Quakr 7D Tiltometer Project

Saturday 20th January 2007.

The task

Record 7D metadata for each photo we take today.

Metadata we want to capture:

  1. Altitude (Are we standing on a mountain?)
  2. Latitude (How for north/south of the equator are we.)
  3. Longitude (How far east/west of the meridian are we.)
  4. Compass bearing (ie, N/S/E/W - which direction are we pointing the camera?)
  5. Tilt (ie, are we pointing it up at the sky a bit, or down at the ground a bit?)
  6. Orientation (is this photo portrait, landscape, somewhere wacky in between?
  7. Timestamp (good for knowing if this is day or night)

What we did

Things we assembled:

  • one square-ish digital camera
  • 4 protractors
  • one packet of blue tak
  • some double sided sellotape
  • a novelty magnetic compass (actually 2)
  • a GPS device
  • a notebook
  • a pencil
  • another camera
  • and a ball of string
 assembled things

Next, we sat down and focused..

 focused

Handling tilt:

First, we stuck a protractor to the side of the camera. (This is why it needs to be squareish).

 handling tilt
handling tilt 2
Next, a plumb line.. plumb line
plumb line 2
Blue-tak makes a good weight. blue-tak as weight
blue-tak as weight 2
It works! it works

Handling orientation:

Now, for the second protractor.. 		handling orientation
..this time, it goes on the front of the camera: on the front of the camera
tiltometer and orientometer.. tiltometer and orientometer

Handling compass bearing:

Attaching the compass to an available surface, with more sellotape: 		handling compass bearing
(I'm sure we won't need those buttons..) not need buttons

Quick road - test

Can we still press the take-picture button? 		take-picture button
Dave has a go. dave has a go
Dave becomes suspicious.. suspicious
north? north
.. also north? also north
...maybe cameras are magnetic? cameras are magnetic
The solution.. the solution 1
the solution 2

Handling latitude, longitude, altitude, and timestamp

GPS + blutak. 		GPS + blutak

Quakr 7D tiltometer is now complete!

 7D tiltometer is now complete

Fieldwork

..into its special carry-case it goes. 		special carry-case
.. and down to our field-base, The White Horse, Broad Street, Oxford. field-base
Peter arrives.. peter arrives
And is impressed.. impressed
But he has one criticism - orientometer plumb line sways too far out, when tilt > a-bit. The solution: another protractor. (Lucky we had lots of protractors..) another protractor
OK, off we go out to freezing Broad Street. off we go
And start taking photos of buildings taking photos of building
and other things. other things
This is a three-person job. One photographer, one photographer
one compass tapper and scribe. compass tapper
scribe
And one to make sure nobody gets run over. make sure nobody gets run over
Dave demonstrates the 7D tiltometer in action. the 7D tiltometer in action
Peter demonstrates how to look cool while handling a 7D tiltometer. how to look cool
We bump into a friend, who asks us whether we're on a geography field trip. We bump into a friend
Quakr team feel a bit foolish. Quakr team feel a bit foolish
And retire back to their field base to recover...

Katie P, 21st Jan 2007
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