largest slice?

Photo Web Sites Market Share

Apparently things are not really going well over at Flickr.

If Photobucket is around 2.5 billion images currently then the best guess of on-line imagery would suggest more than six billion images on-line - up from essentially zero eight years ago? Photobucket looks to be the dominate service by a factor of severn or eith over the next best Yahoo Photos. No wonder Microsoft is sniffing around buying Yahoo?

IPTC Photo Metadata Conference

IPTC and Ifra Photo Metadata Conference in June IPTC Photo Metadata Conference

WINDSOR, England – 3 April 2007 – For the first time, an international conference focusing exclusively on photo metadata will bring together camera makers, photographers, editors, software designers and others who have a stake in professional imaging. The 1st international Photo Metadata Conference will be held in Florence, Italy, on 7 June 2007. Held in conjunction with CEPIC Congress 2007, this event is organised by two major news industry organisations, IPTC and Ifra, and is sponsored by Adobe Systems Inc. Everyone agrees that it's difficult to describe photos in a universal way -- independent of language and culture -- but only recently have technologies such as XML permitted photos to carry advanced metadata that can survive throughout the photo production process from camera to finished product. In addition, such formerly exotic technologies as GPS and digital recording can now be embedded in cameras to make a permanent record of such important parameters as the photographer's location and audio comments. For a full day, representatives from standardisation bodies and such vendors as Adobe, Apple, Canon, Fotoware, Hasselblad and Microsoft will discuss how to improve the interoperability of photo metadata. Photographers, editors, image buyers and others leaders in the photo industry will discuss better ways to describe photos and related rights and permissions information, and will learn how crucial data generated by cameras can improve the editing and long-term resale of images. The goal of the conference is to simplify the convergence and global applicability of photo metadata, and determine how to maximize the widespread and consistent implementation of standards -- adding value to photos. As the creator of so-called "IPTC header," a 15-year-old metadata standard that has gained nearly universal acceptance among professional photographers, the IPTC is well positioned to lead the photo industry in this effort. The 2007 congress being held by CEPIC, the Coordination of European Picture Agencies Press Stock Heritage, is the perfect venue for the International Photo Metadata Conference, bringing together the biggest players in Europe's vibrant photo industry. We welcome participation everyone in the photo industry. To attend the Photo Metadata Conference or learn more about CEPIC's convention in historic Florence, please visit http://www.phmdc.org/. The modest fee includes coffee breaks, buffet lunch and all Conference materials.