Topic: HumFinder Development Ideas

[Timo]

Hello,

I wish this topic to be used for ideas and needs of users to make HumFinder more suitable and usable application in HBSI area.


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Here is couple of from Mike:
Possibility to toggle the swath (SI Range line) on and off, while showing SI Tracks on the map.
Larger SI track search area
(Will be coming after testing and bundling some other features)

Here is some from me:

Two modes of operation:
1. Selectable area to show larger scanned vs. unscanned areas. (without showing different recording tracks on own colors and without "Hit point" information)
2. Features like now (v. 1.0.1.2) with some filtering possibilities; (show only track done within speed range x.xx to x.xx, show only tracks recorded with 800, 455, 262 kHz etc.
3. Autoscaling to the screen size of user

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Regards,

Timo

[sonar2000]

Mike that is great.  glad to have the interest in eploiting the HB capabilities.  chuck

[dizzyfish]

Timo - Firstly, thanks very much; Humfinder is great. I did think of a couple of things which would be useful...

- *Really useful* A way of clicking on a track in Google Earth and jumping to that exact point in the track in Humviewer. At the moment, I have to use the time in GE (in ms) and then go to Humviewer and scroll to the right place in the track using the time (in hh:mm:ss) - it would be really neat if it could do this automatically.
- A cancel option when the search is in progress (ie. ability to stop the search)
- Some way of getting the coordinates from Google earth into Humfinder without initiating the search (I click alot in Google Earth and this sets off the search - disabling the GE option from Humfinder stops the search, but also stops the method of importing the coords which is really useful)

Many thanks

Ian

[Timo]

Hi Ian,

I agree with you, clicking Google Earth (or other map) and having all the recorded corresponding side images in front of you would be really something!

To accomplish this there are of course several options:

1. Making software interfaces to transfer "Hit point" information from HumFinder to SI viewer application (HumViewer, ...). Needs interface on both applications along with needed modifications. HumFinder presently generates temporary .kml file, which includes "Hit point" information.

2. Providing HumFinder with "static" SI image view, which shows target from different recordings.

3. Providing SI Viewer application with search capabilities.

4. New other application ....


The cancel option to cancel search is already on my to-do list.
The third idea to bring Google Earth coordinates to HumFinder without new search can also be realized.

Many thanks for the ideas Ian.

Regards,

Timo

[mendota]

I have been using SIView to view recordings, and exporting the track from the recording to a gpx file that can be viewed  in Google Earth, to accomplish much of what this software appears to do.  I'm looking forward to trying this out -  thanks for the effort.

One word of warning with GE:  I have encountered significant positional errors in GE's aerial photos.  Be prepared to require an offset to your data if you don't want to see boat tracks up on shore.......

[Timo]

Hi mendota,

Thanks and welcome to try it out.

I'll list here some of HumFinder features:

- HumFinder is not a SI viewer
- HumFinder can be used to search all HB SI recordings from disc and find particular recordings at the spot and range you specify. Folder is selected, from which to search. All subfolders are also searched for SI recordings.
- with HumFinder "Hit point" information (folder name and time), you can show the spot specific SI image on your SI viewer program (HumViewer, SIView...)
- for "Hit point" information, you got to put your mouse cursor over the white crosses (=Si Hit points) on XY graph or click corresponding white circes in Google Earth.
-  the generated  .kml file can can saved for further use from Google Earth.

I little bit disagree with you on ... to accomplish much of what this software appears to do....

The functionality of HumFinder is completely different than SIView or other viewers, although serving the same purpose; finding and inspecting interesting objects that SI recordings may contain.

The HumFinder shows all the tracks within specified area along with SI coverage area with target "Hit point" information. That information can be used as a "feed" to the viewer application



Here is interesting link to GE resolutions and accuracies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#Resolution_and_accuracy

Accordingly:
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel
Google is actively replacing this base imagery with 2.5m
(That is little bit old information from May 2009?)

Regards,

 Timo

[mendota]

Timo, once I realized I could not change the recording name without causing problems, I kept a separate list of where each recording was made, and the track file from each recording in GE, so I pretty much already know where I have been.

However, the ability to parse the recordings and find a given GPS target, and it's time in the recording, is a valuable addition to our tool set.  Thanks again for your efforts.

We have much better imagery available here in the US than most places, I suspect.  GE is at about 1m here, while Bing maps is something like 0.1m in their Bird's eye views.

Attached is a GE view of a GPS control point at a local lake.  You can see that GE places the point out in the lake, >15m from the actual monument.  Bing maps, on the other hand, nails it dead on - you can see the actual monument under the marker in the bird's eye view.

I just wanted to warn folks about this little problem with GE, and suggest that adding a GPS offset might be necessary to get good registration between the sonar and GE imagery.