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Tutorials

GPS data & Links to Maps

Google Maps is a free Google service offering powerful, user-friendly mapping technology, and accessed via a web browser.

Google Earth is a free 3D interface to the planet, though the application must be downloaded and run on the local computer.

Images can hold GPS information (geographic coordinates) in the Exif data, traditionally consisting of Longitude, Latitude, Altitude (Elevation) and Time. This can be added automatically by the camera at the time the image is captured, or manually added later using geotagging applications such as RoboGEO or Picasa.

Chameleon will now show this data, and also link to a Google Map. Please see the Chameleon Help, the following is an extract:

Link to Map: If you have GPS data added to your pictures you can have a link to Google Maps to show the place the picture was taken directly on the map. If no GPS coordinates found but the Iptc.Location or Iptc.City / Country data is available, the link will be generated with these tags. (E.g.: Paris,France)

Chameleon will then put a link called "See map", in the relevant place (depending on settings chosen) on the Slide Page. This can be a little hard to spot at first, and is not available on the Index Page.

It is worth noting that Chameleon can only directly use the GPS information stored within the image, which itself knows nothing of Google Maps, or any of its controlling parameters. However, the Settings /Chameleon / Metadata /Map does allow the map type and (initial) zoom level to be set.

However, links can be easily created in Google Maps and used in Chameleon comments, header.inc & footer.inc files etc (which handle embedded HTML fairly well). These can be used to compliment the in-built mapping, and can be much more specific, too, with zoom and mode parameters to suit the requirements. The link can be made a little more prominent, and also used on the Index Page or with an Enhanced Image.

An album that explores these options can be seen at A Chameleon Album to Explore Geocoded Images

Create a Google Maps link

1. Browse to Google Maps (ie Google Maps UK )
2. Search for location, set the zoom and mode settings as required
3. Click "Link to this Page"
4. Copy address from Address Bar. It will be of the form
   http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&
   q=kalkara&sll=35.888424,14.527359& sspn=0.177457,0.291824&ie=UTF8&
   ll=35.888476,14.52722&spn=0.002773,0.00456&t=k&z=18&om=1
5. Use in comments etc as:
   <a href="the link above">Anchor</a>

Create a Google Earth link using Google Maps

1. Search for Kalkara, Malta in Google Maps UK
2. Zoom in
3. Click "Link to this Page"
4. Address is
   http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=kalkara&sll=35.888424,14.527359& sspn=0.177457,0.291824&ie=UTF8&ll=35.888476,14.52722&spn=0.002773,0.00456
   t=k&z=18&om=1
5. Add " &output=kml&ge_fileext=.kml" to the end of the above address
6. Address becomes
   http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=kalkara&sll=35.888424,14.527359&
   sspn=0.177457,0.291824&ie=UTF8&ll=35.888476,14.52722&spn=0.002773,0.00456&
   t=k&z=18&om=1&output=kml&ge_fileext=.kml
7. Copy the address
8. Use in comments etc

The special Google Earth features like pan & tilt are obviously not available in Google Maps, so these can't be captured.

(By Mark Worthington)