iPhone Camera/Photos GPS Tagging - Found concern / resolution? feature?

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Level 1

21 points

iPhone Camera/Photos GPS Tagging - Found concern / resolution? feature?

As we all know, the iPhone tags the picture we take with the GPS location.

The problem is that most of the time you take your phone out, take a few pictures, then close it. What I noticed is that on numerous occassions the gps location will be very off. This is because (just like in maps), right away it finds within a couple hundred miles where you are at and then after maybe 10 seconds pinpoints exactly where you are at. If you take a picture before the gps is pinpointed (which is somewhat typical) then the gps can sometimes be severly off.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to make sure that the GPS is pinpointed to exact location or a way to make sure you can't take a picture before that is done or something? Sometimes I go into maps and wait until it pinpoints then go into camera and then know it will be good, but I've even done this, then put the phone to sleep, whip it out and forgot to do it and then find the gps tag way off.

If there is no way of knowing unless you open up the camera and just wait awhile (and sometimes depending on the area it may even take very long) then apple should create some sort of indication of when the gps is locked (kind of like back in the day we would know when the flash is ready to take a picture). I think this would be a valuable indicator for when taking pictures especially when gps tagging is so big now on photos and since apple advertises this so much for their iphones that it is built in. I think if apple would have thought of this awhile ago, they would have had it in iOS4, but I guess not which is why I think many of us should recommend this feature to apple.

Can you guys recommend this feature to apple? Don't you think this would be useful? Is there any method right now we can utilize that is not very inconvenient?

thanks,
jd

Mac Pro 3,1 with 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 10 GB DDR2, 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT cards, 1 TB HD and 2 TB HD, 2 Optiarc DVD

Posted on Jul 9, 2010 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

jdTrader Author

Level 1

21 points

Jul 10, 2010 4:06 PM in response to jdTrader

Bink-> I know the camera is using locations. Even so, when you are in camera mode, you don't see that anyway. So even if you did see it it would be useless. What would be useful if the locations DID show in the camera as grey or something, and then when it locked in the exact GPS location (which sometimes it does in 5 sec, sometimes in 10 seconds, sometimes longer) then it turns green or something indicating to the user that when you take the picture, it's not going to be 100 miles somewhere else when I upload the pictures to iPhoto and aperture.

The camera is finally useable as a replacement to my regular camera and camcorder. They need to make this user friendly with GPS locations as well so you know what you are taking is the right GPS location so all your photos then are not incorrectly geotagged just because it hasn't locked in yet when the shot is taken.

Witerhawk-> Of course....nobody who wants to just take a picture would want to wait for a gps signal to lock in. Even moreso when indoors or in a basement. Now that the camera in this phone could replace your regular camera though, I think it's important for a feature to be in place so that the user knows when the gps is correct and not randomly some other location. It's one thing to not gps tag a photo if the gps is not locked, but to incorrectly tag photos just because you took pictures with the camera without waiting 15 seconds is not right in my opinion. I have some photos that are clearly in wrong locations. You can have shots taken in Chicago, and have it say michigan because it hasn't locked in where you are at and then when you load it up in photo software it is all wrong.

when I was on my vacation, that is exactly what I did...left it on in camera carrying it around, but then put it in my pocket but then your thigh can trigger items and running the battery out.....it's just not really even a solution in my opinion. What's funny is I did that (looking a bit weird doing it) then put it away, then realized i wanted to take another shot, took it after waiting about 7 seconds thinking it should be good, but it tagged way off in that one shot, so clearly it wasn't locked then.

I understand the power hungry part...I just think it would be a HUGE feature to have to know when the GPS is RIGHT and when it is WRONG so that people who want the right gps in the photo know for a fact that what shot they are taking is going to be the right location....that's all.

I HOPE USERS WHO READ THIS WILL SUBMIT THESE REQUESTS/SUGGEST TO APPLE THIS FEATURE. It would be awesome to have this in a new software release.

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Answer 2

Bink906

Level 1

15 points

Jul 10, 2010 3:10 AM in response to jdTrader

With iOS4 there is an icon that shows up next to the battery that lets you know if the phone is using your current location. This doesn't tell you your location but will inform you whether or not Location Services are active and trying to locate your device.

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Answer 3

Jul 10, 2010 5:16 AM in response to jdTrader

They may have designed it this way. The background issue is the camera is ready to use before location services pinpoints your location. There is a solution. Leave a location aware app (like camera or map) running all the time so you don't have to wait when you decide to use the camera. The aps all share the same location service. NOTE: this is not a good solution, because it will suck the juice from your battery, but it will work.

That is the real reason the location service goes to sleep whenever it can, it is just too power hungary.

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Answer 4

Jul 10, 2010 4:58 PM in response to jdTrader

http://movies.apple.com/datapub/us/podcasts/applekeynotes/apr2010evt.m4v
Skip to 1/2 of the movie (Multitasking - Background Location)

As part of the April iOS4 event, Apple mentioned LS would be of two usages. GPS uses a fair bit of power. All other class of applications (Camera, Social, etc) does not require GPS.

All non-GPS applications like camera will use Cell Towers instead. Note that Cell Tower positioning is half reliable varying on where you are using it. It doesn't position properly indoors. I've done some tests on indoor positioning and it points me several minutes off course.

Though this was on a 3G/3GS phone. The i4 is doing a little better now. But it may take a few seconds longer prior to actually doing a proper Geo-Tagging in photo shots depending on if you have a good cell signal and reliable tower service.

In most locations I know of, locating you precisely is very poor.

Message was edited by: Joe Z in VA

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Answer 5

jdTrader Author

Level 1

21 points

Jul 10, 2010 5:03 PM in response to Joe Z in VA

thanks for the info Joe! that camera doesn't use the GPS hardware. Although if it is using wifi cell towers, it would be nice if they had some small indicator on the camera to show if it has locked a location.

I notice numerous times that the camera does find EXACT locations of where I am at, and sometimes not as you mentioned. Still knowing this would be very helpful so that someone who uses places in aperture/iphoto doesn't have a bunch of photos with incorrectly geotagged locations.

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