Placing photos in their geographic context

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:13:00 GMT

In past blog posts we covered adding geotagged photos using the Add Photo task available under tasks at the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center. This task reads the coordinate information that is embedded into the header of the image, and uses that to place it at the appropriate location.

But if you don't have a camera that geotags photos, but you do have a regular camera and a GPS device, here are a couple of ways for you to accomplish the same thing.

We found a USGS dust collector while out hiking the other weekend. It's an odd-looking device made from an angel-food cake mold, wire mesh, and marbles. We're not kidding - you can check out the USGS link which describes the device in more detail.

We took a photo of it, and recorded the following GPS location (not the actual location):

Longitude: 115°16'43"W
Latitude: 35°3'14"N

We used Go to Location, found under Tools:

And entered the coordinates

And then chose Create Result. Here's the result on our map, and note the coordinates displayed in the hover text and the popup window and title.

We can place the photo at this location by editing the popup window properties and adding the path to the photo. To edit the popup properties right click the pushpin (or right click the result) and choose properties top make the edits. Here we've added the full path to the photo.

Now when we click the pushpin we see the photo displayed in the popup window.

So that's an easy way to add a couple of photos at a precise location. But if we wanted to add many photos at once we can create a file with the information and import it, and here's how...

In this example we've created a text file using Notepad, but could also have created the file by exporting data from a spreadsheet or database. ArcGIS Explorer supports both text and .csv files for import, as well as GPX - a standard that most GPS devices support. Here's what our text file looks like:

In our text file we're using the first line for field names and using commas to separate all information. In this example we're only adding a single line with GPS coordinates and photo information, but obviously we could add (or export from a spreadsheet) as many lines as we want.

Now we can import the text file using Tools > Import File

Navigate to the file to select it

and from here the Import Text File Wizard guides us. In the first wizard dialog (shown below) the defaults are exactly what we want - comma delimited, and first line contains field names. Note the preview window at the bottom which provides a visual as to how the file is being parsed. If things don't look as expected there we can try other options or double-check the file for formatting.

Clicking Next above, we reach this second dialog shown below:

In the circled area at the top we see that because we used "latitude" and "longitude" for our field names they've automatically been picked up by Explorer.

In the lower circled area we've made some selections. We chose the Name field as the title (which displays in the hover text and the popup window title) and the field named Photo for the description. The description is what is displayed inside the popup window, so since we used the pathname to the photograph it will automatically show when clicked.

Adding Geotagged Photos To Your Map

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:03:00 GMT

One of the new tasks delivered with ArcGIS Explorer 480 is the Add Photo task. The Add Photo task places photos that have been geotagged on the map. Have a look at the video, then follow along in this post.

Let's take a closer look. First, add the task from the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center. Choose File > Resource Center and from the Content tab choose Tasks. You can also open the Resource Center by choosing Help > ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center, then click on the Content tab, then Tasks. The Add Photo task is circled below, just click to add it to Explorer.

Your photos must have been taken with a GPS enabled camera that can capture the location in the image header (written to the EXIF header). An increasing number of cameras (like the Ricoh GPS camera, some Nikon models, and others) and even camera equiped cell phones (like the Nokia N95) are GPS-enabled.

If you don't have one of these devices the location can be added to your photos afterwards using applications like Google Picasa and others.

Activate the task and click Browse to navigate to a folder containing geotagged photos. The folder's contents are displayed in the task (note that only JPEG format images are supported). Just check the photos you want to add, and click Place Photos.

A collection of results will appear, and the photos will be placed on your map.

When you click the result the photo will open in the popup window. Here we've added a couple of geotagged photos taken during a recent search and rescue operation in the San Bernardino Mountains near Redlands. These photos were taken by a member of the SAR team, and are now placed on our Explorer map.

The Add Photo task allows you to specify settings which let you control whether subfolders are searched, and how various image sizes are handled and displayed in the popup window.

ArcGIS Explorer Blog : Geotagged photos

Placing photos in their geographic context

Adding Geotagged Photos To Your Map