Is ‘geocoding’ a word? According to this site it is, and who am I to quibble?
Geocoding basically means adding location info to image files, which then opens up all sorts of possibilities for mapping, such as in Flickr, which I mentioned just a few days ago. I can’t help but feel that in a hundred years time or more, assuming anyone can still find the right bit of kit to open those quaint old jpg or dng digital images, it will actually be important that someone will know where the hell the picture was taken. Like finding a scribbled note in pencil on the back of a Victorian black & white photo. Only much, much better. The exact date, time and location, all stored within the file.
So, back to the RoboGEO software. The more I learn about this ‘little’ piece of software the more ‘Wow!’ it becomes. If you have a GPS you can automatically geocode your pictures by matching the image timestamp with where your GPS says you were. But you can also retrospectively do this for old images by using Google Earth or one of many other methods. And if that ain’t enough, it can then directly upload them to Flickr (and resize them at the same time), create a Google Earth KML/KMZ file, etc etc.
Fantastically easy interface, and all for $34.95
The demo version is fully functional, but rather cleverly introduces random small positioning errors into it’s output.
I found it via something called the Jelbert Geotagger, which just seems the most bizarrely over-engineered and cumbersome piece of kit you could possibly add to your camera bag! The only benefits I can see is that it only creates a waypoint a the moment of image capture (so it’s 100% accurate and less data intensive), plus it has directional data. But you still need to buy a GPS to go with it!