Veezer photos define precisely all the shooting parameters: geographic position, phone orientation, and optical properties.
This information allows you to use the photos as a real background map once you’re on location, pinpointing your GPS position on the image.
When you take photos with the app, all the shooting parameters are recorded, and registration points can be added for greater precision.
By allowing the use of photos for location, Veezer allows users to create accurate, up-to-date, and autonomous support maps.
Photos offer a level of detail unmatched by conventional maps, aerial photos, or 3D models, and are a valuable aid in the field, especially in difficult terrain.
Veezer photos are precisely georeferenced –geographic position, viewing angles, optical properties– allowing you to accurately locate any geographic object within the image.
During an outing, Veezer photos help you understand your position within the surrounding landscape and identify natural obstacles (rocky outcrops, snow, vegetation, scree) to plan or adjust your route.
Your GPS track can be automatically displayed on the photo to analyze or share your route.
Yes, the app primarily uses your phone’s camera and GPS and works perfectly offline, including in airplane mode.
Veezer allows you to take your own photos in the application, or to import photos shared by other users in OVZ format (from the main menu, ‘Open file’).
To import existing photos, photos taken with a drone, DSLR, or any other device, you must use the photo import function (from the main menu, ‘Import a photo’). This feature requires a Veezer Plus subscription. Photo georeferencing is done directly in the app, from existing metadata and control points.
Positioning accuracy depends on the photo’s referencing and the user’s real-time positioning.
For photos taken in the app, photo referencing accuracy is related to the quality of the GPS signal at the time of acquisition, the capabilities of the device’s sensors, and calibration. Accuracy can also be improved in the field with adjustment points. For imported photos, accuracy -depending on initial data-, is adjusted and estimated with control points directly in the app.
The accuracy of the user’s real-time positioning is related to the quality of the GPS signal in the field and the observation distance in the photo.
Under standard conditions, the absolute accuracy of photo referencing reaches a few pixels (typically <0.5% of the photo size); and the absolute error of user positioning is less than 5 m.
For example, with a recent standard smartphone, at a distance of 1 km and with one registration point, a positioning accuracy of 5 m in the photo is achieved.
If you want to use photos taken in the app, Veezer must know all of your camera’s optical parameters precisely to accurately position a GPS point on the image.
While the phone provides some optical parameters, they are most often approximate and insufficiently accurate for the app.
Camera calibration—performed automatically in the app based on photos—allows you to precisely define all of the camera’s optical parameters: the focal length as well as any lens distortions, to allow for optimal positioning in the photo.
Camera calibration is therefore recommended in all cases to obtain reliable optical parameters and improve positioning in photos in preparation for your outings.
For precise location on photos taken in the app, it is recommended to create one control point (or “alignement” point) per photo.
A single control point allows for a 3- to 6-fold increase in accuracy, depending on the phone, and can achieve an accuracy of approximately 0.5% across the entire photo if the camera has been properly calibrated beforehand. This accuracy is suitable for GPS tracking on the photo.
No, if the photo is already referenced, the recipient of the photo can directly use it as a basemap to track their GPS position precisely, without worrying about referencement.
The photo is also shared with its drawings and annotations.
