I'm hoping for some suggestions on how to get from OpenStreetMap data to tactile maps for use by blind or visually impaired users. See below for a bit of background information and some qustions.
-r Background I'm involved in a project to generate tactile maps for use by blind or visually impaired users. Currently, these are being fabricated by laser engraving from acrylic plastic, but I'm considering other options for reduced-cost duplication, etc. As an exploratory exercise, I used SketchUp's Pencil tool to trace some floor plans of a building, then used its 3D Fonts tool to add Braille annotations. I then exported a set of PDF files, imported them into Adobe Illustrator, and used them to drive the engraver. This produces reasonable results, but I'd like a more mechanized approach. I'd also like to take advantage of OSM's infrastructure and data, wherever appropriate. Ideally, I'd like to put together a mostly automated way to go from OSM's XML-based data format to engravable images. FWIW, I have skimmed a couple of books on OpenStreetMap: OpenStreetMap: Be your own Cartographer Bennett; Packt, 2010 OpenStreetMap: Using and Enhancing the Free Map of the World Ramm, Topf, and Chilton; UIT, 2011 However, as these books are a bit dated, the tools they mention (eg, Mapnik, Osmarender) may have been supplanted. So, I'm open to other suggestions! Questions What tool(s) would you suggest for: extracting all of the nodes (etc) within a polygon? rotating the map data (eg, to make a given street vertical)? rendering a map in PDF (eg, for use by Illustrator)? More generally, are web-based tools (eg, CSS, SVG, XSLT) still recommended as infrastructure for mechanically processing OSM data into rendered images? -- http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin [email protected] http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume San Bruno, CA, USA +1 650-873-7841 Software system design, development, and documentation _______________________________________________ dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
