Tag You’re It - Geotagging technology adds a new dimension to digital photos
October 3rd, 2007 by Anderson SchoenrockFor a number years now cameras have had the ability to time and date stamp photos, soon another dimension will be added to your digital photos - geography. The practice of stamping images with a geographic location is known as “geotagging”. This is currently available to those who wish to do it manually through sites such as Flickr; however, the integration of digital photography technologies, online photo sharing systems and GPS tracking technologies are rapidly making it more feasible for the average shutterbug to geotag his/her images.
“Every photo was taken somewhere. That’s almost always part of the story of the photo,” said Stewart Butterfield, general manager and co-founder of Flickr, which now houses 36 million geotagged photos–roughly 3 percent of its total archive.
As the cost of integrating GPS chips with digital cameras decreases, more and more people will begin to not only have a chronological record of their images, but also a geographic record. Before the advent of digital photography people often invited guests to view their slideshows, but today in the era of photo sharing online many viewers lack an in-person guide. Geotagging is just one more way to provide a comprehensive story about someone’s photos. Imagine touring through the Alps or Italy and upon returning being able to pinpoint the exact location of a particular favorite restaurant or hotel and then recommend it to friends. Geotagging simply is an additional enhancement that increases the usefulness of your digital photos.
It is estimated that on a scale of 1 to 10, geotagging is only a 4 in terms of maturity. Clearly there are future advancements that are being developed to make geotagging a user friendly, simple experience. It will be very interesting to watch this new technology develop.
The image below demonstrates a set of geotagged images and their appearance on a map.
Sources: Flickr, CNET