OpenStreetMap
mapillary_tools works great on my Android phone!
Posted by JesseAKARaccoon on 15 February 2021 in English.See my previous entry for installation instructions.
So far, mapillary_tools has worked very well for me! Images are sent to Mapillary MOSTLY facing the correct direction, with duplicates (from stopping at intersections, and such) being removed. The work I must do afterwards has been cut dramatically. This makes wandering to new places to capture images a fun adventure for me, and makes editing OSM with captured images + GPX a lot smoother of a process.
I capture images at 1 per second in a vehicle (any faster, and my GPS gets wonky), or 3 or 5 per second while hiking. I use pretty harsh duplicate detection, since my phone’s compass is terrible, and my GPS wanders anywhere in a 1m range while I’m stopped, given enough time. My favorite command to run is:
mapillary_tools process –import_path storage/dcim/Trip1 –cutoff_time 30 –duplicate_distance 1.5 –duplicate_angle 360 –interpolate_directions –offset_angle 0 –overwrite_EXIF_direction_tag –user_name jesseakaraccoon –advanced
The part “–interpolate directions” is like using “normalize sequence” while editing. It’s not perfect, but it’s great! I’ve reported a minor flaw, which causes some images at stops to point in odd directions.
Discussion
Comment from jambamkin on 15 February 2021 at 08:25
I am really interested in your workflow here. I know others who have quit Mapillilary over lack of support on the Android app. How do you get your photos saved to one folder?
Comment from JesseAKARaccoon on 15 February 2021 at 10:19
To be clear, I don’t use the Mapillary app.
I capture images with OpenCamera, selecting my wide angle lens. I set the camera to repeat at the desired interval (usually 1 image / s). In settings, I make sure images are saved with GPS info. All normal images are saved to storage/dcim/Trip1.
If there are images I wish to treat differently (e.g. images taken with a 90° offset), I must save them to a different folder and process them with slightly different commands.
Then, I use the command line program Termux to run a command like
mapillary_tools process –import_path storage/dcim/Trip1 –cutoff_time 30 –duplicate_distance 1.5 –duplicate_angle 360 –interpolate_directions –offset_angle 0 –overwrite_EXIF_direction_tag –user_name jesseakaraccoon –advanced
And that’s about where my work ends!
I chose the parameters such as duplicate_distance and such based on experience, to minimize any further work. When taking photos by foot, I try to walk in the direction I shoot, so that the “–interpolate_directions” command provides accurate compass settings for me.
So… my workflow is basically “take pictures and enter one command.” Seems easy. But I think I earned it after all the difficulties and failures I had to go through to develop this process, haha!
Comment from jambamkin on 16 February 2021 at 07:41
Okay cool, and you wipe the Trip1 folder after each upload? I was imagining that you had Open Camera set up to save a series of images to a folder, and then create a new folder for each set of images. So with your set up you can only do one image series before you upload?
Comment from JesseAKARaccoon on 16 February 2021 at 12:27
Oh, no, I put as much into that folder as I feel like! Notice the parameter in my command, “–cutoff_time 30.” That means that I simply stop capturing images for 30 seconds, the next time I start, a brand new sequence begins!
So I can fill the folder Trip1 with as much forward-facing imagery as I want, and process + upload it all when it’s best for me!
I will create additional folders for situations such as images taken with a 90° offset. Other than that, I just use the one folder, and clear it out when I’m done. It’s great!
Comment from JesseAKARaccoon on 16 February 2021 at 12:32
Though, before I started using mapillary_tools, I DID used to have a new folder for each sequence, and upload each folder one-at-a-time using the web uploader. They’d be called Trip1, Trip2, and so on. Thus, why my current folder is called Trip1, haha!