[Qgis-user] Android Camera App with compass bearing

[Werner Macho]

Hi!

I know a lot of "Compact Cameras" that are able to write bearing to
exif .. but I doubt that there will be an App writing bearing.
I might be wrong but IIRC the mobile/tablet has to be held
horizontally while looking at the compass to get best results. Some
promise to have a "3D" Compass but honestly I never had one that
worked reliable.
And to take a picture (I assume) you have to hold the mobile/tablet
vertically which is the worst position for the built in compasses
anyway so I would not rely on information collected in that way.
Just my few thoughts .. I might also be wrong .. good luck for your search!

kind regards
Werner

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Zoltan Szecsei <zoltans at geograph.co.za> wrote:
> Hi,
> Thanks for the thought - but see orange text below: Does not write bearing
> into EXIF fields.
> Regards,
> Zoltan
>
> On 2014/11/05 12:17, Lene Fischer wrote:
>
> GPS Essentials - App
>
> Regards
> Lene
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> [mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] På vegne af Zoltan Szecsei
> Sendt: 5. november 2014 07:02
> Til: tech at wildintellect.com; qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> Emne: Re: [Qgis-user] Android Camera App with compass bearing
>
> Hi Alex/All,
> Thanks for the thoughts - my comments interspersed with your.
>
> Kind regards,
> Zoltan
>
> On 2014/11/04 23:17, Alex Mandel wrote:
>
> On 11/04/2014 04:55 AM, Zoltan Szecsei wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I need to do a field trip and take some photos.
> I've been googling around, but cannot find an app that will burn both
> GPS position _and compass bearing_ into either the image, or just the
> exif data for that image.
>
> Anyone got any experience in this need?
>
> Thanks & regards,
> Zoltan
>
>
> Maybe, http://geopaparazzi.github.io/geopaparazzi/
> "georeferenced and orientated pictures"
>
> And now my long rant before I remembered the above link...
>
> I manually downloaded the latest version (newer than that on Play Store) and
> it still does not record bearing - even though the app does have a bearing
> tool.
> I checked the website and recording bearing into EXIF is not even on the
> developer's long wish-list I have emailed the developer, with a hope to at
> least get it onto the wish-list.
>
> GPS data is an on/off toggle on most Android devices. Bearing does
> appear possible according to the exif specs, but in practice is rare.
> http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/GPS.html
>
> Yes, I checked that last night too - TAGs 0x0017 and 0x0018 relate to
> bearing info.
>
> However I don't see any obvious apps for telling the phone you want to
> capture that. I'm also not sure all phones are capable of calculating
> bearing when not moving.
>
> So my suggested work around would be a GPS Logging application of
> which there are several. Then you can pull the bearing calculation out
> after the fact, if it was while moving.
>
> Sigh, nope.
> (In my kind of) Field trip data collection (& photography) often involves
> driving to a feature, leaning out the car window and taking a snap-shot, so
> recording moving direction will not help at all.
> Note that bearing accuracy is NOT that critical, it needs only to be
> reasonably indicative.
>
> If stationary, you might need to write your own app which lets users
> indicate which way they were facing when taking a picture. For someone
> who's made an Android application I don't think this is hard.
> http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/sensors/sensors_overview.htm
> l Indicates all version of Android support the Magentic sensor.
>
> This example shows how to get the bearing from the API
> https://www.codeofaninja.com/2013/08/android-compass-code-example.html
> So GPS+Orientation+Camera should be all required.
>
> Yep, true, but the purpose of this thread is to see if this wheel has
> already been invented :-)
>
> Kinda busts my GPS logging idea, since the bearing information comes
> from a different sensor than the GPS it won't be in the NMEA strings
> even if you captured them.
>
> What? You not 'hard core' enough to intercept the NMEA stream and insert
> "bearing-on-the-fly" by back-calculating the incoming coords?
> (Just pulling your leg - thanks for your interest in this topic :-) )
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
>
> --
>
> ===========================================
> Zoltan Szecsei PrGISc [PGP0031]
> Geograph (Pty) Ltd.
> GIS and Photogrammetric Services
>
> P.O. Box 7, Muizenberg 7950, South Africa.
>
> Mobile: +27-83-6004028
> Fax:    +27-86-6115323     www.geograph.co.za
> ===========================================
>
>
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