Map Panel to Show Camera Heading from GPS

[Quin]

Mario, my camera GPS has an in-built compass and records the camera heading (as well as location and altitude).  Would it be possible for the Map Panel to show the camera heading?  That would be very useful when it comes to identifying buildings or landmarks in the image.
Many thanks!

[Mario]

This has been requested once, I think, in the past so this may be not so important for many users. I may be wrong, though.

The Map Panel in IMatch 2017 has gained a lot of features and improvements and it works great for typical DAM tasks. But there are GPS related tasks and requirements which are better suited by a dedicated GPS software like GeoSetter. GeoSetter does 'only' GPS and will always have more to offer in this department. Why not use both IMatch and GeoSetter?

I could implement a GPS direction / camera heading in the Map Panel in IMatch, if there is sufficient demand. Naturally I would have to implement this again two times, once for OpenLayers and again as a special case for Google Maps...

[Quin]

Many thanks for your prompt reply Mario.  If there are not many demands for this feature then it is obviously not worth incorporating into iMatch.
As you say, GeoSetter provides this functionality but it would be 'nice' to have the functionality 'under one roof'.
Best regards

[Mario]

I understand. This is what this feature request board is for. Usually, features useful for more than a handful of people get a number of +1's quickly. or spawn a discussion. And since only a part of the IMatch user base participates in this community, a couple of +1 scale up quite well and make me consider requests earnestly.

I ship the source code of the Map Panel with IMatch. Maybe one of the app gurus in residence gives this a try, just for fun...

[jch2103]

This would be a nice enhancement in IMatch. Unfortunately for me, very few of my images w/ GPS data include direction; I think most of those are ones where I added direction with GeoSetter(!). I'll need to check, but I don't think my current GPS tools include this data.

The other potentially useful addition would be including the location shown as well as location taken, but this (and the conceptual and technical issues involved) have also been discussed previously here on the forum, so not ready for prime time.

[Carlo Didier]

This would indeed be very useful, if such information is included in the images.
Especially given that the GPS coordinates in the images normally represent the "location taken" and practically never the "location shown".
I wished I had a camera that automatically recorded the cameras location and the direction of view. That would greatly simplify, for example, identification of mountains in a picture.

[Mario]

Some cameras do - they have an internal compass. GPS has fields for "direction" which can be used for that.

[Carlo Didier]

Some cameras do - they have an internal compass. GPS has fields for "direction" which can be used for that.

Yes, I think some smartphones do it. Maybe I should take an additional shot with my phone in such a case 

[Mario]

I do that.

[jch2103]

An update to my post above: my smartphone (Nexus 5) does indeed record image direction, so this request would be more useful than I first thought. (I had to configure GeoSetter with the phone's crop factor before it would display direction.) In the meantime, good suggestion to capture a smartphone image of a location when shooting. Now, if I just had an extra set of hands...

[Winfried]

+1

[Mario]

It would be helpul to have some real-life example images with proper GPS data and direction.
I can synthesize some using GeoSetter but having some real files (JPEG, size and motive not important) would be cool.
Either attach here or send to my support email (https://www.photools.com/support).

Currently I'm working mostly on the finishing touches for the IMatch 64-bit and IMatch AnywhereTM 64-bit version. And on new modify features for IMWS...

But showing an arrow in the Map panel is maybe something like a Sunday's afternoon divertissement... 
If you have examples of apps which do this and which I should have a look at, let me know as well.

[Winfried]

here comes an example and a scrrenshot from map with the direction marked in purple.

thanks
Winfried

[jch2103]

It would be helpul to have some real-life example images with proper GPS data and direction.
...
But showing an arrow in the Map panel is maybe something like a Sunday's afternoon divertissement... 

Attached are a couple of shots from my smartphone (Nexus 5) containing GPS direction, with accompanying screenshots from Geosetter.

A few notes:
- Geosetter looks for the 35mm focal length equivalent (to be able to display field of view). My phone's metadata apparently did not include this tag, so I had to supply it to Geosetter.
- Geosetter allows changing (or setting) the direction destination point (but not the direction). This changes the image metadata, adding 'GPS Dest' tags. If the direction destination point isn't changed, this point is shown based on the map zoom factor. I included a second copy of one of the images, with destination point changed.
- Probably not critical, but my phone records 'GPS Dilution Of Precision'; i.e., a measure of GPS accuracy for that set of coordinates. If one were being very fancy, that could be used to somehow show the relative reliability of the GPS coordinates.

[Mees Dekker]

+1

[pmbvw]

+1

An example from my Canon 5D MK3 with CANON GP-E2.

[AlanS]

+1

[sinus]

+1

[Carlo Didier]

+1

[miner1]

+2 

[pmbvw]

Is there a chance of implementation (Maybe in IMATCH 2018)?

[Carlo Didier]

+1