Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Where Was This Photo Taken?

Yesterday, I wrote an entry that mentioned the excellent site mtbguru.com. This website allows users of trails to share a variety of information about their treks with other users of the site.

One of the best features of mtbguru.com is how it takes photos you have uploaded to the site, analyzes both the time the photo was taken and GPS data of the trek and calculates the approximate location where the photo was taken. In other words, it matches the location and time information in the GPS file and correlates this with the time of the photos to extrapolate a location for each image.

Mtbguru.com calls this process temporal geotagging. Of course, its accuracy is dependent on you synchronizing the clock on your GPS device and camera. But is a very slick way of placing your photographs in a geographical location.

Mtbguru.com uses this technique to create Google Maps that show both the path of the trail and location of the photos. Check out the map on this page (be sure to click the photo icons). Or download this KML file to view this bike ride in Google Earth.

3 comments:

Dirk dB said...

Thanks for the kudos!
The above photo shows the start of one of my favorite trails in the Bay Area - can you situate it (without GPS)?
Hint: an exciting and bumpy downhill with an almost 180 degree view on the ocean in front of you...

Mtbguru

scruzia said...

Starting down Zane Grey, at Wilder?

MTBGuru said...

Zane Gray it is!