Tag archive for ‘geocaching’ at bioneural.net

Tag archive for 'geocaching'

Know your waypoints from your track points

Published by Bruce on August 26, 2008 in Gadgets. 1 response

Geotagging photos can be done manually or automatically. When using a GPS data logger in automatic mode your position at each point in time (intervals vary) is recorded as a track point. The collection of track points recorded during a logging session is called a track log. Some devices (e.g. GlobalSat DG-100, Holux M-241) feature a button for manual entry of a specific GPS location as a waypoint, which you can match to the corresponding photo(s) by hand. That all sounds pretty straight forward doesn't it? Well it's not, because some GPS devices can't tell their waypoints from their track points. Thankfully the aptly-named GPSBabel can translate us a way out of this misunderstanding for the DG-100, and an update to BT747 means you can now download waypoints from the M-241 to your Mac.
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Get your GPS fix with RouteBuddy 2.2

Published by Bruce on August 14, 2008 in Mac. 2 responses

RouteBuddy is an application for Mac marketed as "iTunes for your GPS" in reflection of some interface similarities. It works with most GPS receivers to plot your live position on high-quality street maps, but can also import and export saved data to/ from some devices, applications, and online services. With full-featured and highly portable personal navigation devices increasingly affordable (e.g. TomTom, Garmin) and free tools available for direction-finding and location-sharing (e.g. Google Maps, Google Earth), you may be forgiven for wondering what gap in the market RouteBuddy aims to fill. This question set the brief for my review as I determined to assess its strengths and weakness against the tools you may use already.
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First geocaching tool for iPhone released

Published by Bruce on July 23, 2008 in Quicklinks. 1 response

Geopher Lite, available from the iTunes App Store for £2.39, will help you find nearby geocaches from Geocaching.com using a directional arrow and location awareness on your iPhone. It doesn't support Bluetooth GPS receivers/ data loggers and is extremely basic compared to GeoNiche for Palm, but is a welcome development nevertheless. A more complete app is promised in due course.

In-car GPS + Palm = DIY photo tracker

Published by Bruce on March 11, 2008 in Gadgets. 16 responses

If I told you I was using a GPS photo tracking system for geotagging photos from my Nikon D70 that stored track logs and waypoints to 1GB of memory, exported in GPX format, and connected to my Mac via USB or Bluetooth—you'd be right to wonder if I was making it up. It's not fiction, and nor is it new tech either. It's a "make do" solution I put together from gear I'd already been using for several years and with £0 new investment. Given poor Mac support in the data logger market, such a system is surely a good way to experiment on the cheap before shelling out on yet more battery-operated gadgetry.
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GPS data logger for iPhone looks doubtful

Published by Bruce on March 8, 2008 in Quicklinks. 5 responses

The iPhone SDK is out in beta, and a GPS module for iPhone and iTouch from gomite is "pending". However, as Wired observe the ban on background processes for third-party apps "eliminates the possibility of a geo-data updater running in the background, reporting your location back to a web service". This might also make it impossible to use the iPhone's camera app in conjunction with data logging software for geotagging if they can't run simultaneously. What happens if you need to take a call—would the logger have to quit?

An ABC of geotagging photos on the Mac

Published by Bruce on March 5, 2008 in Photography. 57 responses

This article considers geotagging photos from a Mac perspective, looking at automatic and manual methods, and explaining terms such as data loggers, track points, waypoints, and routes. It lists OS X software options for connecting to data loggers, converting track log formats, geo-locating photos, and writing that data to EXIF for both raw and JPEG images. It also covers the importance of time synchronization, what you can do with geotagged photos, workflow, choosing a data logger and controlling it from your Mac.
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