picFLiTE Brainstorm

After some more reading and thought, I am believing it is possible to carve out a little niche in this market, but it will likely have to be executed soon.  The geotaggable picture search engine idea is officially being upgraded to “Project” status.  I created a new Project Category called picFLiTE for us to start saving posts in (I also moved all old related posts into this category folder).

So after our conversation tonight and some more reading, I have come up with a few essential features that picFLiTE will need impltented to create dominance and rapid adoption in the marketplace.  The key features will be the following:

• Rapid Development:
  • Possible partnership with Cuil, Google, Yahoo, etc to license search technology
  • We would be busy creating relationships with parnering sites while also creating a standard for searching geotags and timestamps
• Easy integration with existing picture sharing sites: MySpace, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, etc.
  • Develop a standard way to record locational information and allow people without GPS to manually assign one to participate (could be as simple as clicking on a location on a map)
• Ease of use for the average user:
  • Apps created for participating platform to draw social networking traffic
  • Standalone website that is free to search
  • No “sign-up-for-a-new-account-before-using” type interface
    • Not ruling out an optional advanced feature offering for members though
• Viral Marketing Element: must possess a feature that stimulates sharing
  • We could create a competition that shows the most popular hangouts in a college campus, in a city, etc. by number of pictures shared in each location
  • Same concept could be applied to cities in the world, etc.
  • Create business participation by including FREE business logos and small ad for upcoming events by featured photos if the business becomes a contributing member
    • Example: The nightclub KIN in SD is advertised free on our site if they continually add photos to our search platform and invite others to participate
  • Create some type of user rewards (can be fake or real) that participants get to accumulate as they geotag photos and use our site
• Monetization:
  • Would probably have to utilize some sort of advertising-based revenue model
    • Possible revenue sharing with parnering sites…
  • Introduce a premuim ad placement for participating local businesses
  • The goal here would be more to generate a large user base and sell the business very soon, so short term revenue generation wouldn’t be as critical for us
    • The goal would be to develop the company so that it could interface very well as a “value-added” acquisition for a larger company such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.

These are ideas to stimulate more thought.  We’ll chat more tomorrow.

Read Full Post »

Geotagging Info

This is a very good article that talks about the pros and cons of geotagging with the most prominent photo sharing sites right now: Google’s Picasa, Yahoo’s Flickr, SmugMug and Locr.  It also eplains some of the developments they have underway.  This was written in January 2008, so since then I am sure progress has come a long way.  It is long, but it is worth the read:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9847536-2.html

The next link expains a little more about the WiFi triangulation technology that I commented about earlier. While not as accurate, this still tends to be an easier solution in big cities where skyscrapers can interfere with GPS signals.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008101745_ptgeotag09.html

Read Full Post »

wikipedia info on geotagging

Methods of geocoding photographs

There are a few methods of geocoding photographs, either automatic or manual.

[edit]Automatic using a connected GPS

Some digital cameras and camera phones support GPS. If the device provides full geocoding support, a photo’s relevant GPS data is automatically stored in the photo’s EXIF information when the photo is taken. This is the most precise method of geocoding an image as long as a good signal is achieved at the time of taking the photo. The GPS receiver can be built into the camera or can be a separate device connected by cable.

[edit]Synchronizing with a separate GPS

Most digital cameras sold today do not contain a built-in GPS receiver; however, an external location-aware device, such as a hand-held GPS unit, can still be used with a non-GPS digital camera for geocoding. The photo is taken without geographical information and is processed later using software in conjunction with the GPS data. Timestamps made by the camera can be compared to timestamps in the recorded GPS information, provided that the clocks in the separate devices can be synchronized. The resulting coordinates can then be added to the EXIF information of the photo.

[edit]Manual geocoding

Geocoding information can also be added to photos even if no GPS device was present when the photo was taken, for example via its Exif specification that has fields for longitude/latitude. The information can be entered by directly giving the coordinates or by selecting a location from a map using software tools. Some tools allow entry of tags such as city, ZIP Code or a street address. A less precise method is adding descriptive data of the location to an image.

[edit]Uses

When geocoded photos are uploaded to online sharing communities such as Flickr, Moblog or Locr, the photo can be placed onto a map to view the location the photo was taken. In this way users can browse photos from a map or search for photos from a given area, and find related photos of the same place from other users.

[edit]See also

• GeoTagging
• Point of Interest
• GPS tracking
• Geocoding on Commons

Read Full Post »

Analysis of GPS Photo Based Idea

Here are some follow up thoughts on your post.  Overall I like the idea and I believe it has enough potential to deserve a more throrough anaysis.  There will be some significant challenges to overcome to make this a reality with out the support of some trend changing participants to help us out.  Here is an overview of challenges, pros, cons and additional thoughts:

Challenges:

• This idea will have to integrate seamlessly with existing social networks (FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, etc.) in the form of an add-on application approved by the existing site.
  • It would have to be a SIMPLE interface that is very easy to use.
  • In my opinion, the problem with LifeSnapz is that they are trying to create yet another destination for photo storage, there are already way too many competitors that people are already accustomed to and are not willing to change without strong persuasion.
• Mainstream photo tagging is still a little ways away. 
  • Facebook, MySpace, etc will have to have a reason to adopt support of automated GPS and time-stamp tagging that is searchable.
  •  Do you know if exif data is included in each picture that is uploaded?  Is it even searchable yet?
• Because of privacy issues, the community of pictures available to be viewed will only be as large as the individuals that allow the photos to be public are.  This could be a challenge to manage as the photos would have to public shared for this idea to work.
• Monetization could be a challenge.  I think there would have to be some type of ad sharing revenue with partnering sites like FaceBook, MySpace, etc.  The option for value-added service might be able to draw some revenue.  Maybe as the popularity grows it can be shifted to a subscription based service that would allow someone to see shared pictures among all different social networks.

Pros:

• I would love to have a service like this to catalog memories and events.  Especially becuase I am not good at remembering to bring my camera places and capturing good moments.  I believe there would be a great market place for this service
• It is definitely ahead of the curve (as far as I know) and relies on a trend that is not yet established (so there may be less competition at this point in time-but I could be wrong)
• This seems like a proprietary service or technology that would want to be patented or bought by Google, Flickr, etc.

Cons:

• Photo sharing sites that are currently in existence such as flickr, would have an easy time creating this when the time comes.  The potential competition would be there.
• This project would be resource intensive and require some good connections to ensure that social media sites remain friendly to the format that we want to interface with.  So, in a sense, we would be at the mercy of these sites.
• While geotagging and time-stamping is not mainstream, we would likely have to innovate and create adoption of a simple technology that allows users to manually enter this information for cataloging?

Additional Thoughts:

• Can this in anyway be applied as a service to businesses through video/picture sharing at corporate events?  Maybe it could be service sold to Ning (or similar) that each “niche” social network can use share photos.
• PLAN OF ACTION
  • Let’s discuss this some more, and if we can come up with a feasible design then we take the following step:
  • This may be a patentable idea (I believe), we would have to patent this right away
    • Patenting this idea would be more valuable than attempting anything else at the moment
  • We could then pursue development of the idea, or pursue a buyer of the technology

Let me know if you have any additional thoughts or answers to any of the questions and comments I proposed.

Read Full Post »

LifeSnapz – evidence for photo searching opportunity

Here is a type of search for photos based on social networks that is a totally different take.   Point being I’m starting to see more searches based around organizing this vast data.  I bet the key would be to make it easy to do and I wonder if it should be a widget that could be ported around or if it should be a standalone site.  Lots of opportunity for partnerships  with the social networks….

Read Full Post »

Okay, what about a photo based startup?

(no real relevance for the picture, I just created it the other day and thought it looked cool)

Read the following:

R.J.Pittman, Google’s director of product management for consumer search properties, in his interview with Beet.TV said that around 100 billion images are captured and uploaded every year. He expects an  abrupt growth of around trillion uploaded images in the future.

I started thinking in different direction yesterday.  I love photography so I thought I would look into it.  I wonder if there would be any promise, as more and more people have access to smartphones with cameras on them, to create a photo search engine to search for pics based on their exif data.  Exif data is the info that all digital cameras capture and store for later review.  Here is an example:

Tag	Value
Manufacturer	CASIO
Model	QV-4000
Orientation	top – left
Software	Ver1.01
Date and Time	2003:08:11 16:45:32
YCbCr Positioning	centered
Compression	JPEG compression
x-Resolution	72.00
y-Resolution	72.00
Resolution Unit	Inch
Exposure Time	1/659 sec.
FNumber	f/4.0
ExposureProgram	Normal program
Exif Version	Exif Version 2.1
Date and Time (original)	2003:08:11 16:45:32
Date and Time (digitized)	2003:08:11 16:45:32
ComponentsConfiguration	Y Cb Cr –
Compressed Bits per Pixel	4.01
Exposure Bias	0.0
MaxApertureValue	2.00
Metering Mode	Pattern
Flash	Flash did not fire.
Focal Length	20.1 mm
MakerNote	432 bytes unknown data
FlashPixVersion	FlashPix Version 1.0
Color Space	sRGB
PixelXDimension	2240
PixelYDimension	1680
File Source	DSC
InteroperabilityIndex	R98
InteroperabilityVersion	(null)

 

In my opinion geotagging will become a typical part of exif data as more and more photos will be taken from GPS enabled smart phones and camera.

Heres an example of its use:  Im at a party downtown in a bar between 9pm and 12am.  Everyone was drunk and having a blast and taking pics on their phones and cameras.  Later on I want to see these pics.  So instead of having to contact all these people (I may not know all of them), or search on a ton of different social network platforms, I can search for pics uploaded to public social networks and sites like flickr that were taken in a defined geography, and time. 

 I’m just free-flowing here but I wonder if there is any potential to create a search engine or similar function for the sheer vast amount of pictures that will be uploaded based on location taken, time taken, type of camera, etc.

It could help police as well.  Lets say there was a murder that happened in Pacific beach at 2pm on garnett and cass ave (one actually happened yesterday but it was at 5am and on Agate Street near La Jolla Mesa Drive) .  The police have a vague description of the perpetrator (clothing color and height but thats it).  In searching for clues/evidence they might be able to do a search of photos taken from 10-2pm that day in that general area to see if he happened to show up in anyone elses photos.

Or I was at an event (Ozzfest 2008) and wanted to look back at pics later on since I didn’t take many.  I could enter a search for pics taken at the Cricket Amphitheater between 12pm and 8pm.

Perhaps intead of searching for a particular image like on google image search, people would be searching for a certain event.  Whole different market homeboy.  As social networks reign king and grow at astonishing rates, there needs to be a organized way to search through all of that data; thus opening up opportunities for search engines just for social networks.

.

Read Full Post »