Events - RACE
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      Tagily Number Recognition to ID Races

      Using exported data from Tagily to auto-ID a race in CORE

      Overview of Tagily
      Tagily is an independent company in Modena, Italy and is not associated with Candid Color Systems. They offer number recognition on race images that can be used to ID your race images in CORE.

      How it Works
      You upload your images to Tagily after adding them to the CCS Uploader program. Tagily runs number recognition on your images, then you export a CSV file with the ID data. The data is then imported into CORE to ID your race images. Image ID data can be exported in approximately 15 minutes after the completion of the upload of images to Tagily.

      Our retail division Candid Color Photography started using Tagily for our Marathons in April of 2022. It's not a perfect solution since it's an automated process, but we were happy with the results and it saves us hours and hours of labor.  This document outlines what Tagily can and cannot identify.

      Go to their site to learn more. You can even upload sample images to test the results.
      https://tagily.io/


      To use Tagily you must create an account directly with Tagily and purchase credits.

      Tagily Prices as of April 2022 (subject to change)

      Note: These are prices Tagily charges to run the number recognition on your images.
      This is independent from Candid Color Systems.
      You must contact tagily to setup your account and purchase your credits.

       

       

      Opening a Tagily Account

      1. Go to https://tagily.io/ and select "Contact Us"
        1. Enter your contact information and a message about being interested in their race image tagging and prices.  Note:  They are in Italy so there is a significant time difference.
        2. When they will respond with their pricing and contact information
        3. Once you decide on the "Package", they will send you an online form to pay via credit card or paypal
        4. They will then send you your login information and a link to download their manage, upload and tagging programs
        5. We recommend you install their programs on the computer you will be using to upload your images to CCS

      Tagily has two options for managing and uploading images for number recognition.

      1.  Their "Manage" & "Upload" programs

      2.  Their  "Easy App" program

      You'll either use option 1 or 2.

      Option 1:  allows you to upload to tagily while uploading to CCS, so although there are a few more steps, you can get images IDd faster.

      Option 2:  requires you finish uploading to CCS first, then upload to Tagily.

       

      Preparing for Image Upload to CCS

      Before uploading images to Tagily you must start the upload of images via CCS Uploader to CCS.   You will need the images to be in the exact folders and have the exact image names between CCS and Tagily.

      1. You can upload images to CCS the same as you've done in the past.  Our recommendation is to name folders by location and keep the original image names.  We also recommend 100 images per folder. 
        1. This is how we recommend you setup the CCS Uploader program
        2. Open CCS Uploader and go to File > Application Settings
        3. Go to the Image Upload Tab and enter these settings 
        4. Go to the Advanced Tab enter these settings 
        5. Go to the Market Settings tab and enter these settings
          • Under Market location RACE
          • Next to RACE under Images per folder enter 100
          • Next to RACE under Use Pre-Loader check it
          • At the bottom next to Simultaneous Image Uploads enter 9
          • Click OK to save your settings
        6. The above steps only need to be done once, CCS Uploader will remember these settings

      Uploading Images to CCS via CCS Uploader

      Before you can upload images to Tagily, you must add your images to the CCS Uploader program so it creates the proper folder/file structure.  Follow these instructions to add images to CCS Uploader and uploading

      1. Get your memory cards sorted by location and photographer
      2. We recommend uploading images in the order of position on the course.  Example if you had photographers at the start, mile 5, mile 10, mile 15, mile 20 and at the finish, we would recommend you upload the start images first, then upload the images taken at mile 5, then the images taken at mile 10, then mile 15, then mile 20, then the finish.  If you did candids or banner photos, we recommend uploading those at the end.  This way images are somewhat in order they were actually taken and makes the gallery look nicer to the customer when they view their images.
      3. Open the CCS Uploader program by going into the event in CORE, then go to "images" on the left menu, then select Start Uploading and it will launch the CCS Uploader program
      4. Once opened, select Advance Mode
      5. On the left menu select "Create new folder after 100 images"
      6. You can optionally enter/select a photographers name.  This will be helpful if you'd like to view sales by photographer later.
      7. Under Add images to folder, we suggest entering the LocationName_1.  As images load, it will automatically start a new folder after 100 with the next sequence number.  Example: after LocationName_1, it will load the next 100 images into LocationName_2 and so on.
        • Naming the folders by location will help you and your customer locate images later than may not get IDd because of a missing or obstructed bib
        • It also helps you determine what location has the best sales 
        • When you drag the images or folder, make sure you see the green highlight around the entire area before dropping 
        • You will see images begin to load.  Once the first folder fills with 100 images, it will automatically create the next folder and fill with 100 images, then create the next folder and so on until all images you just dragged in have been imported into a folder
        • You will also see those folders begin to upload the previews and thumbnails.  This means the images we use to ID are already being uploaded.  So by the time you finish adding all images for all photographers you'll be able to start IDing images.
        • If a photographer has multiple memory cards, or you are ready to move to the next photographer's memory card, you'll need to wait until all the previous images have been imported before removing the card from your card reader. 
        • Once the images have been copied into the uploader program you can insert the next card
        • If the images are for the same location and you are naming the folders by location as suggested, look to see the last folder name and enter the next folder name on the left menu.  Example:  if the last set of images ended in folder Start_3, you would enter Start_4.  Make sure to select the photographer name, then you can drag and drop your next set of images
        • Repeat the above steps until all images have been added to the uploader program
        • When finished adding all images, wait until the program finishes uploading the previews and thumbnails before proceeding to the next step.
          • You can go into CORE and start IDing images and/or start the auto ID by time
        • When all the previews and thumbnails have finished uploading, click next 
          • On the next page click next
          • On the next page select to upload fullsize images now
          • Select all images
          • Start the upload
          • Keep your computer on and awake while the program finishes uploading the imagesOnce you have made the proper selections and entered your first folder name, in this example: Start_1, you can grab all the images (if images are in multiple folders on the memory card, you can grab all the folders) from that photographer's memory card and drag and drop them where it says "Drag Folders or Images Here"

      UPLOADING YOUR IMAGES TO TAGILY via the "EASY APP"

      Tagily Easy App

      1. On the computer you plan to upload your race images to CCS, go to https://tagily.deepvisionconsulting.com/downloads/ and download and install the Easy App
      2. Open and log into your Tagily account via the Easy App
      3. After you finish uploading via CCS Uploader to CCS, go to you CCSUploader folder (likely on your C drive) and local your event folder.  Either click the green folder icon to map to your event folder within the CCSUploader folder or click and drag the event folder over to the Easy App program 
      4. Select Tagging Engine:  Running, skiing, marathons
      5. Click the next > icon
      6. On this screen select Strategy:  CSV
      7. Filter based quality:  No Filter
      8. If you have a year on the bib, you will want to filter that number.  Example:  2023, This way every image does not get tagged to 2023
      9. Delimiter for code replacement select comma
      10. Then click the next > icon               
      11. It will begin uploading your images to Tagily to be IDd by bib  
      12. When it finishes you will find the CSV file in your event folder within the CCSUploader folder
      13. Open the file and click here to go to the instructions for managing the spreadsheet and importing into CORE

      If you are using the Tagily Easy App, click here to skip to the next step

      Installing Tagily "Manage" & "Upload"

      (if using the Easy App, skip this section)

      1. On the computer you plan to upload your race images to CCS, go to https://tagily.deepvisionconsulting.com/downloads/ and download these 2 files
        1. "Manage"
        2. "Upload"
        3. Note: you won't need the file "tagging", that will be done in CORE
      2. After clicking to download "Manage", open the file, then unzip (extract all)
        1. Select a folder to extract to.  Make a note so you can find the program after extracting
        2. After extracting, open the "bin" folder
        3. Locate the "tagily-manage.exe" file and double click to open
          1. Enter the user and password provide by Tagily to log in
          2. Under the "Uploaders" tab select "Add Uploader" from the right
          3. Create a New Name and New Password for the person who will be uploading images.  If you have multiple people uploading, you'll need a unique user for each person who will be uploading images.

      3. On the computer you plan to upload your race images to CCS, go to https://tagily.deepvisionconsulting.com/downloads/ and download the file
        1. "Upload" 
        2. After it downloads open the file and unzip (extract all).  Make note of the folder your extract to so you can find the program later.
        3. After download open the bin folder and and double click to open the "tagily-upload.exe" file
        4. It will prompt you for a user and password.  This is a user/password you setup on the "Tagily Manage" page under "Uploaders"                            
          1. Note: All users who will be uploading images, will need "Upload" installed on the computer that will be used to upload images to CCS.  Each uploader needs their own unique log in Go back to https://tagily.deepvisionconsulting.com/downloads/ and download the "Upload" file

      Setting Up a Race Event in Tagily 

      (If using the Easy App, skip this section)

      1. Open the Tagily-Manage Program
      2. Go to the Event Tab
      3. Click "Add Event" at the bottom of the window
        1. On the right under Images Statistics it will show # of images, uploaded, tagged, checked and the number of credits.  Since this is a new event, you just need to make sure you have enough credits for the number of images you plan to upload.  If you don't have enough, you'll need to contact Tagily to purchase additional credits.
        2. Under Event Information, enter the name of your race, enter the max number of images (should not be larger than your number of credits)
          1. Enter the start date and end date of your race
          2. If it's a running race, select marathon, if it's a bike race select bike race
            1. If you are photographing a duathlon with both running and biking, set up two separate events and keep track of your folders so you can upload your bike images to the bike event and the running images to the marathon labeled event
          3. Check Auto Tag
        3. Under Bib Format, if your bibs have only numbers check allow digits.  If your bibs have numbers and letters AND you want the bibs IDd to numbers and letters, check allow digits and check allowed characters and enter the letter characters allowed.  Example: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.   If your bibs contain letters, but you don't want to ID to letters, leave the allowed characters blank and it will only ID to numbers.  Example:  if a bib reads A1550 and you want it tagged as just 1550, leave characters blank.
        4. In the list of names, check all you want to have access to this event.  Anyone uploading images will need access.
      4. Click Save to update the information you entered  

      Uploading Images to Tagily via the Tagily "Upload" program

      (If using the Easy App, skip this section)

      You can start uploading images to Tagily as soon as images have been added to the CCS Uploader program even while still adding images or while it's uploading.   Images just need to be added to the CCS Uploader program first, so the folders and files are created.

      1. On the desktop of the computer you are uploading images from, create a new folder named "TagilyImages"  
      2. Open the Tagily-Upload program and log in
      3. Select your race event from the drop down and click next
      4. Click the ... button to the right of "Original Images Folder" and browse for your CCS Uploader folder, then the event number folder. (this is the folder where your uploaded images go into when you add them to the CCS Uploader program)  It's typically on your C drive unless you pointed it to another drive.  Example below, the folder is on the d drive.
        1. Once your folders have been selected, click finish
        2. Images will begin uploading
        3. If you are still adding images to CCS Uploader, you will need to click Parse so it will look for new folders.  If all folders were present in the CCS Uploader folder when you started the Tagily Upload you should not have to click Parse
        4. It will give you a number of images uploaded.  You'll want to verify that matches the number of images in CCS Uploader to confirm all images have uploaded to Tagily.  If the numbers don't match, click parse and it should find the images that had not uploaded.                                                   
        5. Once all images have been uploaded to Tagily it takes approximately 15 minutes to finish the number recognition before you can export the data.  This happens automatically, so you don't need to do anything but wait.

      Exporting the Race IDs from Tagily when using the Tagily "Upload" program

      (If using the Easy App, skip this section)

      Now that you have uploaded all your images to Tagily and waited approximately 15 minutes, your data should be available to export.

      1. Open the Tagily-Manage program and log in
      2. Go to the Export Tab
      3. Select your Race Event
      4. Next to "Strategy" select: CSV
      5. Next to "Bib Filtering" select: You can elect how strict you want the results here.  We recommend mild, because we would rather people get images that are not theirs, than people not see images that might be theirs.
      6. Under "Bib Rejection": enter any number you want to ignore.  Example:  if runners are wearing shirts or medals that have the year on them, you may elect to reject that year number
      7. Under Setup Export File Name, next to Export Filename (bib->Img):  click the ... button to choose where and what you want to name the export.  Recommend adding _bibimg to end of the name.
      8. Next to Export Filename (img->bib): click the ... button to choose where and what you want to name the export.  Recommend adding _imgbib to end of the name.   This file is the one you'll use to import into CORE.
      9. Select Delimited: ,
      10. Check Include Relative Filepath:
      11. Click Start Export

      Managing the CSV File for Import into CORE

      1. Open the CSV file that was exported as "ImgBib"
        1. It should be formatted like this example, with Image Names in the first column and bib numbers in the following columns.  "Void" means no bib was recognized in that image.  Leave "void" in place, this will help with manual IDing and lost and found images later        
        2. Add a row at the top so you can add the column headers.
          1. Column A header = "SPOTS"
          2. Column B header = "BIB1"
          3. Column C header = "BIB2"
          4. Column D header = "BIB3" and so on for any additional columns that have bibs      
          5. Click on the A column to highlight the entire column A and click your "ctrl" key and "f" key on your keyboard to bring up the "Find and Replace" tool in excel
            1. In the "Find What" section type:  all the text up to the folder name.  In this example that would be Tagily Race Demo/kimk@candid.com/
            2. In the "Replace With" section:  leave it blank
            3. Click "Replace All" to remove the unwanted text behind the image name in column A
            4. Column A should now just have the folder/image.jpg
            5. Highlight column A again and click "ctrl and f" to pull up the find and replace tool again
            6. This time, enter / in the find and - into replace and click replace all
            7. Column A should now show folder-image.jpg
            8. Highlight Column A again and click "cntrl - f" to pull up the find and replace tool again.  This time enter .jpg in the find and leave replace blank, then click replace all
            9. You should now only have folder-image in column A
          6. Save this spreadsheet as a CSV file, suggest adding the name _CORE to the end of your spreadsheet name.   Example:  ABCMarathon2023_CORE

      Importing Your ID Data into CORE

      1. Go into your Race event in CORE
      2. Go to Images, then to Alignment Categories
        1. Make sure all folders have been imported and locked.  Note: all folders must be under the "Default View".
      3. Go to Names & Contact Data
        1. You should have received a participant list from the race that contains, firstnames, lastnames, bibs and emails.  The column headers for the participant list should be:  FirstName |  LastName |  BibNumber  |  Pemail  
        2. If you received additional emails, headers are Semail  |  Temail1  |  Temail2
        3. Once your participant list is formatted for import, you'll click "Import names and orders"
        4. Click choose file and browse for your participant list
          1. Check Worksheet contains headers
          2. Click Continue
          3. Make sure your data matches up with the CORE Field, then click continue
          4. You'll see a pink box with a warning that you are not importing captions, click continue and wait until the import is complete
      4. Click on Names & Contact on the left menu again
        1. Click on "Import BulID Data"  
        2. Click Import From File
        3. Click Choose File and locate your Tagily exported and formatted CSV file and click continue
        4. When finished it will show you the number of IDs Downloaded and Updated

      Reviewing/Updating IDs in CORE after Tagily Import

      After you import your Tagily data to auto ID your race, you can check out folders of images to review them and make corrections if needed.   If you left and imported those that were marked as "Void" it will be easy to view just those images and make corrections.

      1. In CORE go into your Race Event and click on Images on the left menu, then select ID Images
      2. Under ID Method, select ID by identifier code
      3. Under Zoom Image Source select "Medium resolution preview"
      4. Roll Filter: All Folders
      5. You should see images marked as "Void" and click "Check Out"
      6. You can choose to correct or add another identifier such as bib and other code to create a lost and found
        1. In this example the runner has no bib.  You can choose to leave as void and create a lost and found for those with no bib, or you could use an identifier such as M for male so you can categorize lost and found images.
        2. Note: there will likely be more than one page of images, so make sure you review all pages
        3. When finished reviewing and/or editing the "void" images, check them in by clicking "Check in" at the bottom of the screen.
      7. If you want to review additional folders, go back to the ID images page and select ID Method: ID by roll.  You can then check out any folder of images and make changes if necessary

      Creating Lost and Found Categories

      1. While in the event in CORE select Images on the left menu then "lost & found"
      2. Any identifiers used that have letters in them will show on this page.  If you have bibs# that contain letters they will all show here, you just won't copy them.  Only copy the ones you need to create a lost & found category for.
        1. Click on the Copy button to name the category.  The name you give it here is what will display on the retail website.  Example:
        2. Your customer will only see the description, not the code

      Once your images are IDd you're ready to enable the event on retail and start your email campaign.