Photo Record Tool (PRT) App – User guide

The Photo Record Tool App is used to capture and classify images. The key elements in using this Tool are:

At the end of each guide section you will see a ^ top  at the bottom right which will bring you back here, you can then quickly refer to other sections if you need.

Getting started….

After installing the Bluewren Photo Record Tool (PRT App) on your iphone or ipad, login with your Email and password created using your invitation link.

The following guide on how to use the PRT App shows example screens from an ipad, however the menus and screen appearances are the same on both an ipad and iphone, especially when used in landscape

If you need any assistance please feel free to contact us, we would be happy to help get you going…

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Signing in and selecting a Photo map

Before you log in to the PRT App your administrator should have set up a Project with a Photo map for you to store your photo records. Ideally there should already be a tags set for classifying the photo records but this is not essential a tags set can be created later and tags added or amended for  already captured images using the Editing Tool

If any fo the above has not been done yet then refer to the Bluewren Manager guide on how to create a Project with a Photo map and Tags set.

If you already have a Photo map that is set up, lets go…

 

When you log in you will see the SELECTOR screen where you can select the Project that includes the Photo map where you wish to store your photo records by tapping on the circle to the left of the Project name

Note that you cannot create a Project from within the PRT App. An Administrator can do this through the Bluewren Manager. Note this is accessible through the  “UNIVERSE” button (white cog in the green circle)

Next choose the Photo map where you wish to store your photo records by tapping on the circle to the left of the Photo map name

Note that you cannot create a Photo map from within the PRT App. An Administrator can do this through the Bluewren Manager. Note this is accessible through the “UNIVERSE” button (white cog in the green circle)

Next choose the Photo group you wish to store your photo records by tapping on the circle to the left of an already created Photo group. If you don’t have a Photo group or wish to create a new photo group follow the steps below

We recommend creating a new Photo group for each day you record projects such as surveillance of construction sites, however you may wish to add photo records to already created Photo groups for projects that are more focused on areas or for dilapidation surveys

We also recommend Photo Groups do not exceed 200 photos to allow for efficient photo record archiving and a better ongoing  Photo Viewer experience

Creating a new Photo group 

To create a new Photo group tap the plus sign in a circle to the right of the GROUPS bar.

The “New Photo Group” bar will appear along with the keypad to allow entry of the new Photo group name as well as a description of the Photo group

The Photo group “Name” is what will be shown in the Photo Viewer and is where all of the photo records will be referenced

The “Description” appears when the Photo group is opened in the Photo Viewer

The Photo group is now ready to accept photo records and a tick is shown in the blue circle to the left of the Photo group name. Tap anywhere in the pop up to move to the full camera view, you are now ready to capture and classify photo records, see below for how

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Photo Record Tool (PRT) layout

The Photo Record Tool (PRT) App has a few key features that are worth becoming familiar with…

  • The top blue bar contains some useful information
    • The green square shows the number of photos in the selected Photo group
    • The Photo Map and Photo group names
  • The SELECTOR – this pop up will appear anytime you log in and you can then select the relevant Project, Photo map and Photo group to start capturing images.
    If you are already logged in, when you return to the PRT App, you will return to the Photo group where images were last captured

    • To access the SELECTOR from the  image capture screen simply tap anywhere in the top blue bar
    • To close the SELECTOR pop-up tap on the X in the circle to the far right of the SELECTOR bar OR swipe down anywhere in the pop-up
    • Your device may be synced with any new information that may have been added to the Photo map by others working simultaneously on other devices by tapping on the sync arrow in a circle to the right of the SELECTOR bar
  • The UNIVERSE button – is the white cog in the green circle) and tapping it will provide access to:
    • Selector – tapping this will open the SELECTOR as described above
    • Allow upload – tapping allows toggle to not directly upload if data is use is not desirable. We recommend this be always left to allow direct upload of images and associated information
    • Bluewren Manager – tapping will open the Bluewren Manager for login in a new tab in your default browser
    • User Guide – tapping opens this guide in a new tab in your default browser
    • App info – tapping shows a pop up with the version of the PRT App in use
    • Logout – tapping will logout of the PRT App and return to the Login screen where a password will need to be entered to login again
At the bottom of the screen :
  • The compass at the bottom left shows the current angle of view that will be stored with the image
  • The green square on the bottom right of the screen shows the level of accuracy
  • The green square on the bottom left of the screen shows the upload status of captured images. It turns blue when images are uploading and the bar at the bottom shows the progress of the upload. The number of queued images are shown in the blue box and upload may be paused at any time by tapping the box. This may be done to preserve mobile data with a tap to recommence upload when connected to Wifi . Photos and information will automatically switch from mobile data to Wifi upload when connected.
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Capturing an image

Once the Photo group you want to store the photo records is selected you are ready to capture images. Note the Photo map and Photo group you will be storing photo records in is shown in the top left of the blue bar.

To capture an image:

  1. Check the level of accuracy in the green box at the bottom right of the screen is within 4-5m (This is not essential as you can amend the location of the photo later in step 4.)
  2. Aim the ipad or iphone at the view you wish to capture. Note it is best to not point the device straight down as this may give an incorrect angle of view
  1. When the view is framed tap the camera button to take the picture, the location pop-up then appears.
  1. GPS location can be influenced by proximity to buildings and sometimes may be randomly unreliable. To address this risk of grossly inaccurate photo positioning this step in the capture workflow allows for check and amendment if considered warranted of the photo location and angle of view.

The GPS apparent location from the device is shown by the yellow circle and the angle of view from the compass in the device by the yellow arrow

If the photo appears to have the correct location and angle of view tap the “Accept location” button OR
To amend the image location hold you finger on the screen and slide to move the aerial map to show the desired location
To amend the angle of view use two fingers to rotate the background aerial map to show the desired direction
THEN tap the “Accept location” button

A red dot shows the original GPS location for reference

With the image location and angle of view recorded it is now time to classify the image….

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Classifying and commenting

After capturing the image its time to  classify and add comments to make a photo record. If you haven’t created a tags set you can still take images and use the Editing Tool to add the tags / sub-tags later

To classify (or add tags and sub-tags) to the captured image:

  1. Adding a Tag

    If you have a tags set this will appear, if you only want to classify as a tag without a sub-tag tap anywhere on the relevant tag line

The selected tag will appear at the top of Tag Photo pop-up

If this is not the tag you want: tap on the x at the right of the coloured tag to remove this tag and you can add another.

  1. Adding a tag / subtag

    If you have subtags : tap on the circle in the same colour as the tag on the far right of the tag line

This will reveal the subtags (up to 5) and tapping on one of these will select the relevant sub-tag which will appear at the top of Tag Photo pop-up

If this is not the tag / sub-tag you want: tap on the x at the right of the coloured tag / subtag at the top of Tag Photo pop-up to remove this tag and you can add another.

  1. Adding two tag / sub-tags

You can include up to two tags (with or without sub-tags), to do this simply tap on another tag or follow step 2 above to add another tag / sub-tag

The tag / sub-tags selected will appear at the top of “Tag Photo” pop-up . If these are not what you want tap on the x at the right of the coloured tag to remove the selected tag / sub-tags and you can add others by tapping anywhere in the tag line marked by the red tag symbol in the circle towards the bottom of the screen

When tags / sub-tags have been selected tap on the “Done” button or swipe down anywhere in the “Tag Photo” pop-up to close it ready for the next step in the workflow

  1. Adding a comment

Comments may be added and are a powerful way of identifying photo records, searchable in the Photo Viewer based on all, or parts of the entered text strings

To add a comment tap anywhere in the comment line marked by the green circle – above the tag line

The keyboard will pop-up along with a list of all of the previous comments used in this Photo map. These may be sorted by last used or most used by tapping on the relevant tab at the top of the comments listing

Comments may be selected and modified if desired or a new comment typed in using the keyboard

When the comment has been typed in tap on the “Done” button or swipe down anywhere in the pop-up to close the “Tag Photo” pop-up

The comment is shown in the middle of the comment line and you are ready to either save the photo record or cancel if the image needs to be recaptured, do this by tapping on either the “SAVE” or “CANCEL” buttons

NOTE: Comments or tags may be changed at any time by tapping anywhere in the tag or comment line and following the steps above to modify the already entered information

  1. Uploading photo records and capturing the next image

When the “SAVE” button is tapped the photo record will start to upload to the cloud. The blue bar at the bottom of the screen shows the progress of the upload and when completed the square on the bottom left of the screen will turn green

When the upload is shown as completed, the photo record will be available for immediate viewing through the Photo Viewer to anyone with the Photo map link. Note that if the Photo Viewer is open a refresh will be required to view the newly uploaded photo record

 

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