What3Words

Started by mopperle, January 10, 2022, 07:20:39 PM

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mopperle

Mario,
before opening a feature request, have you ever thought about the integration of What3Words as alternative to GPS data?

Mario

No. It was never requested and I don't see a real need for it for images.
Many cameras and smart phones already embed GPS. IMatch can also add and modify GPS coordinates.
From that you can get precise enough address data, even for special cases (tracking, high-detail street) using one of the providers IMatch supports, fully automatically.

From what I know, What3Words is a thing mostly interesting for businesses - and is not that widely used. I might be wrong.

You can always store your w3w in a metadata field if you want to use it.
And What3Words provides business services and APIs for developers, so you it is theoretically possible for me to
a) Lean about their API
b) Design how to best use it in IMatch
c) Spend a couple of weeks doing all this
d) Then learn that 10 users used it in the first month, and then only 2 users use it regularly.

Before I even spend time figuring out how much their charge for their services and what I have to do to include their API in IMatch, I need to see at least 20 +1 below.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
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mopperle

Fully understand. I came across it when driving a Mercedes using W3W in its navigation system.
Problem with GPS:
- by far not all cameras (even semi-/professional DSLRs) have GPS included
- GPS accuracy sucks in mountain valleys and in cities.

Curently I write it into the "Location" tag.

But anyway, maybe you can move this topic to the "Feature requests" section. and we see what will happen.

Carlo Didier

Quote from: mopperle on January 10, 2022, 07:46:22 PM
Fully understand. I came across it when driving a Mercedes using W3W in its navigation system.
Problem with GPS:
- by far not all cameras (even semi-/professional DSLRs) have GPS included
- GPS accuracy sucks in mountain valleys and in cities.

Curently I write it into the "Location" tag.

But anyway, maybe you can move this topic to the "Feature requests" section. and we see what will happen.
Just curious:
What does GPS measuring accuracy have to do with the type of coordinates system you use (What3Words is also only a sort of coordinate system in the end)?
No GPS device I know will display W3W "coordinates" anyway. And no camera will store coordinates in that format either.

I have never understood the need for W3W, except that it may be more "readable" for people who have a fear of numbers ...
Why is "ends.volume.sulk" in any way better or more precise than "57.4761, -4.2252" or "NH 66705 45084"? There are more than enough standard and widely used systems, why invent another one?

jch2103

Quote from: Carlo Didier on January 10, 2022, 10:52:52 PM
I have never understood the need for W3W, except that it may be more "readable" for people who have a fear of numbers ...
Why is "ends.volume.sulk" in any way better or more precise than "57.4761, -4.2252" or "NH 66705 45084"? There are more than enough standard and widely used systems, why invent another one?

My uninformed guess is that the developers believe a 3 word combination would be easier to remember/describe to others than a long 'conventional' address or a bunch of numbers. It doesn't seem that the case has been proven, however, based on its lack of popularity to date.
John

mopperle

W3W is of course not a replacement of GPS. It is an addition and helps you where no real adress (city/street/number) is available.
Cameras of course can only know about GPS data and those data often are not really accaurate, so you have to correct them manually
W3W is far more intuitive then GPS coordinates with many different ways of writing/using them.
And no need to make "uninformed guess" ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words
https://what3words.com/about


Mario

QuoteW3W is far more intuitive then GPS coordinates with many different ways of writing/using them.

Hm, in IMatch, if your camera gets the GPS coordinates wrong, all you need to do is to grab the file's flag in the map panel and shift it to the right place.
I would consider this pretty intuitive as well. If you have enabled it, IMatch will also automatically perform a reverse geocoding for the file, to adjust to the new coordinates.
Unless you photograph mostly in the untouched wilderness, this usually gives accurate enough data.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook

Carlo Didier

Quote from: mopperle on January 12, 2022, 01:13:06 PM... those data often are not really accaurate, so you have to correct them manually ...
I don't know about camera integrated GPS devices as I don't have one. I make my track logs mostly with my cheap smartphone (Viewranger App) or sometimes from my fitness watch and the accuracy is around 10m average which is more than enough for me.

thrinn

Quote from: mopperle on January 12, 2022, 01:13:06 PM
W3W is of course not a replacement of GPS. It is an addition and helps you where no real adress (city/street/number) is available.
I like to think of W3W more as an extension of addresses than of GPS coordinates. Especially where a precise street address is not available or not known. This can happen even in countries where normally each house has a number (Germany, for example). Just think of newly developed building areas. Or of streets that were renamed.
I can see some advantages e.g. when I want to program a car navigation system by voice, without a city/street/number to navigate to. In this case, speaking 3 words might be easier than citing long colons of numbers. But for my photos, I have usually my smartphone as a tracking device. Sometimes my camera gets the GPS coordinates directly, sometimes I have to geocode them afterwards with IMatch using a track log. Either way, I do not see how W3W could help me there.

And there are some disadvantages: According to Wikipedia, there is no publicy available mapping between GPS coordinates and W3W code. This mapping seems to be proprietary. If the company cancels it service (or you do not want to pay for it anymore), you are lost. So tagging with W3W instead of GPS coordinates is not an option. I only see some benefits when coordinates must be communicated by voice - or written down by hand.
Thorsten
Win 10 / 64, IMatch 2018, IMA