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Products: Excellent little Android app for range and height.

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1 to 26 of 26

  1.  
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012 edited
     
    Waiting for the rain shower to stop and a mooch found this little app...

    http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/kr.sira.measure/Smart-Measure

    Just calibrated it and tried it in here and it's surprisingly accurate. When the rain stops I'll have a play in the garden with objects of known height and distance.

    Simple things! :wink:

    (Oh, and it's free!)
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012
     
    How on earth? Does it use the smartphone's autofocus to determine distance?
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: fostertom</cite>How on earth? Does it use the smartphone's autofocus to determine distance?</blockquote>

    Probably just uses the fixed (and known) focal length of the lens, the autofocus of the camera, plus a bit of simple trigonometry. Many years ago we used to use the same technique for analysing cine film of weapons and aircraft, by projecting still frames and measuring the size of the images with a ruler..............
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012
     
    Getting closer maybe - I gave up on iPhone, smartphone, Theodolite ap etc, now thinking of camera, to do what I want, which is -

    1. take camera to top of perilous ladder, at mid-air points representing 4 corners of future collector array on structure not yet built.

    2. level the camera and point it to known compass bearing.

    3. take a single photo of an expanse of horizon, camera at minimum zoom/infinity focus or other setting where its lens geometry is known

    4. print the pic.

    5. overlay the pic with a square grid representing degrees of azimuth and altitude, away from pic centre point.

    6. read off altitude and azimuth of any point (e.g. points along the horizon) visible in the pic.

    The square grid would prob not be all straight lines, and lines wouldn't be equally spaced, depending on lens geometry.

    Does this sound feasible? Someone said I cd prob do it in Photoshop, where most camera/lens' data is recorded - wd that be true?
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012
     
    The video does show improving accuracy by entering the exact height of the camera. I'd guess it's using the phone's accelerometers to determine the orientation (pitch) relative to the local gravitational field.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012 edited
     
    Yup, that's exactly how it's working, Ed. Did try it around the garden with heights/distances measured with the tape and you have to hold the camera (in my case the Viewpad-7) absolutely rock steady and not deviate from the angle at which the initial reading was taken by so much as half of a degree, which limits its usefulness somewhat - unless you can maintain the position. Did try it with me leaning against various fence posts, but still got a "significant" height difference of >.5m each time, and the distance was consistently way out.

    Reason for the accuracy (and it was accurate) indoors is explained by my having been sitting down with my arms braced to my side.

    Maybe my technique will improve with practice. It isn't easy to hold the camera steady and tilt it from a fixed position because it's not the way you'd normally operate the camera.
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012
     
    A photographers' trick for a very portable partial-tripod substitute I've read about but never tried which might be helpful here is to have a bit of string attached to the base of the camera which you can stand on the other end of and brace the camera by pulling it tight. Would also help with keeping the camera at a consistent height.
  8.  
    I was playing around with this last week, didn't work very well prob due to not holding it very steady. There are a few photo volt apps too to calc strings angles etc
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2012 edited
     
    So, Ed, you're one of those people who walks around with a piece of string in his pocket, just in case? :bigsmile:

    Would work on a camera (actually a good idea when out walking - one I'd never heard of before, or needed because I've usually got the monopod with me) but I initially had my doubts about it working on a phone or tablet because there's nothing to attach the string to unless you loop it around the body of the phone or tablet. That said, that's exactly what you need to maintain the height and to control the tilt of the camera.

    I'll try it tomorrow.

    Ah, a busy life.:beard:

    (Bot, indoors, it worked to within a centimetre over a distance of five metres and measuring the height of the walls, but as I said, that was sitting down with my arms resting on the arms of the chair. Same principle applies to the thodolite app.)
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Saw a sextant on fleebay for 14 quid.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Handy for navigating your way around the Cornish road system then. :wink:

    Last time we were down there our satnav burst into tears of frustration and pleaded to be turned off. :cry:
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012 edited
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: Joiner</cite>Handy for navigating your way around the Cornish road system then.</img>

    Last time we were down there our satnav burst into tears of frustration and pleaded to be turned off.</blockquote>

    I was down there again last week. It's one of the few places in the country where I don't need a sat nav, as I know pretty much all the lanes around West Cornwall like the back of my hand.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Jeremy
    You should have said, I know some of them
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Number 2 son had to pass the equivalent of the London cabby's 'Knowledge' for the WHOLE of Cornwall before he could drive one of the county's big shiny fire engines.

    I've always maintained that the Cornish road signage was designed by an incurable romantic who was more concerned with the journey than actually getting somewhere.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Cornish signage is a bit bizarre because it reflects the importance of places in the past, and often those places have little importance to us today. A good example is Gweek, a tiny place with a single pub and shop, yet there are signs pointing to it for miles around. The reason is that it used to be a significant port from Roman times up until the late Tudor period, so was an important place when the roads were built. The port has long since silted up and disappeared, but the road network remains pretty much as it did hundreds of years ago.
    • CommentAuthorSaint
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Posted By: JSHarrisCornish signage is a bit bizarre because it reflects the importance of places in the past, and often those places have little importance to us today. A good example is Gweek, a tiny place with a single pub and shop, yet there are signs pointing to it for miles around. The reason is that it used to be a significant port from Roman times up until the late Tudor period, so was an important place when the roads were built. The port has long since silted up and disappeared, but the road network remains pretty much as it did hundreds of years ago.


    Not forgetting the Seal Sanctuary at Gweek of course......been there with family many times, and Flambards nearby come to think of it... all those years ago....ah
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    This might be of interest to anybody with an Android device who wants to play some more:

    http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/05/08/Sensplore
  18.  
    I love the google sky app, and last night installed SatelliteAR (free), which shows the position of all satellites in real time wherever you point your phone. Very suprising...!

    Skyscanner is very impressive (free)
    Sygic is a good GPS app
    I use Barometer HD to find altitude above sealevel for site measurements
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Ed, I'm getting very worried about you! :crazy:
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    Me too - didn't like to say - what does http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/05/08/Sensplore mean?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012 edited
     
    Posted By: JSHarrisA good example is Gweek

    All very strange down than way, Gweek, Constantine, Helford Passage and that Babe from Mabe, not to mention Rame, Porth Navas and my favourite Mawnan Smith. But up the A30 I see a sign to Ventongimp (very famous farmer) and even further up, in a very strange place there is Burntwoodwidger, glad I was not there that night :wink:
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: SteamyTea</cite>
    All very strange down than way, Gweek, Constantine, Helford Passage and that Babe from Mabe, not to mention Rame, Porth Navas and my favourite Mawnan Smith.</blockquote>

    Oi! I used to live 2 miles from Gweek (Trewennack) and my sister still lives in Constantine.............
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    There was a large fire in Constantine a couple of weeks back :wink:
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    If there was good looking fire fighter with a big smile directing the operations...!
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMay 9th 2012
     
    It's an app which you can use to capture the raw outputs from an Android's accelerometers - just to explore how they work. Perhaps the sort of thing that ST or JSH or somebody would like to play with, I though.

    Tim Bray's a pretty well know geek (mainly for being the editor of the XML specification) who now works for Google on their dealings with Android developers and whose blog I've read for many years. Saw his post this morning and thought of this thread.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 13th 2012
     
    And downloaded this one on Friday and took it out on a longish walk with the dog this morning to check out the tracking capability. Excellent. Ideal for you bikers and long-distance walkers. (Just demonstrated it to a visiting friend who puts together walks for a local walking club and she's going to download it when she gets home, she was that impressed.

    There is a free one called 'MyTrails' which is a good tool, although without all the bells and whistles that make Locus Pro such a good companion.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk603aaXmbg

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