VisualPin

I thought I would share some thoughts on embedding geocoded data directly in a video.  We have always explored the most open and flexible way of managing geocoded data.  One thing we have been exploring is how to we embed locaiton data in a video directly.  Why?  Because then it means that location data associated with a video is transferred with the file itself so integrity can be maintained.

There is a problem here though.   It means videos cannot be convertedas easily and metadata cannot always be easily extracted.  We deal in high definition videoand normaldefinition video. In some cases, files can be in the multiple GBs and this creates all sorts of usage and conversion issues.  

In addition, we often have to convert files to multiple video formats and edit them significantly, resulting in the loss of metadata in cases.  

So in short, we have decided that the best all-round solution is to keep going down the path osf maintaining a database of locations associated with a video so that we can combine, remove and manipulate the lcoation and video data without compromise.  We will be extending this format to be even more robust and allow the archive, management and cross-checking of location data to videos to be even more secure and accurate.

We have made the following updates to visualpin.com which we hope makes this a lot more user friendly:

• Better display of featured videos on the home page.
• When creating a new visualpin video, you can search YouTube to find a video to geocode.
• Added ability to preview a searched video on YouTube before visualpinning it.
• Added use of the enter key on thecreate forms.
• Fixed zoom bug in the editing of a visualpin video.
• Added categories to visualpinned videos automaticallyso future functionality for category display and search.
• Got some backend stuff ready for the soon to be released API and Embedding Service.

• Search for a video.
• Browse visualpinned videos by category.
• Embedding of videos on external websites (javascript and API auto-code generation for a visualpin video so anyone can embed on their website)
• Site-to-Site API for accessingvisualpinned data
• B2B API Service for our commercial customers to view their own videos on their hard drive with visualpin.com (paid commercial service).

Unfortunately we had some hosting issues which are now resolved with our new hosting partner.  You can now create new accounts and start visualpinning your own videos!

We will be rolloign out even more functionality soon such as:

• Use video zoom levels or choose your own to watch the video with.
• Improved map and video based editing.
• Improved management tools.
• Bigger and better maps and video displays.
• Embedding links.
• Cleaner viewing pages.

We have a new major update to visualpin.com coming in the next week or two. This new update is quite major thanks to our Beta feedback testers.

We have included the following features.

• New manage console allowing editing of videos, locations and associated text without having to go into the edit console. This emans you can edit any attribute of the video or locations for a video directly such as updating the locaiton of a single visualpin or updating a location's description or title. This will save a lot of time and allow users to make advanced changes to mature videos.
• Link from manage console to edit a visualpin video directly via the video interface.
• Improved use of thumbnails and YouTube descriptions in the edit and display screens.

We are also moving to a new hosting platform which is faster and more effective for the growing user community.

After we release this we will focus on the development roadmap which includes search and browse functions to search for a visualpin video and to browse visualpin videos by category. Again, thanks to everyone for their great feedback.

We think we have built a very useful and timely website and to confirm this, Sony have announced a new GPS enabled camcorder at CES Las Vegas this year. 

We are not seen the camcorder and do not know the exact functionality specifics as yet but we hope it provides a capability to geocode the video itself, either now or in the enar future and hope to work on integrating it directly with www.visualpin.com.  By integrating it with our website we would provide the ability to record a video, upload it to YouTube and then automatically geocode the video from start to finish.  This is always our goal.

We will let you knoe how we go with it but you can read the press release from sony here.

Sony HDR-XR500V GPS Camcorder