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Using Google Maps With a Photo Album 81

Posted by kdawson from the stick-a-pin-in-it dept.
neil1979 writes "This site has a tutorial on using Google Maps with your photo album. Each album has a latitude and longitude so it shows up as a pin on a map of the world. When you click a pin, up pops the highlight photo for the albums at that location. Clicking again brings up that album. Makes a great front page to a gallery. Includes a demo with 200 albums from the author's travels. He provides all his code for interfacing with Google maps. Seriously awesome feature for people who travel a lot."
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Using Google Maps With a Photo Album More

Using Google Maps With a Photo Album

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  • Put together the age old slide show along with the 'gather around the atlas and I'll show you where I went'

    Just great work. Would love to do this to my photo collection, but alas the time will not present itself.

  • Saw something like this ages ago (Score:3, Informative)

    by Utopia ( 149375 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @05:39PM (#18596225)
    http://www.nikhilk.net/Prototypes/PhotoMap/ [nikhilk.net]
    • I've done this myself [manastungare.com] at least since October 2005 [archive.org]. Source code available if you send me an email, and I'll even package it nicely and write a HOWTO some day ...
      • Yeah! Been There Done That!
        I even got messages on IRC: "Hey Tijmen, how original eh, this item on slashdot? you already did that"

        This is mine:
        http://the-timing.nl/Projects/Photomap/ [the-timing.nl]

        I'm making one for my sister as well. But then with a very nice CMS. I'll submit a slashdot story when it's done! so everyone can see!

  • Psst (Score:5, Informative)

    by oskard ( 715652 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @05:39PM (#18596227)
    This was done by Flickr about a year ago:

    http://www.flickr.com/map/ [flickr.com]

  • Here's my tutorial (Score:5, Informative)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @05:40PM (#18596257) Homepage Journal
    1. Install drupal [drupal.org] with the image, image_gallery, gmap, location, and gmap_location modules enabled.
    2. ?
    3. Profit! (okay, you might need the ecommerce module for this step.)

    This combination will allow you to upload images, organize them into galleries, and display them with location information.

    The locations of nodes can be plotted on a map (links to demos can be found from the gmap module project node [drupal.org]) just so.

    That guy's solution provides a niftier image browser popup, but the overall functionality is available through drupal without having to write any code.

  • Travels to new places? Jeez, what about old familiar places for those of us who live boring, mundane lives?

    You might say, "but of course, what's to stop you from plotting movements in your daily life?"

    That's exactly the problem. You see, we need new satellite technology (or a voyeuristic photographer, whichever is cheaper) so that I can accurately plot the following morning routine on Google Maps:

    1.) Wake up in my bedroom facing north with the huge windows (hint hint)
    2.) Go into the bathroom approximately

  • Basement (Score:3, Funny)

    by biocute ( 936687 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @05:47PM (#18596341)
    36"48'S 174"52'E, there you have it, only one, and that's my basement's location, you insensitive clod!

  • LtL (Score:3, Informative)

    by updog ( 608318 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @05:57PM (#18596459) Homepage
    A friend of mine did something like this a while ago - check out Larry the Llama [larrythellama.com], a geographic photo sharing site. It's pretty cool, especially for a not-for-profit self-sufficient personal project...
  • Hmm, the live demo doesn't seem to be working properly in Opera. After loading everything, the screen goes black with just the scale overlays jumping to the middle of the page.

    Anyway, I think that's a pretty obvious use of positional data in photos, but the main problem seems to be getting the data attached to the images. It's certainly possible to do this manually, but it would either be too imprecise, or take a ridiculous amount of time to fill out coordinates for each street a photo was taken on. Automat

    • I couldn't find any details, but my guess is that some software would be used to take the location data the GPS unit recorded over time, and compare it to the time the photos were taken. Sounds like it could actually work. Damn, now I need a GPS device :)

      You can use any typical GPS that will store a track log to generate this data. Just set your camera's time properly. Easiest way to do it, which would also be somewhat imprecise but who cares, is to just write a simple script that would generate a hash of

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jobeus ( 639434 )
      Ah, interesting! I'll have to work on fixing it for Opera...

      I'd love to get an addon for my DSLR too that would automatically do this for me... I did it manually for now, but having something add EXIF data with the lat/long would be rockin. :)

      Thanks!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by danlyke ( 149938 )
        Just take a picture of your GPS so that you have an EXIF timestamp correlated with your GPS clock, and have one of the parameters to your script being a picture name and the GPS clock time that the picture was taken. At that point all you have to do is take your track data from your GPS and correlate it with your timestamps on your picture.

        Poof! Instant geolocation.
    • This is exactly what I've been doing for a few years now, and the technique works quite well. Using a straightfoward java application, I take tracklogs from my GPS and correlate them to the EXIF data in a set of pictures. The program generates some .jsp scriptlets and javascript. You can see an example of a trip report fragment that incorporates all of this here:

      http://alavigne.net/newHomePage/Outdoors/TripRepor ts/GrandCanyon2005/index.jsp?navpage=story_11#slas hdotanchor/ [alavigne.net]

      double-click on the
    • http://triptracker.net/ [triptracker.net]
  • but at first it showed the devastated areas I had visited as if they weren't devastated - and now it shows them from six months ago.

    This might make sense if you're not visiting an area that changes much, but for those of us who like to visit places that change, it can have some unanticipated and mind-altering results.
  • Why does one line in the example end abruptly with $? Has it been copied out of a nano session? Do I need to crack open Wireshark to find out the mystery code?

  • On a plane? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by NitsujTPU ( 19263 )
    http://gallery.jobemedia.org/g/2003_02_19_toronto_ to_see_bon_jovi_w_niccole_laurna [jobemedia.org]

    I'm not sure that all of these photos were taken at that particular location *VBG*

  • Gmapez [bluweb.com] is a nice open source wrapper around the google maps api. One can use it to create such and quite a bit more complicated google maps application very quickly. All you need to do is throw is some html in a div somewhere on your page and call the gmapez javascript.

    By the way, I am in no way affiliated to gmapez. I have however used [cmi.ac.in] it and find it useful at least whn you don't have the ytime or the need to poke deep into the google map api and still want some google maps goodness.

  • If anyone uses Picasa, I wrote a simple app that takes the location data in the Picasa Web RSS feed and generates a map with a list of albums in the feed and push pins. I'm willing to share this code freely if there is a place to put it or share it with the folks at Google working on Picasa. It is a java app that deploys on Tomcat. You can contact me at jambay @ yahoo . com

    There is a form on the bottom that takes in the URL of a Picasa Web RSS feed that it will try and parse.

    Picture of the app:
    http: [flickr.com]

  • Geotagging with Picasa & Google Earth (Score:4, Informative)

    by stunt_penguin ( 906223 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @06:24PM (#18596787)
    Picasa and Google Earth have an interface that allows you to geotag your photos and see them on GE's 3d globe: http://www.ogleearth.com/2006/06/picasa_google_e.h tml [ogleearth.com] The data is added to the JPEG's EXIF so the photos will be map-placeable by other applications such as this one, or the rather excellent tools on Flickr. Now, if they'd just build GPS into a camera :D

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Forthan Red ( 820542 )
      You don't really need a gps in your camera. Just sync up the camera's clock with the time on your GPS, and turn its tracking function on. Software can them match up the picture's timecode with timecodes in the tracking file to determine the location you were at when you clicked the shutter.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by raymondlowe ( 257081 )
        I did this, it works great. The best software I found (free) is from a semi-abandoned Microsoft Research project called WWMX. Get their "location stamper" utility.

        http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads/D etails/eadb6a33-b1b8-4c4d-b713-64fae728f74f/Detail s.aspx [microsoft.com]

        Give it a .GPX file from your GPS unit, then give it a bunch of pictures and it will add the location into the EXIF. Does backups of pics if you want -- gives you several options on how to deal with pics that don't match any obvious point
        • Thanks for the link. Most of the software I've looked at to do geotagging has been spendware, which is ridiculous for something so easy. This looks like just what I wanted. However, I don't see any option for local time correction. May have to handle that manually.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by sdpinpdx ( 66786 ) *
          On OSX, I use gpsphotolinker [oregonstate.edu]
      • This is such a typical geek answer.

        I've done this exact thing with my camera and that Sony dongle, I know professional photographers who have done this with another GPS tracker, but I sure as hell don't know any ordinary users who could even repeat your sentence, never mind carry out the instructions.

        It's like telling a user who doesn't like your software to go in and edit the source code themselves. They don't give a fuck, they just want something to work. In this case, no-one is going to geotag th
        • The reply was directed to those who already have hand-held GPS units, obviously. If they can handle inputing waypoints, and uploading maps, etc., they can certainly handle setting the clock in their camera, and running a program against a file.

          Hang out at the geocaching.com forums, and you'll see that "regular joes" aren't nearly as technologically inept as you seem to think.

    • http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022207eos1dma r kiiiaccs.asp [dpreview.com]

      For Canon's new EOS-1D Mark III cameral:

      Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2 - Faster workflows

      Responding to feedback from Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E1 users, Canon has expanded the functionality of the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2 to also support two-way communication via peer to peer (PTP) and HTTP protocols. Remote users can trigger the shutter button or download images from the camera via an internet browser window, dramatically reducing

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by M-G ( 44998 )
      Now, if they'd just build GPS into a camera

      I was wishing the same thing on a recent vacation. It surely wouldn't cost much to use the same sort of chipset used in cell phones for GPS locations.

  • Panoramio (Score:2, Informative)

    by scooter.higher ( 874622 )
    But Panoramio links show up in Google Earth, and can also be browsed using Google Maps.

    Here are the pictures I have taken and uploaded (not much I know, but I just started playing with it):

    http://www.panoramio.com/user/336919 [panoramio.com]
  • I mean, look at where he took pictures in the US...only at the borders...where terrorists can enter the country!

    Either that or he realized all those photos of Kansas really were not too interesting...

  • Unfortunately it means you need a live account.

    It is cool though, letting your link your annotated map into your blog/photos on Live Spaces. Almost easy enough for your grandma to use though - no coding!

    Heres my (documentation unfinished) trip to China: http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=3DBF6F7940B0F681!25 2 [live.com]

    Also, as I'm sure everyone here is a huge fan of IE and ActiveX *grin* you can install the 3D renderer, and I was suprised to see all my annotations working. While you are there, get the Live Local plug
  • A previous poster already mentioned that Google's Picasa [google.com] is a free and easy tool to add geolocation to the EXIF metadata of photos and then publish them on Google Earth or Google Maps. Of course, there are plenty of other tools to do just that. Examples include this one for the mac [houdah.com], or this other one specifically for iPhoto [stanton.net.nz]. You'll get much more photo geocoding tools examples here [slashgeo.org].

    Oh, and by the way, instead of using the Google Maps API to show them on your website, I invite you to try OpenLayers [openlayers.org], which doe
  • Yeah, this has been going on for a while now and there's a few main players in the game.

    Flickr is of course a common one and lots of people use it.

    Smugmug [smugmug.com] lets you geolocate your images too for those of us out there selling prints.

    If you use a photoblog powered by Pixelpost [pixelpost.org], there is an addon [pixelpost.org] available to let you map out your photos.

    Finally, if you want to get your images overlayed in Google Earth, you'll want to go through Panoramio [panoramio.com].

    Now, there are two main ways to get your images geolocated in the
    • And on some of the Nikon cameras, you can just plug in a GPS and it will automatically record the EXIF metadata to the photo! Work on the D200, D2X and D2H I think.
      • Yep, you just need a backordered, $100 cable [bhphotovideo.com] to connect the GPS to the camera. Good 'ol Nikon. People have come up with more open source hacks, the big problem is the extraordinarily non standard 10 pin connector to the camera. Anyone with a good source of those (and not the horrid little Chinese things you see on ebay) can make lots of Nikon shooters happy...
  • Google has some great examples on their API website [google.com], but it takes some searching around to find more complex code depending on what you want to do. For my own personal art website, I was able to create a separate XML file of all the photos (http://gregsdigital.com/markers.xml [gregsdigital.com]), their coordinates, and other random data for generating a pop-up window when you click on the image. Feel free to steal all the code you want:

    http://gregsdigital.com/gallery2.html [gregsdigital.com]

    I was fortunate enough to remember exactly where I w
  • "I wanna travel around the world, and have a map with pins in it showing where I've been. But first I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it stays up."
  • This is indeed nothing new. Geocoding photos [wikipedia.org] has been around for years - even in the same form that this person has used: Article on using Google Maps + geocoded photos (check out the date). [oreilly.com] There have even been cameras which contain built-in GPS [ricohsolutions.com] to automatically geotag your pictures as you take them on the market.
  • Reminds me a bit of this photo tourism application, a neat way of viewing hundreds of photos of a particular landmark:
    http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/ [washington.edu]
  • Flikr is doing that, there's also Panoramio [panoramio.com] (http://www.panoramio.com/), that even let you see photos in Google Eath (http://earth.google.com). A lot of interesting things are happening in that area...
  • This system shows photo albums on a map. There is a variant which is in my opinion nicer: it is to localize photos themselves on a map. With the satellite pictures, you can recognize the elements of the photo. Example with Paris monument (France):
    http://www.freemages.fr/map/view.php?id=4 [freemages.fr]
    (Try and zoom maximum on the Louvre for example)

    And the world map on which you can navigate by clicking on markers:
    http://www.freemages.fr/map/ [freemages.fr]
  • I had a similar idea myself for my travels [ontheroad.net.nz].

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by daliman ( 626662 )
      His is much nicer looking though...

      /me goes off to upgrade appearance

    • Really, really good stuff.

      I've been wanting something like this for a long time now. We're off travelling in a couple of years, and expect to be moving around for at least three (especially SE Asia). I've seen loads of clever things that I'd like to implement into a travelog site before I go - but never all in one place. My ideal blog would have the following features:

      • Obviously, text blog entries stamped by date, location etc. Ideally, the ability to update the blog by email (in case the Great Firewall be

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by daliman ( 626662 )

        I can hook up up a copy of the source if you want, and you can take it from there. A surprisingly large amount of it is even commented :)

        Internally, blog entries and photo collections are grouped by location; if you look at location details, you get nearby locations, posts and photos from there, plus extra info. If you want to modify the code to show this on the map, that's very straightforward (I'm going to adjust it to show a photo in there, as the article writer has done).

        If you can do the india

  • Considering it's approximately the one-year anniversary of my page about geocoding photos [akerman.ca], I think this capability is pretty much oldnews. A more interesting question is, why hasn't Google added maps to Picasa Web Photos?
  • It's only one extra coordinate pair, and they're much more descriptive. You also don't have to store a zoom level, as you can calculate it with getBoundsZoomLevel. As used by wikimapia [wikimapia.org] and photolibrary [sourceforge.net].
  • This has been done by countless sites, including panaramio, flickr.com/maps and http://www.grapheety.com the latter of which is probably the best. [grapheety.com]
  • There's a great storytelling/family archive/scrapbook/whatever-you-want-to-call-it app called MemoryMiner (http://memoryminer.com/ [memoryminer.com]), that has integrated Google Maps for a while now. It's definitely worth checking out (even if you're not on a Mac, there are some video examples on the site as to how it's utilized).

  • I helped build a module [gallery2.org] for Gallery2 that will display your photos or albums in a map. Some good folks have been adding features and maintaining it since then. Check out my photo map [severinghaus.org] if you're interested; you can tell at a glance that it's pretty similar to what TFA describes.

    The onus is still on you to make sure that either you tag your content with the right coordinates or that your camera or other software gets it into the EXIF block, but beyond that, it's all pretty automagic.

  • Another free hosted service that does this in a nice easy way:

    http://www.tripdiary.com/ [tripdiary.com]

    Also lets you add videos and audio clips, set up the album as a timeline, specify the map view and zoom level for each entry, etc.
  • When will we see digital cameras with a GPS sensor built in that automatically tags the location the picture was taken? Does such a camera exist today?

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