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Photo organization/naming software for construction inspectors?

  • I need to tag/organize a large number of photos taken on a daily basis by a group of construction inspectors. Preferably something Windows-based and that would prompt the tagging/naming immediately after the photos are taken. I'm working on a construction project that takes place at many, unconnected locations throughout a large city. I'm managing 6 inspectors that take daily photos of project sites that need to be organized so that we can find photos for a certain date or site in the event that there's a residential complaint, or we need to verify if additional work was done. Typically the inspectors download photos to their laptops at the end of the day and organize the photos in folders by either the date or the site location. They're generally pretty busy, so sometimes the photo organization can fall by the wayside. The inspectors currently have digital cameras and Windows 8 laptops, but we're looking into moving towards a tablet to streamline things. The http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-10-tablet/pd is the current frontrunner because it has built-in 4G, runs Windows 8 and can function as a more or less standalone computer for workers who generally use their computers to send and receive emails, view/update spreadsheets and store photos. My questions are: 1. If we go with the tablet, is there software that would prompt the inspector to name the photo immediately after snapping the picture? 2. If we stay with the camera + laptop setup, can you suggest a bulk tagging application that would let the inspectors select all the photos from one day and tag them with either an address or a structure ID? Any other suggestions for field inspection hardware/software setups or photo organizing schemes would be appreciated. I'd prefer to stay with Windows based software, as that's what my office IT people support, but I'm open to iOS or Android if there's a really good alternative. I should note that I have no ability to roll my own software and would be cautious about custom applications as this needs to be pretty robust.

  • Answer:

    A guy I met has a startup focused on photo management solutions for the construction industry. I'm not sure which platforms they support, but it could still be helpful to your search. The company is http://geedra.com

Ham Snadwich at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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hmmm...i wonder if your solution for this isn't a tumblr blog. 1) fire up the phone app and take pix 2) get prompted to tag it (like for location)...any tag you've entered before will autocomplete...easy! 3) search by tag or date pros free(!), easy, everyone entering pix into the same place, no new equipment or training necessary, instantaneous, visible on mobile or desktop, theres a description field for additional info, little training required, up to ten pix in each set, etc cons privacy (if this is a concern)...you can set any post to 'private' but this is an extra step bulk uploading on mobile can be a pain bonus: you could test this today to see if it works for you or not

sexyrobot

(also...pretty much all these new windows tablets, like the dell, have truly abysmal battery life "up to 10 hours with all the various add-on packs"= 2 hours tops otherwise you gotta plug into so much crap you might as well have a desktop) the place to check for reviews/comparisons is engadget.com ...if you do go with a hardware solution, the nexus 7 and 10 android tablets are really well reviewed and have 10hr+ batteries without add-ons

sexyrobot

Have you looked at Adobe lightroom? I use it for more traditional photography but it is really a powerful organiser. When importing photos to the database you can assign folders, keywords, and preset metadata adjustments through the import dialogue. The photo-editing side of it might be superflous for your needs but I haven't seen a better photo-organising tool yet.

Beacon Inbound

Thanks for the responses so far. Just a couple of notes: 1. Geedra looks like it does what I want to do, but it's iPad only and requires a monthly subscription. Our procurement situation is a little strange here, in that we can get whatever we want, but the Contractor purchases all the equipment that the inspectors use so a subscription/cloud storage service could be difficult at project closeout. 2. We have a Sharepoint site where all the files can be saved, so a cloud service isn't necessary (or even preferable, since we need to retain all the photos after the project is complete). 3. For legal reasons, the photos shouldn't be publicly accessible. 4. The current laptops and the planned tablet will have Microsoft OneNote, which I haven't fully explored, but looks promising in terms of report writing and note taking. I'll check out Adobe Lightroom. My only concern is usability. The inspectors have varying degrees of computer literacy, so something straightforward is ideal. I like that it organizes the photos by location. That's very helpful.

Ham Snadwich

I would automate the sorting work as much as possible. Get cameras with GPS, or even use phones with a good camera. That way you can capture the date/time and the location with the picture. Then use a tool like http://www.geosetter.de/en/screenshots/ to organize them on the back end.

IanMorr

You might try contacti Geedra and see if there is a way to structure things that would work at project closeout. I think they are still pretty small and flexible.

Good Brain

Our firm looked at BlueBeam software's "Punch" for a project that died before we got the NTP. I wasn't doing the shopping, but I trust the guy that was, and he seemed excited about it.

rudd135

3. For legal reasons, the photos shouldn't be publicly accessible. ..hmm...why don't you check out https://drive.google.com/ then? There are free android and iOS apps for it, you can secure it with a password, and the first 5 or 10 GB of storage are free...I've only used it for a few projects, but it's pretty easy to figure out...you could set it up with folders for each job site and then search by date when you need to do that.

sexyrobot

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