ArcGIS for Windows Mobile takes low quality pictures.

[VishApte]

Hi,

I have a customer who is using ArcGIS for Windows Mobile to perform survey of assets. The part of the survey workflow is to take photos(s) of the asset while collecting/editing.

The HP tablet client is using is running Windows 8 and is capable of taking high resolution photos. However, default camera used by the mobile app creates very low resolution images (< 16kb) and is very grainy. This is not acceptable to the client. I cannot find any way to change the settings of camera in terms of resolution etc. Does anyone know where this should be adjusted? Taking the picture outside of the mobile app and then attach it is not acceptable workflow to the client. Surveyors tend to attach wrong photos. 

Thanks,
Vish

[JuanLuera]

Hola Vish,

In doing some research on this issue, I found where this is a known issue. I am including the bug information, which is logged with our developers and its current status. Gracias, Vish!


[#NIM091035 Unable to change the resolution of photos taken from ArcGIS for Windows Mobile 10.1.1 on a Windows 8 tablet pc. ]
Status:
New �?? The Nimbus bug/enhancement has been logged by ESRI Support and is in the process of being reviewed by Development

[DustinEdge]

I'm guessing this was never really resolved as the issue still exists. cant find the bud report using that reference though.

Cheers

[VishApte]

Hi,

Apperantly, this NIM number has been categorised as Feature Request and not a bug.

Regards,
Vish

[DustinEdge]

Seriously?? A "Feature Request" and not a bug?!?! Really ESRI? Really?

Its not like it's storing the photo as a Raster or anything...its just referencing the jpg!

Unbelievable.

[JuanLuera]

Hola All!

This was logged as a Bug, and not as a feature request/enhancement. Overall development is looking into this issue for future consideration of correcting this bug.

Gracias, All!!

[DustinEdge]

Hi again

"Future consideration of correcting the bug"...is this going to be like the USB port issue for ArcMap which never got fixed?

I like AGM10.1.1. but poor resolution photos is a serious deal breaker with alot of my projects.

[ChristopherOlsen]

One suggestion on this issue is to take a higher resolution photo using the tablet's default Camera Utility and then attach it to the feature in ArcGIS for Windows Mobile. This way, you would still be able to leverage the high quality image and use it in your project. 

As for getting this bug fixed, or any bug ideas, I would suggest using the Ideas portal as your sounding board.  Developers use this as a tool to find out what the user community truly wants in a product, so I would suggest posting the idea there (http://ideas.arcgis.com) and have people promote it.  It works great- many of the ideas get considered for the product and a lot end up getting implemented.  As the old saying goes- nothing attracts a crowd, like a crowd...

-Chris

[DustinEdge]

Hi Chris

just so I understand this correctly: ESRI's technical advice for this issue is instead of using the built-in add photo button (which was developed by ESRI), I should:

1. open another piece of software


2. take the photo using that


3. switch back to AGM 10.1.1


4. use the add attachment button


5. browse to equivalent "C:\Users\<userid>\Documents\Play Touch Camera"


6. work out which photo it was


7. and then attach it to the record

And I'm really not holding my breath about ESRI actually listening to user feedback as a fundamental spatial thing like listening to GPS data off the USB port never got implemented...so wanting to use the camera's highest resolution instead a tardy 640x480 is way out of ESRI's scope of fixing a problem.

Sorry, but there's no reason at all to justify such a flaw in the software.

Regards

[DustinEdge]

As a follow up to Chris's suggestion about using ESRI's Ideas page:
The GPS usb issue has 2410 points because people have promoted it and yet there is no fix from ESRI. So you can understand why I have no faith in the system