Geocoded Photographs and GPS

Geocoded photographs are photographs that have a geographical location associated with them. This location can have a latitude, longitude, and altitude, or it can have a street address. Even a bearing can be included for the point position of the photographer for the direction the camera was pointing. Photographs can be automatically geocoded by using a connected GPS. A digital camera that supports GPS can provide the geocoding support. The GPS data is automatically stored in the photo's EXIF information when the photo is taken. A GPS receiver can be built into the camera or the camera can be connected by a cable to a separate receiver. A photograph taken without geographical information can be processed later providing an external GPS receiver produced the necessary GPS data. A timestamp from a clock in the camera that's synchronized with the clock of the GPS receiver are compared with the GPS receiver's timestamp giving resulting coordinates that can be be added to the EXIF information of the photo. Even if no GPS device was present when the photograph was taken, the geocoding information can be later added. The information can be manually entered by giving the coordinates or by selecting the location from a map. Some ways are less precise. The city, ZIP Code, or a street address can be entered. Even descriptive data of the location of the image can be entered. Specialized scene software such as Photosynth can recognize a landmark or photograph location by comparing to other photographs with known locations. Gecoded photographs can be uploaded to sites such as Flickr where the photograph is placed onto a map to view the location the photograph was taken. This can be useful for users who want to browse photographs from a map or search for photos from a given area to find related photographs of the same place that may have come from other users.