Hey I'm new here so if I get on anyones nerves, I'm sorry

I'm part of an online community called Digimods, where we digitially 'tune' the look of vehicles, something which is very popular throughout Europe. Some of the work has been used in magazines and advertisments. Some of the work can be seen here:
http://digimods.e-visionit.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40612
http://digimods.e-visionit.co.uk/showthread.php?t=22532

Recently, a couple of the members have been talking about setting up a Database of user-submitted images. However, we want users to use an online tool (using Javascript) where they can upload their image and get coordinates of certain parts (eg Front bumper). They can then insert those coordinates into the Database (along with the colour of the donor part requried), and the database will display all the images with a 'Front bumper' either exactly/or closest to those original coordinates.

What I wanted to ask is, is this possible? And what would be the easiest way to go about it?


Thank you for you time,

Pauli-Jay DiRissio

Moved to Database Concepts & Design thread.

Welcome to the forum DiRissio! if you'd like me to rename this thread to something more meaninful then please drop me a PM.

The application

You could probably do this easiest by writing a web program to upload images to a central server. You'd also want to store a description, an overall colour, maybe a make of car and whether the image is an original or a modified image.

Then you'd have a page to view each image and set the co-ordinates of the parts. You would select a part ie front bumper, front left wheel and a colour and the web page would then ask you to click say the bottom left corner of this part. Then it would ask you to click the top right corner of the part.

You'd need a search routine where you could have your own image on screen and then select a particular type to search for ie a bumper. Then you'd need to click on the image to get the co-ordinates (an example). The search results could be ordered so parts in exactly the right place and angle would score best, another at the same angle but further away would score slightly less while one at a completely different angle would score the least.

I suppose the matches would be shown to you as a bunch of thumbnails where you could pick which images to look at.

You might want to allow users to score each others final modified pictures so you could have an end score.

What would you call it

"Pimp your picture" gets my vote.

The database:

You'd need to decide whether to store the images in the database or in the file system (file system is probably better) but this has been discussed on this site before. There has also been a discussion on how to store cars in this forum. I believe you are the first to want to store a database of imaginary cars though

You'd probably want tables for:

• Pictures: filename, original or modified, user, colour, type of car
• Parts: link to picture, type of part, xy co-ordinates, optional colour
• Colour: list of colours
• Cars: list of types of cars
• Users: email, pwd, name, type of user
• Feedback: link to picture, user, score, optional comment

Only problem is

You'll just have to learn to use MySQL and PHP, then write the app, and then get everyone to use it.

The big question

why do you do it? is it a hobby? are there many like you? have you been doing this for a long time?
Must admit that's certainly an odd hobby.

Mike

Thank you for your detailed and helpful reply!

I'm not new to databasing, as in school we had to create a database for a DvD rental company. However that was basic. I believe this will be a great challenge. Out of 10, how hard would you say it was, based on your own experiences?

And why do we do it? For fun? Im not sure lol. Id say there are over half a million active 'virtual tuners' in europe. Many of them have had their work published in magazines and have been contacted by car manufacturers after designing concepts and future versions of current models.

Thank you,

P-J D.

*EDIT*
I was just thinking, could you list the order you would go about this in?

Thanks

Some steps may be more difficult than others but the secret is to always do one step at a time:

• get book beginning php5 and mysql
• find ISP that provides php 5 and mysql version 5 and enough space to store your photos
• try an example in the book to load pictures onto your server via a web page
• produce a program that will show small image of each program and allow you to click and see large program. You'll use this later to view all the matches against a search or to see the latest pictures etc etc but it's usefull for now to just view what you've loaded.
• create your database and try to link the file containing your picture to some text describing it.
• provide choice of colours and perhaps make of car, also store who enters picture
• provide a simple search function so you can find blue beetles etc
• perhaps have user table so people could login with password (optional) but it'll remember there ip address at least
• at this point it will be worth discussing your database design on the forum - it's not difficult and there's lot's of us here to help but it is worth thinking about yourself so we at least have something to go on.
• publise to your mates etc to see if they can use it to store their pictures
• add list of parts of cars to the database then try clickable image maps on top of car images so user can select "front bumper and click the bottom left and top right co-ordinates. Perhaps also allow them to add a comment to the part
• search facility so you can search for blue front bumpers with xy-xy co-ordinates.
• there may already be a program that will extract this part of the picture out but I think it's optional.
• allow users to provide feedback on modified pictures.
• tell us how it's going.

It's difficult to say how difficult it will be - I think the database side will be quite easy but the programming side will be more difficult. Why not discuss with your mates and see if they have any PHP skills and then approach it as a group project. I'd advise not restricting the system to only cars as it may be usefull to those who pimp other varieties of pictures.

Good luck - it sounds like a fun project.

Mike

EDIT added few small bits