Tasemu

V1.0 has been approved by the google play store and is available here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.driftdiary.app&pcampaignid=web_share Please post any feedback or issues you have with using the app here, its still early days. 👍

Just send you an invite on the face space and followed you on github 👍

HAHA! This is flipping uncanny timing. The app looks amazing mate and i'll download it today to check it out. Got a link to the repo? I'd love to have a squiz at the code.

Just don't upload that picture, will still work fine 😉 Sure am mate 👏 Also might be worth reminding that this app sends nothing to nobody, but if CRT ever asked you to prove it. You press the PDF export button and have a brewski. I ain't trying to change nothing major here.

Not at all mate, i got tough skin. I genuinely think all these arguments can be used to change/improve it. Free feedback mate. Actually, as long as you have taken pictures of your boat then you can install the app and import them, it should work as expected. In the current build anyway... Once i switch it up as you suggested this may be less viable. 🤔

This is the exact reason why i made it yeah. I have run into this issue myself and was able to sort it easily, but i like having the data ready if I ever need it.

Afternoon, the app just got through the approval process and i've sent out a link to all testers. Its bare bones but hopefully enough to play around with and give feedback. Check your junk folder if you can't find the email. 👍 I gotta agree with adding the security checks and in app photo taking. I've put it in the list

Currently got about 20 from here and my facebook group I imagine i'd probably stop at around 30-40 for the first run.

Yeah totally get what you were proposing and it would be awesome, i do hope that it has nothing to do with me though haha. And you're right you could totally use an LLM to to match boat photos and places. I do work with LLM's in my day to day though haven't been involved in the actual training of said models. From my experience interfacing with these models i agree that it would be viable to have an LLM recognise your boat and the area it is in, but not so viable for an LLM to create a fake image that would be visually convincing for a particular boat in a particular place. I think i had got your previous response backwards in my head and thought you meant a black market using LLM's to generate fake pictures of your boat in certain places on the canal and then injecting geolocation meta tags into the image.

Regarding this, i'm not entirely sure how a counterfeit market could operate assuming that the picture of the boat with the number is actually included. As the picture in question would be handled by the local crt representatives for the area, if it was a picture of the boat somewhere else with spoofed geodata, then they should be able to tell this easily from a brief visual inspection of the image. For example when someone sends me a picture of their boat on the K&A anywhere between devizes and bath, i can tell where that boat is from the surroundings? And if i were CRT and felt as though the image was too vague to be able to recognise the area, and i was suspicious of the person in question already then i'd just deny the picture. In the end its CRT's decision at the end of the day, this is just supporting evidence that might help. I've used geotagged images to avoid a 6 month licence once before, and it was just a simple mistake with the spotters and all worked out fine.

Not sure if this helps at all, but here is a PDF report i recently exported from the app. Its early stages at the moment but you can see i've made sure to at least try to ensure my boat is recognisable, with the number showing wherever possible and in an area that the local spotters will recognise matches to the geolocation data presented. bea91ef6-4a3d-49d7-9407-c21036d6f37d.pdf

Yeah i was thinking the same, if i were CRT and someone gave me a picture of an empty bit of canal without the boat and number registered to their account in the actual picture, i'd be very confused.

It currently only allows photos to be logged one at a time, but i can't see why i couldn't add that in. The current bottleneck is that i need to filter out any photos without geotag data attached to stop people getting loads of errors when they select pictures with no lat/lng. This means i can't open the native gallery and have had to make my own version inbuilt. Food for thought 🤔

Ominous... I can't say i totally agree. But i see where you might make the connection. What makes you so confident that a system designed for new drivers at high risk of claiming on their insurance policies would be implemented for a licence system for barged travelling through the uk waterways where congestion is the main cause of concern?

The GIS data for navigable canals and rivers are publicly available from the CRT themselves. I used this data to calculate the distance along the line between the two furthest points in the picture array.

Wouldn't be against this in the slightest, though i'd struggle to get it into v1.0 Nope, it only has access to the photos you choose the log into the app and then uses them to generate the markers and stats.

Currently it only accepts pictures from the gallery, i haven't had the chance to build anything like an inbuilt camera functionality yet, but its already on the todo list. I will definitely look into how these apps are doing this when i get onto building that part out.

Currently there is an option to generate reports yes, they can be shared to whomever one likes. Its a little rudimentary at the moment but fully functional. Also multiple boats is definitely on the todo board.

This reminds me of a thought i had earlier in development, one of my mates dropped his phone in the river by accident and thats what made me think i should be backing the data up online so its not lost in the event of a phone loss... But perhaps those who are more sensitive about their data might prefer an option that stores everything on the phone..?

Currently i store the data on firebase, i see no major issue with this though nor do i scoff at people who might. I try to use the bare minimum required information to make the app work, emails don't need to be verified. I'm not sure what google or anyone else would want with geotagged boat pictures, and i imagine if anyone has online backups on their phone, like many smart phones do, they probably already have them. If there is a real desire for it i could beef up the encryption... I just don't see how valuable the data would realistically be. 🤔

I don't think i'd want that. I already have a job, not after a second one.

This is all done already, but you're right it can be faked. However I believe that this could prove a useful tool and i've personally seen many instances of CRT disputing a CC'ers journey and then accepting proof that was magnitudes of times less thorough than this. Also i believe this to be a tool useful for sorting out misunderstandings, not something to try to use to force CRT to take your word for it. If they don't trust you or think you're bullshitting and you are, this wont save you. 😆

I totally agree actually, this is an option tool for those who want to be able to back it up if they know they're doing their distance. The idea has come from a few friends who got stung because the spotters were out as they were moving, or there was a mix up. I've had it once myself and was lucky i took a picture at the time.

My thought process was by collating a few things, one being the actual picture of the boat with the licence number showing, ideally in a recognisable area. Then it would take the metadata which is attached to the picture at the time it was taken. The latitude, longitude and the date. So if CRT for example wanted to verify that the boat was indeed there, they could visually match the area in the photo to the lat/lng supplied.

Hi all, been a while since I've posted here and i've decided to take a break from my usual begging for engine help to sit down and write something that I believe might help the boater community. I posted this on my Kennet and Avon facebook group earlier but thought it might be prudent to post it up here too. I wrote a snazzy intro i've copied below, but anyway I hope some of you might find it interesting. --- Hello everyone! 👋 As a solo software developer and fellow boater, I've been working on a solution that I believe could help us all: an app called Drift Diary. Drift Diary is designed to track the distance we travel on our beloved rivers and canals over the course of a license year by allowing us to log photos with geotagging data, creating a digital diary of our journey. Even better, it can generate PDF reports to verify travel distance with the Canal & River Trust should they decide that we haven't gone far enough, or missed us while logging boat numbers. But to make this app truly effective and user-friendly, I need your help. I am seeking volunteers from this group to participate in the first round of closed alpha testing for Drift Diary. This would involve using the app and providing feedback on any issues you encounter and your overall experience. Your privacy and data are important, so rest assured, the data collected is yours and yours only, also this app will be, and will remain free for all. It would mean a lot to have your input on this project. I believe together we can shape Drift Diary into a tool that genuinely benefits our community. If you're interested in participating or want to learn more, please let me know! The app has been submitted to the Google Play Store for review for a closed testing run and hopefully should be approved by the end of the week. If you are interested in testing this and own an Android phone then please DM me your email so I can add you to the list, once the app is approved then an email should be sent to you and you will be able to install the app. There are plans to support iphones too in the future, but Apple make this prohibitively hard/expensive for me to do at this time. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration. Happy cruising! God those are some huge screen-shots... 😕