"Free" Geotagging and Hotspot access for 1st Gen Eye-Fi and SmugMug users

darryl

I know this has [post=897472]already been posted[/post], but I don't feel that the title or content of that post made it clear:

Eye-Fi and SmugMug (an online photo sharing site) announced a partnership providing a year of geotagging and hotspot access for SmugMug members using an original Eye-Fi Card or the $US99.99 Eye-Fi Share. SmugMug provides standard (US$39.95 annually), power user (US$59.95 annually) and professional ($149.95 annually) accounts, all of which provide ad-free, backed-up, and secure hosting of your photos.

Pretty awesome, and it worked flawlessly (yikes -- I don't think I want people knowing exactly where I live -- it dropped the pointer in my driveway).

HOWEVER, this points out something interesting: Eye-Fi Explore is all in the software. Meaning that in theory, if I wanted to use my original Eye-Fi to do geotagging w/ Flickr, they just need to flip a bit on my card and at their servers. I, for one, would be interested in an "upgrade" option to allow me to do this.

Additionally, it makes me wonder how the Eye-Fi Explore works in general. Ok, so for photos uploaded to SmugMug or whereever, I can see that photos would flow like so:

Camera -> Eye-Fi Servers (where they get geotagged based on Skyhook database) -> SmugMug/Flickr

Once they get to SmugMug/Flickr, the geodata in in the EXIF and voila, you can put them on a map.

But the Eye-Fi also works like this:

Camera -> Your Computer -> Eye-Fi Servers -> SmugMug/Flickr

In this case, do the images on your computer *not* have the geodata in EXIF? Is there something in the Eye-Fi Explore software that sends that geodata *back* to your computer and modifies your local images?

I suppose I could just ask my coworker that has an Eye-Fi Explore. :-}

Ham1

darryl wrote:

I know this has [post=897472]already been posted[/post], but I don't feel that the title or content of that post made it clear:



Pretty awesome, and it worked flawlessly (yikes -- I don't think I want people knowing exactly where I live -- it dropped the pointer in my driveway).

HOWEVER, this points out something interesting: Eye-Fi Explore is all in the software. Meaning that in theory, if I wanted to use my original Eye-Fi to do geotagging w/ Flickr, they just need to flip a bit on my card and at their servers. I, for one, would be interested in an "upgrade" option to allow me to do this.

Additionally, it makes me wonder how the Eye-Fi Explore works in general. Ok, so for photos uploaded to SmugMug or whereever, I can see that photos would flow like so:

Camera -> Eye-Fi Servers (where they get geotagged based on Skyhook database) -> SmugMug/Flickr

Once they get to SmugMug/Flickr, the geodata in in the EXIF and voila, you can put them on a map.

But the Eye-Fi also works like this:

Camera -> Your Computer -> Eye-Fi Servers -> SmugMug/Flickr

In this case, do the images on your computer *not* have the geodata in EXIF? Is there something in the Eye-Fi Explore software that sends that geodata *back* to your computer and modifies your local images?

I suppose I could just ask my coworker that has an Eye-Fi Explore. :-}

The geotagging by Skyhook does not take place on Eye-Fi servers, the Skyhook service runs off of wi-fi access points. (That is how Skyhook has been so successful, they have driven the streets and indexed a lot of access points with Geo data)

When you take a photo and if your Eye-Fi card senses a faint wi-fi access point, then your photo will be geotagged curtesy of Skyhook.

Then it doesn't matter when or where that photo gets uploaded to SmugMug, we'll retain that lat/long data.

Markham

darryl

Ham1 wrote:

The geotagging by Skyhook does not take place on Eye-Fi servers, the Skyhook service runs off of wi-fi access points. (That is how Skyhook has been so successful, they have driven the streets and indexed a lot of access points with Geo data)

When you take a photo and if your Eye-Fi card senses a faint wi-fi access point, then your photo will be geotagged curtesy of Skyhook.

Then it doesn't matter when or where that photo gets uploaded to SmugMug, we'll retain that lat/long data.

Markham -- uhm... not exactly. True that Skyhook has driven the streets and indexed the APs w/ Geo data.

But the actual geotagging (adding lat/long to EXIF info of photos) does not and cannot take place when I take a photo near an access point that is locked or private. What the Eye-Fi does instead is record the MAC addresses of the nearby access points.

THEN, when you upload at either your home or a hotspot network, those addresses get checked against Skyhook's database (which must be accessed through Eye-Fi's servers).

(Reference: http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2008/05/12/skyhook-and-eye-fi-hook-up-to-automatically-geotag-your-photos/)

What's really interesting is that according to these release notes (http://forums.eye.fi/viewtopic.php?t=164) the lat/long data gets written to the images when they are still in your card.

However, this must only apply to the Eye-Fi Explore cards. With my original Eye-Fi card, geodata appears in images uploaded to SmugMug, as well as those images loaded to my local Macintosh. But it is not on the image files on the card.

I'm going to guess that if one had an Eye-Fi Explore card configured to only upload locally, the Eye-Fi Manager would not have to upload the full image to Eye-Fi's servers to check the AP MAC addresses against Skyhook's database, but rather, just send a query containing just the MAC address for each photo, and then insert the corresponding geodata into the EXIF headers.

darryl

Hrm, maybe this free geotagging isn't all it's cracked up to be. Check out this gallery:

http://gladlee.smugmug.com/gallery/5707395_qwdse

For those who live in the Bay Area, you'll note that 280 and 17/880 is *nowhere near* South San Francisco.

That later photo with the hot rod was taken in the parking lot of Mojo Burgers in San Jose, corner of Bird and Minnesota. Doh.

Made me laugh though. Interestingly a photo I took at home while using my own wireless network was geotagged spot-on right in my driveway.

Today my co-worker pointed out Eye-Fi probably noted that was my home network and matched it up against my home address in their database to make such an accurate connection. *Sigh*

Bendr

Nope, Unfortunately to get your home network in their database, you have to add it, unless they have already mapped it...

I know my home network doesn't map up...

And my question is... What about us folks who already spent the $30 extra on the eye-fi explore to get those features? Where's our value-added?

Ben

photodoug

Q. How do you view the long/lat of the photo in your smugmug gallery?

Comment: totally awsome! EXACTLY what I was going to hit the forums about and what I'd assumed the card would do when I purchased it: attach to a free/public access point to upload. Well, not exactly yet. I'd wish for a setting that allowed the card to attach to unsecure access points at anytime to allow uploads.

And a free year of it courtesy of our most excellent smugmug teamsters! You guys are great. I'll bet a free year will be more than enough time to convince me to continue for the nominal annual fee of $19.

Bendr

photodoug wrote:

Q. How do you view the long/lat of the photo in your smugmug gallery?

Comment: totally awsome! EXACTLY what I was going to hit the forums about and what I'd assumed the card would do when I purchased it: attach to a free/public access point to upload. Well, not exactly yet. I'd wish for a setting that allowed the card to attach to unsecure access points at anytime to allow uploads.

And a free year of it courtesy of our most excellent smugmug teamsters! You guys are great. I'll bet a free year will be more than enough time to convince me to continue for the nominal annual fee of $19.

I think there is an option to upload through insecure access points... I'll have to double check...

darryl

Bendr wrote:

I think there is an option to upload through insecure access points... I'll have to double check...

There is one option:

* Connect to Wayport Hotspots and Open Networks

Note that in some counties/countries, people have been arrested and even convicted of unauthorized use of a wireless network, even if it is open. I've posted on the Eye-Fi forum asking about this. :-}

Ham1

darryl wrote:

Markham -- uhm... not exactly. True that Skyhook has driven the streets and indexed the APs w/ Geo data.

But the actual geotagging (adding lat/long to EXIF info of photos) does not and cannot take place when I take a photo near an access point that is locked or private. What the Eye-Fi does instead is record the MAC addresses of the nearby access points.

THEN, when you upload at either your home or a hotspot network, those addresses get checked against Skyhook's database (which must be accessed through Eye-Fi's servers).

(Reference: http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2008/05/12/skyhook-and-eye-fi-hook-up-to-automatically-geotag-your-photos/)

What's really interesting is that according to these release notes (http://forums.eye.fi/viewtopic.php?t=164) the lat/long data gets written to the images when they are still in your card.

However, this must only apply to the Eye-Fi Explore cards. With my original Eye-Fi card, geodata appears in images uploaded to SmugMug, as well as those images loaded to my local Macintosh. But it is not on the image files on the card.

I'm going to guess that if one had an Eye-Fi Explore card configured to only upload locally, the Eye-Fi Manager would not have to upload the full image to Eye-Fi's servers to check the AP MAC addresses against Skyhook's database, but rather, just send a query containing just the MAC address for each photo, and then insert the corresponding geodata into the EXIF headers.

Good point, I stand corrected.

Markham