Free Geography Tools

Javier writes (and Mapperz posts) about VeoGeo, a new website that lets you post videos, link them to a GPX file, and have the position where the video was taken be plotted in Google Maps. If your position changes during the video, the position plotted on the map will move as well. The process is fairly straightforward:

1. Register (for free) at VeoGeo. You’ll also need to be able to upload video files at any online site that allows embeddable video content (e.g. YouTube, Revver, MetaCafe, etc.)

2. Upload the GPX file to VeoGeo; this will have to be a continuous track file with the timestamps intact.

3. Upload the video file to the site of your choice, and copy the video link into the appropriate box at VeoGeo

4. Use VeoGeo to sync up the GPX track with the video.

You’re ready to go; the page for your “tour” will have the video window at upper-left, an altitude profile at lower left, and the Google Maps display at the right. Click on the video “play” button, and as the video plays, the marker on the map will reflect the position at the time the video was shot.

It’s a fun and clever concept, and has great promise for creating geographically-linked video tours. But there is some room for improvement:

- There’s no ability currently to edit the files to only show sections of a video; you have to upload (and watch) the whole thing. Most of the trips I take would have seconds of interesting footage interspersed with minutes (or hours) of boring footage of getting to that area.

- Initial Google Maps zoom level is too high; there’s no imagery initially visible on some pages. Zoom out a bit, and it should appear.

- There aren’t a large number of videos posted yet, but from the ones currently up, it’s clear that the most successful videos have the video shot with a camera firmly mounted so that there’s minimal shake. Walking and biking videos are less successful; without good image stabilization, they can be unwatchable for more than a short period of time.

- No help section yet (but they are in Beta)

- Small number of videos, so their current method of browsing for videos isn’t a problem (markers on a Google Map). But as the number of videos increases, they’re going to have to come up with a better browsing interface.

This site is a great match for Pict’Earth, and I hope the Pict’Earth people post some of their videos up on the VeoGeo site soon (hint, hint).