A common workflow with collection apps is to capture photos of documents, IDs etc. Something that would improve the overall quality of these captures from field crews is a translucent overlay of the document's shape so users can align it correctly.
My suggestion is to add a new "appearance" type for photos named "rear-overlay". When a question has this appearance the photo must be taken with the device's rear camera and the viewfinder will have an image overlaid to guide the user. The image can be a SVG or PNG file that's stored and referenced the same way that "image-map" choice questions are. In addition, the question can have the image scale (0-100%), image anchor (top-left, bottom-right, center etc.), image rotation and overall transparency changed in the extended settings.
This is an idea our field users have had and requested before! Having an overlay prompt or guide when taking images for records, documents, ease, and that extra professional touch is something I would appreciate seeing in a future S123 release.
Blurry, tilted, or illegible images in surveys of records, documents, or required items where precise record is needed can be the difference between having good clean record where eficiancy is held to a high degree, and going back having to perform a re-survey because the image doesn't deliver what is being recorded or liability and loss of clear image record causes a need or demand for going with re-surveys, if that is even a possibility. Hardware and old device cameras aside, this is an extra step that has been tossed around the user pool that if implemented would definitely be launched into my next versions of surveys.
Thanks for the idea @DavidSolari !
Cheers,
Jansen L.
Another use case for an overlay would be for repeat images, where you want to capture similar images each time you are at a location. The overlay would be a partially transparent version of a previous image you would use to align the camera to take approximately the same image. Perhaps combining transparency with a high-contrast effect to help highlight features in the previous picture for easy alignment.
I would like to add another use case, related to the one from PeterKnoop. The described overlay could also be a partially transparent version of another image from the form. Thinking about taking "panoramic"-type overlapping photos.
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