Show direction on map, when data are provided by the camera

[mopperle]

As discussed in this topic
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,14634.0.html

Currently you need a pair of coordinates ( created and a destination GPS coordinate), focal lenght and sensor size to get the FOV on  the Map. Most newer Smartphone (at least since my old iPhone 7) gives you the direction (GPSImgDirection).

So why not based on the tag simply draw an error showing the direction on the map.

[Mario]

FOV is not the same as direction.

Drawing some sort of arrow in the direction specified by the ImgDirection in XMP::exif is surely doable.

But I will again have to implement it twice - once for OpenLayer (covering HERE, OSM, Bing, Stamen and the other maps) and once for Google.

Let's see how many users would like to have this feature. Click the Like button on the initial post above to let me know.

[mopperle]

As said in the other topic, IMHO FOV is not imortant/usefull as the direction.

[Mario]

As said in the other topic, IMHO FOV is not imortant/usefull as the direction.

Maybe for you. Other people set create/shown coordinates to see the direction and FOV overlay.

[Mario]

Did you have something like this in mind? These files have only one coordinate pair but I've added an image direction:



The arrows show when "Show POV" is enabled. If a file has two coordinates, the "real" FOV takes precedence.

I've used the same colors as the regular FOV overlay, slightly transparent. The blue and red border make the arrow very visible on street, hybrid and satellite maps.

[Mario]

I've ran into some troubles with the implementation for Google Maps (as so often). Google does not support to rotate vector icons in markers (which is what the arrows are), but they do allow to their internal "icons".
So I've redesigned the icon I did for OpenLayers to resemble the built-in arrow in Google Maps. The final look is now this:

[mopperle]

Looks very good to me!

[thrinn]

It will be interesting to see if I am able to discover valid direction information in my photos. My camera does not have built-in GPS. In theory, I could link it to my smartphone via Bluetooth, getting GPS information from there, directly written into the photos. But this does not work too well because the camera needs some time to establish the connection each time I switch it on. Often I don't want to wait before taking the photo, so the automatism might work or not.

Therefore, I normally use my smartphone to record a GPX track and fill missing GPS data later on from this track (using the IMatch Map Panel). This works very well. Direction information in the GPX track might even be correct (many modern smartphones have a buit-in compass). But matching a photo against the GPX track is done by timestamp. I take care to set my camera to the correct time - but only on minutes level. Therefore, the timestamp-base matching might use an interpolated position to assign to the photo. This is fine for the position itself. But when I walk in a given direction, then turn around to take a photo, then continue walking, the GPX track might not have a point recorded at the exact correct time. And interpolating a direction is not really helpful.

To be clear, this is not an issue that can be soved by this feature request. It is a question of data quality (of my photos). Let's see what my photos show...

[Mario]

IMatch does not look for direction info in track logs. I'm not sure if and which track log format variants support direction.
If you have sample track logs and format info, I could improve the track log import to not only set coordinates but also the ImgDirection tag.

Users usually know more about track logs than I do. I don't use them personally.

But best wrap this into a new discussion since this FR will be archived in 5 seconds.