11

I have two geeky passions while driving: recording GPX data to upload to OSM as well as recording on board videos like this one. Since these kind of videos are sort of boring for others to watch I was wondering if maybe there's an application out there to convert the track data into a video which I could then overlay over my original recording showing real time stuff like time of day, speed, elevation, etc. Basically a HUD. If there was a way to show part of the map I'm driving through that would be dreamy.

Do you know of such a piece of software?

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    This isn't an advert, just a satisfied user's report. If you have an Android device and a OBD II dongle that plugs into modern cars (>= 2001 for petrol, >= 2004 for diesels, in Europe), you can use Android Torque (torque-bhp.com) to record tracks, video, and all the diagnostics your car emits.
    – MerseyViking
    Mar 12, 2012 at 11:44
  • 2
    Acting as a fruity logo fanboy I will note there are similar apps for iOs. But I think the question was how you can process existing video (from onboard camera) with GPX data to obtain videos with HUD and map data.
    – Vlad
    Mar 12, 2012 at 12:21
  • 3
    Perhaps just make a mashup of google maps and youtube?
    – Matthew Snape
    Mar 12, 2012 at 12:31
  • 3
    @MatthewSnape: like this
    – Vlad
    Mar 12, 2012 at 12:36

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
7

ActionCam is a nice visualization tool. You can used this and a desktop video recording tool as a workaround.

I also came across MPGHead Video Data Merger but it only works with TrackVision CSV data. Oh, and there's TrackVision ;) And DashWare which gets lots of praise online and can do this.

There are also several online sharing services which will let you combine video and GPS data, such as:

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you for your excellent response. DashWare seems to hit the sweetspot for me. Now I'm pondering a purchase...
    – janosrusiczki
    Mar 13, 2012 at 8:52
  • As the author of the MPGHead Video Data Merger, I appreciate the traffic. Although I've not worked on the app in a long (long) time, the concept of my tool still works for what OP is asking... you'd just need to understand the GPX format (which is easy: weblogs.asp.net/jimjackson/archive/2009/03/10/…) and use that vs. my data source.
    – Sean
    May 15, 2012 at 1:15
2

gpsbabel (open source) could be used to produce .srt subtitles for your video from .gpx (or any other supported) track file. Then you can play video with subtitles to get HUD.

Most basic example with default SRT string format:

$ gpsbabel -i gpx -f trip.gpx -o subrip -F video.srt

Synthesize speed if missing (--.- km/h) in the 'trip.gpx'.

$ gpsbabel -i gpx -f trip.gpx -x track,speed -o subrip -F video.srt
Improve this answer
2

I had a similar challenge. After my 9 month Melbourne to London trip I had terabytes of GPS tracks, dashcam, drone and other handheld video footage that I wanted to compile into entertaining video. After spending months of experimenting with different tools I have come to the conclusion:

  • all GPS data from drone and dashcam was converted to KML.
  • Google Mymaps, Google Earth and QGIS for static images of the KML tracks on maps and satellite view.
  • Google Earth Studio to produce short video clips, with the KML track as overlays.
  • The GPS tracks were imported (KML) as layers in QGIS. Exported from QGIS as SVG's, these SVG's were imported into Adobe Illustrator and from there imported in Adobe After Effects. In After Effects you can use the paths from the GPS tracks to fly along the track over a map or earth view.
  • Adobe After Effects to compile a visual representation of data like kms driven and fuel consumed with video footage (dashcam, drone, hand, footage from google Earth Studio, QGIS atlas frames, handrecorded footage,...).
  • If you need more than a minute or so of video, you'll probably need to compile shorter clips into a longer video using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    All answers are welcome, even 8 years later. :) Can you share the end result?
    – janosrusiczki
    Jun 18, 2020 at 9:54
2

I have made this web app if you want to try: https://www.geofoobar.com. It is a very simple GPS track overlay rendering tool. It will render video frames as numbered png files, which you can then use in your video editor to overlay your footage.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.