Watermark (external link), 360° video, Cross-platform and Shooting Rules

1

I have a brand-new Insta360 X4, who i already did a video, and i’m ready to upload it (gonna explain soon)

  1. Can I put a watermark that says like "Visit my website → … "? Would be really cool if I can put it
  2. Where I can upload my 360° video, will Mapillary do the automatic process to “kill” every frame on every (example) 5 meters?, or I need to “kill” every frame?
  3. Can I upload it to another platform (g platform) and also on Mapillary?
  4. There’s any rules to map? Like… If I go with my bike, should i keep the camera up, or I can also put behind but high?

This is all my questions for now,

notmyproblem1_ from Italy out! o7
11:35 PM.

2

The T&C’s, methods and “rules” are already covered extensively on the Mapillary website, however;

  • Once registered it is a case of using the (Mapillary provided) CLI or GUI uploader (Windows, Mac, Linux) and it all kind of happens.
  • You can define via the uploader what time and/or distance spacing will be used. I have never seen server processing automatically remove any.
  • Your uploads will be ID blurred and becomes CC BY 4.0
  • I’d avoid watermarking if only to avoid any object and roadsign detection algorithm errors. There will however also be ethical/identity concerns too. I have never checked the rules regarding advertising, so suggest you check the site.
  • It is a street level horizontal thing. I think 1.5-2.5m high is the optimum, but check the site. Too much tilt will cause object detection errors.
3

Hello bob3bob3, I tried looking online for the

and found out, that I may can do that because

For the

Can I “”““bypass””“”" by changing the watermark down maybe saying like “Mapillary 360°” ? or should i shot “two” times (like, one where i need to shot, and one 1-2 small steps nearby)
(if i dont bypass) If I upload to g platform, then I upload to Mapillary, Is google gonna say to Mapillary to take my stuff down? or viceversa (Mapillary says to g platform to take off the photo) ?

For the

I will try. tbh would be cool to upload from phone.

for the

sure, gonna let them stand right

If I shot this month, and three days and we (or I) are in 2025, Can I still upload it to Mapillary in 2024? same thing for g platform, gonna ask there too lol

good night from Italy, 23:13 (9:13 pm)

4

I’ll let others comment on the advertising. Personally I think a bad idea.

I don’t think there is an upload facility (for external files) by phone, except when using only the actual phone capture application. @Boris would you please advise this. There have been posts on this group about processing/preprocessing 360 videos/images that may also be worth a look.

Any video/photos you process/preprocess/upload needs GPS data, or position/direction. Different sources have different methods. For the Insta360 X4 it is probably embedded in the video file. This also means that when you upload is irrelevant as the date/time/position/direction is already saved in the file.

Be careful doing any image annotation that it doesn’t affect the GPS relationship. Like if you were to extract images as (say) jpegs the date/time stamp or related EXIF data must be the same as from the original movie. Some extraction processing methods also have only a 1 second time accuracy - which can create a position error. To do this “properly” the method would likely be to use the command line mapillary_tools pgm in two passes, process then upload or extract/datestamp then process/upload. Any annotation (and duplicating for another service) would then be done between these steps.

1 Like
5

You can find many answers to your questions in the Mapillary Help Guide. However, I am going to answer two of the questions here because answers to them may not be as apparent from the Help Guide than to the other questions.

  1. Can I put a watermark that says like "Visit my website → … "? Would be really cool if I can put it

No, it would not be cool. Technically, you can apply any sort of watermark because the system does not automatically filter this but legally you must not due to the Terms of Service. Attribution is already handled by CC BY-SA 4.0. Hence, there is really no need for more. However, you can add a link to your Bio in your profile (see the account dashboard). Besides, as @bob3bob3 has already mentioned, any additional synthetic image content can cause trouble in backend processing. To this end, the Terms of Service state under section 5 „Prohibited Conduct and Content”:

  • Use the Mapillary Services other than for their intended purpose and in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Mapillary Services or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of the Mapillary Services in any manner
  • Contains any unsolicited promotions, political campaigning, advertising or solicitations

Technically, you could also use imperceptible digital watermarking (which is more difficult to do well than one may think at first glance, even with the right software) and probably no one will notice at first. However, even these imperceptible watermarks are surely going to negatively affect any AI weight data when trained on such imagery. Long story short; if you are only ready to publish your imagery with your watermark then please do not contribute to Mapillary.

  1. Can I upload it to another platform (g platform) and also on Mapillary?

Of course you can. You remain the author of your imagery and thus also retain all rights to it. See section 4 „User Content”, paragraph a ToS:

a. Except for the license you grant below, you retain all rights in and to your User Content, as between you and Mapillary.

However, you have to be aware that whenever you contribute to Mapillary you also always grant a license to your imagery to Mapillary by section 4 „User Content”, paragraph b ToS:

b. Without limiting your rights and our obligations under data protection law, you grant Mapillary a nonexclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, worldwide, fully paid, transferable and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, publish, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content, for the term of its protection by intellectual property rights, and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content, for a period of ninety-nine (99) years, in each case in all media formats and channels now known or later developed without compensation to you.