The Easy Way to Post Photos with Geographic Coordinates on a Map

20 March 2007

It's easy and fun to post photos and videos from a camera phone to shared, online photo albums, such as Flickr, Buzznet, or YouTube. After uploading a number of pictures, however, you may realize that it's not easy to remember exactly where you took your master shots. Attaching photos to a map is an excellent visual way to show both the pictures and where they were shot. The Shozu application for camera phones, when linked to the Flickr photo service, lets you post your photos to a map on the Internet. After trying out this new GPS-based system, we are convinced that it is the best thing in photography since the megapixel camera was invented.

The idea of displaying photos that are attached to a digital map is not new. There are many software products, such as RoboGeo and OziPhotoTool that "geotag" your digital camera photos and upload them to a map. The process works like this. Once you have copied the track information from your GPS device to your PC, you can begin geotagging. Geotagging programs match the time stamp of the GPS coordinates with the time stamp of the image's EXIF information (EXIF includes many useful details about the camera and the image) that's automatically saved in the JPG file. Then, the software knows where the pictures were taken and can post them on a map at their exact geographic locations.

The process described works, but it is complicated. You have to remember to record your track, save the track on the GPS unit, upload it to your computer, import the information into the geotagging software, import the photographs from the camera, find a digital mapping software, match all these components, and start all over the next time you want to attach photos on a map.

Fortunately, the world has been blessed with camera phones that can be programmed to do wonderful things. One of these wonderful things is Shozu, a piece of software that runs on your camera phone. When you capture an image, it can automatically upload the picture to Flickr, Webshots, YouTube, or to another photo-sharing site. In addition, if your camera phone has a built-in GPS receiver, or if you can hook up an external GPS unit to the phone, Shozu can mark your photos with the exact locations where they were taken. When Shozu uploads a location-marked picture to Flickr, it automatically posts the photo onto a map. You don't have to worry about anything but taking good pictures.

In Addition to a Camera Phone, You Need GPS, Shozu, and Flickr

You need the following gear to start attaching photos to a map:

• A camera phone. If your camera phone is powered by the Windows Mobile or Symbian OS software, Shozu is likely to be compatible with your device. Shozu is also available for a number of popular Motorola and Sony Ericsson camera phones that can run Java software. You can check your phone's compatibility at the product Web page. Unfortunately, the GPS feature isn't included in all versions of Shozu. You can check out the exact features when you download the application.
• A GPS receiver. You must have a GPS receiver connected to the camera phone in order to get the geographic coordinates. The GPS unit can be built inside your phone (this is not a common feature yet) or you can use any external GPS unit via Bluetooth. In this case, your phone must have Bluetooth as well.
• An account in the Flickr service. Shozu can send photos to many photo and video sites, but Flickr has the capability to place them on a map. If you don't already have a Flickr account, you can create one for free.
• A generous data plan from your service provider. Every uploaded photo generates data traffic to the mobile network.

Set Up Your Camera Phone for Uploading Photos to a Map

1. Create a Flickr account for your photos. You can use your existing account if you have one.
2. Activate the automatic GPS photo-posting feature in Flickr. Login to your account. Select Your Account from the You-menu at the top of the screen. Choose Privacy & Permissions. Click Edit for Import EXIF Location Data. Tick the Yes-box and push Save.
3. Switch on the GPS receiver you intend to use with your camera phone. Place it somewhere with a clear view to the sky. If it is an external unit, the maximum distance between your phone and GPS device is determined by the Bluetooth signal, which has a range of about 30 feet/10 meters.
4. Sign up to Shozu. You need an account to manage your Shozu services. Go to the product Web page, click Sign-up, and follow the instructions. You will receive a text message to your phone. Open the included link and accept the installation to your phone.
5. Launch Shozu on your phone. Activate the application and the service by selecting the Activate option from the menu.
6. Turn on the GPS feature in Shozu. When you are in Shozu's main screen, open the menu and select Settings. Choose Share-It and GPS Tagging. Set GPS Tagging to On. When you turn that function on, the camera phone scans for Bluetooth devices. Once the phone has discovered your GPS, select it. If the phone asks for a Passkey (a code that confirms the connection was requested by you), enter the code that you'll find in the GPS receiver's user guide.

How to Post Photos with GPS Coordinates on a Flickr Map

Once you have set up everything, taking photos with GPS coordinates is really simple (in principle, that is):

1. Switch on your GPS receiver.
2. Take a picture with your camera phone.
3. Let Shozu send the picture to Flickr, which automatically attaches it to a correct location on the map.

In reality, we discovered that it takes a couple of extra, but very useful, steps to make the process work. If for any reason the co-operation of the GPS unit and the phone is slow (as it was in our case), you have to make sure that Shozu gets the coordinates from the GPS receiver before you allow it to send the photo. Here's how you do it:

1. Switch on your GPS receiver. Wait until it has picked up signals from GPS satellites (often a light in the unit indicates when it is ready). You can also launch a GPS navigation program on your phone to check the signal status (you have to close the navigation application after the test - otherwise, photo mapping won't work).
2. Take a picture.
3. When Shozu wakes up and asks for your confirmation to send the photo, don't accept. Instead, select More Options.
4. You'll see a menu of Shozu options. Don't choose anything yet, but wait for the Bluetooth connection indicator at the status bar to appear and disappear. The reason for this is that Shozu reads the coordinates from the GPS unit via Bluetooth. If you move on to the next step too quickly, Shozu never receives the coordinates and can't add the information to the photo. If your phone doesn't display the Bluetooth connection status, simply wait for a few seconds before proceeding.
5. When the GPS coordinates have been saved, select Add Details in the Shozu menu. Scroll down to make sure you can see a 'geotagged' label with longitude and latitude information. While you are at it, type a proper title for the photo as well.
6. Open Shozu's menu and select Send to Flickr. Your picture will soon show up on the map.