Duffield

I'm starting to do a lot of work with still images and Random Access Memory, mainly being able to access different images based on tags or metadata. In my case I will be working with A LOT of still images (thousands) that I want to play back in a time lapse fashion based on meta data (i.e., time, date, if image contains ice, etc).

https://cycling74.com/tutorials/data-collection-building-databases-using-sqlite/)

 however, I find that applying a tag to a single image is reaaaally slow (i.e., if I want to attach the tag to an image, computer freezes for 20 seconds) so I don't know how batch applying tags would work.

I even thought about using [regexp] and making a code out of the file name that it could look for specific strings / characters, but this seems like a pain in the ass and I don't know how fast it would be (plus what if I want to make a change / add a new one...would have to rename thousands of files...it's automated but still).

Any alternatives / advice on how to approach this?

I'm starting to do a lot of work with still images and Random Access Memory, mainly being able to access different images based on tags or metadata. In my case I will be working with A LOT of still images (thousands) that I want to play back in a time lapse fashion based on meta data (i.e., time, date, if image contains ice, etc).  

I've looked into js / sqlite (https://cycling74.com/tutorials/data-collection-building-databases-using-sqlite/) however, I find that applying a tag to a single image is reaaaally slow (i.e., if I want to attach the tag to an image, computer freezes for 20 seconds) so I don't know how batch applying tags would work.

Any alternatives / advice on how to approach this?


advice-needed-playing-back-thousands-of-still-images-with-metadata-or-tags

do i understand you correctly that you are extraxting meta data from the image files?

In that case the bottleneck is most likely opening the image files. SqLite should be much faster and take only.a few ms for a new table row.

Maybe there is a tool out there that can batch process the files and extract the meta data into a text files or similar. If you build your tables from text files it should be very fast.

Hi DUFFIELD,
do i understand you correctly that you are extraxting meta data from the image files?
In that case the bottleneck is most likely opening the image files. SqLite should be much faster and take only.a few ms for a new table row.
Maybe there is a tool out there that can batch process the files and extract the meta data into a text files  or similar. If you build your tables from text files it should be very fast.
J


Thanks for the advice! I'll likely try it and report back if something really doesn't work ;) (unless anyone has any more insight of course).

I can't remember if that tutorial connects file loading with entry access, but that can be decoupled for certain. Although JS/SQLite is a very viable option, it might also make sense to look at Dictionaries for this sort of structured data. A lot of similar things can be done and it's all stored in a human-readable/editable format.

I can't remember if that tutorial connects file loading with entry access, but that can be decoupled for certain. Although JS/SQLite is a very viable option, it might also make sense to look at Dictionaries for this sort of structured data.  A lot of similar things can be done and it's all stored in a human-readable/editable format.


If Windows OS based, I have a Max external which uses WIC (Windows Imaging Component) to load images -> jit matrix, advanced colorspace conversions, and exposing some of the metadata of the images (e.g. keywords, date taken, rating). I wrote it to enable image usage when Windows Max 64-bit lost all its image loading capabilities. It can support all kinds of images...anything WIC can support like jpg, png, tiff, raw, webm, gif, etc.

If you need an external like that, email me and we can explore: dale roundcircleatsymbol hidale.com

If Windows OS based, I have a Max external which uses WIC (Windows Imaging  Component) to load images -> jit matrix, advanced colorspace conversions, and exposing some of the metadata of the images (e.g. keywords, date taken, rating). I wrote it to enable image usage when Windows Max 64-bit lost all its image loading capabilities. It can support all kinds of images...anything WIC can support like jpg, png, tiff, raw, webm, gif, etc.

If you need an external like that, email me and we can explore:  dale roundcircleatsymbol hidale.com


@Andrew Benson: Thanks I definitely will look more into dictionaries!

@Diablodale: Thanks for the offer of the external but I'm OSX sorry :(

I'll be doing tests soon so I'll post if I have good results!

Advice Needed: Playing Back Thousands of Still Images with Metadata or Tags