Using a jpg image/camera pic as a map + onboard calibration

[Menion]

hi guys,
  seems like this topic, that was at start focused on on-board calibration of maps in the wild, now moved to even more serious topic - globally about map calibration. So let's go for a while back to on-board photo calibration. Work on improve of using calibrated maps in locus will start soon. I've successfully integrated one library that allow me more coordinate conversions then before, so I'm sure, map calibration will be fixed and improved, but not yet

  now I need some testing and help with new photo calibration system ... version here viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1250

[gynta]

nice!
this weekend i will test it..

[rijackson741]

Great  :mrgreen: I wanted this feature a lot. I have Maprika on my phone only because it can do this.

I have only spent 2 minutes looking at it, but I have one immediate suggestion. The options are to pick a photo or take one. If I choose to pick a photo it allows me to choose which photo viewer to use. That's fine, except that because I didn't want to see my Maprika maps in my photo viewer, I added a .nomedia file to the folder that they are in. It would be nice if there was also an option to browse the folder structure to choose a file.

I will test this feature some more  

Edit: I put the attached jpg file in the root of my SD card, and tried to pick it. When I do that (using either Gallery or Quickpic), Locus Free forces closes

Edit again. It's something about that file, because I tried another one of the Summer Palace in Beijing, and it loads fine. So then I added a calibration point. I chose the pixel from the photo, and this works quite nicely. It seems I have to type in the coordinates for latitude and Longitude though. Maprika lets me choose a location on either a Google map or a Google satellite image, and takes the coordinates from that. Of course, you can't use Google maps this way because they are not supported, but would it be possible to let the user choose a location on any existing map they have available (on-line, personal, or vector)?

Thanks for this great addition to Locus. Soon I will be able to uninstall Maprika  

[InfX]

Menion - thanks a lot for the feature :-) I keep getting pleasant surprises from Locus :-)

Not being on the forum very often at all, i've just noticed the feature mentioned in the market change log, totally surprised by it, especially after being the original poster of this thread and after being told, politely, that "not all wishes may come true", in this very thread :-)

[gynta]

its much better than "Map Calibrator". so i can delete this stuff now.
to calibrate from a reference-map is a great idea and works!

how can i save (and load) now various calibrated pictures/maps?

[Khaytsus]

Okay, I found how to calibrate a map, it shows...  Works pretty good, but not sure how to use it from there.  I would have expected it to show up as an overlay I can turn on/off somewhere and it persists.  Perhaps in the Maps menu, a new tab?   It'd also be able to tweak some things..  Turning it completely off, back on, perhaps opacity, deleting it, exporting it, etc..

Right now it seems like it's only temporary, goes away when I exit..  I can start the tool again and it has the last set of data in there and I can bring it back up, but personally I have a few sets of maps it'd be handy to have in Locus.

One suggestion..  Maprika makes it really fast to calibrate maps because it estimates where the next point will be at every input, can Locus also do this?    ie:  If I give it enough points for it to start making a decent estimate, when I put the mark on the image to calibrate it'll estimate where it'll be on the map screen, so less moving around etc.

BTW, bug report....  if you do Map Item Manager after calibrating a map, Locus crashes.  I'm sending a report.

[Menion]

Great  :mrgreen: I wanted this feature a lot. I have Maprika on my ...

glad you like it . Anyway there is button "Map" next to coordinates, where you can display map (with small overlay from photo). There is not need to define exact coordinates

its much better than "Map Calibrator". so i can delete this stuff now.
to calibrate from a reference-map is a great idea and works!

how can i save (and load) now various calibrated pictures/maps?

all calibrated maps are exported to "export" directory for now

Okay, I found how to calibrate a map, it shows...

Thank you for feedback, I'll surely improve it. Currently worst part is size of images ... that's maybe reason why app crashed to rijackson.

[InfX]

Thank you for feedback, I'll surely improve it. Currently worst part is size of images ... that's maybe reason why app crashed to rijackson.

I seem to get an out of memory crash on every calibration attempt, after clicking compute and confirming. I have yet to do a single successfull use of the feature The out of memory exception is thrown by bitmap factory, but this is only visible via a system log or the report preview details, to the simple user its just an evil detailless fc.

Note - i use the normal 5mp internal camera pics at its full resolution, not some oversized 100megapixel paper map scans.

[gynta]

hmm.. crashed with a 2494kb camerapicture

[stebu]

I have a 1Mb jpg file, Locus crashed after the first calibration attemp when I moved the map. After 2nd attempt "process successful" I closed Locus. Then I checked in the Export-folder, both maps were there. I can now download either one of them. (Crashreport: OutOfMem, bitmap size exceeds VM budget)

But during the calibration computation Locus informed that there will be a deviation of about 200m on the three points. And this seems to be true. Would it help, if I rotate the picture on my PC so that true north is up?

[gynta]

how can i save (and load) now various calibrated pictures/maps?

all calibrated maps are exported to "export" directory for now

thx - dataimport the *.kmz works.
can I hide the map only with a restart?
-----> viewtopic.php?f=10&p=7956#p7955

[packham]

Are there any online sources to find jpg maps (from brochures for example)?

[gynta]

I again. (i told you "i will it testing")  

is it possible to display the zoomed picture not so blurred?
It would be better to find the points
e.g.

[rijackson741]

Anyway there is button "Map" next to coordinates, where you can display map (with small overlay from photo). There is not need to define exact coordinates

This works, mostly. Thanks. I just calibrated two maps and there is a minor problem though. For the first map, when I switched to the personal map it started at the location I last viewed that map. After that, it always started at the first calibration point, which is fine (although I agree with the comment that the Maprika feature of trying to get you as close as possible to the correct point is nice). However, on the second map it started at the first calibration point of the first map, which was a very long way from where it needed to be! I had to fire up Google maps on the computer to figure out how to get back to the correct location  :roll: Prior to calibrating the second map I had loaded an appropriate personal map, and zoomed in on the correct location. It would be better if it had started there.

Thank you for feedback, I'll surely improve it. Currently worst part is size of images ... that's maybe reason why app crashed to rijackson.

Yes, I just tested this. I created two smaller versions of the same map: 580kB and 270kB. All three maps were saved from the same software, so there are no differences in the jpeg format. The 580kB map also crashed Locus, but the 270kB worked OK.

[rijackson741]

But during the calibration computation Locus informed that there will be a deviation of about 200m on the three points. And this seems to be true. Would it help, if I rotate the picture on my PC so that true north is up?

I had the same problem on one map, but much worse. All but one of my points had a deviation of about half a mile   The map has a really weird orientation though, with north pointing to the bottom right (I have no idea why they drew it that way!). Does the map have to have north pointing exactly up?