From: Nick Whitelegg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 16 August 2008 16:57:17 BDT
To: talk@openstreetmap.org
Subject: [OSM-talk] Easy to use system for countryside surveying
Have thought of an approach to make countryside OSM mapping using
phones
with inbuilt GPS (N95, etc) easy to the end user.
A user could survey their walk using an N95 or similar, and then,
using a
very simple interface, select whether they are on a footpath,
bridleway,
unclassified road, track, etc every time the type of path or road
they are
on changes. So if they're on a road, then turn off down a footpath,
they
could select "footpath". Then if the footpath merges into a bridleway,
they could select "bridleway". The result would be a GPS track with
sections "tagged" with footpath, bridleway etc.
A track simplification algorithm could be applied and ways
generated from
the GPS trace automiatically. This could then be uploaded to OSM for a
more expert user (who could subscribe to an RSS feed to inform them of
such uploads in their area) to refine the way, i.e. remove extraneous
points and connect the auto-generated way to existing ways.
Any thoughts?
I could probably add the first part of the functionality into my mom
app for mobile phones which already allows GPX tracklogs to be
collected on a mobile phone with either built-in GPS or a Bluetooth
GPS. Mom allows waypoints to be added very easily to the tracklog
with descriptive text and/or voice notes and/or photos for logging
the type of path, street names, etc. This functionality could be
further developed. My worry is with the second part of the process -
converting this collected GPX data into ways. I can imagine all sorts
of problems trying to automate what is not a difficult task for
someone familiar with Potlatch or JOSM but could need a great deal of
programming skill.
elvin ibbotson
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