OpenStreetMap
Hello!
I watched a video in www.ted.com and discovered this great project. Though some questions raised. Maybe somebody can help me on this one.
I am from a company that develops, installs and supports remote GPS vehicle tracking. There are few thousand vehicles on the roads that send their position every 7-20sec.
Currently we use Google maps for our mapping material, but sometimes map material is not satisfactory and there is nothing we can do to improve it.
Therefore I was thinking if it would be possible that we switch to OpenStreetMap data for our mapping material.
Also there is huge amounts of raw gps traces material that is being archived. I have to check agreement with vehicle owners but I think it would be possible to publish those traces without car names at least for some.
Is anyone doing similar project? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
--
Janis
Discussion
Comment from lyx on 11 March 2010 at 10:16
Hi,
a company named "Logistics Plus" donated GPS track data for Kosovo; this might be similar to what you are thinking about. See details at osm.wiki/Kosovo_LogisticsPlus_Tracing2 and osm.wiki/WikiProject_Kosovo
Comment from JohnSmith on 11 March 2010 at 10:31
To improve maps you may need higher resolution data, 1 gps point per second if the device has moved more than 10m for example.
Comment from Zartbitter on 11 March 2010 at 11:59
It is possible to insert an OSM layer into GoogleMaps. If there is a programmer around maybe the following links can give him an idea how to do it:
(German only) http://www.geogeo-morsmors.de/osmify-germany-fuer-das-geocaching/
(English, the German one is based on this) http://blog.johnmckerrell.com/2007/12/31/new-version-of-osmify-bookmarklet/
Comment from robert on 11 March 2010 at 15:29
JohnSmith: If the same routes are traveled many times the built up data may well end up being useful.
johny_: I do seem to recall a tracking company using OSM for some of their work. They were probably german but I can't remember any more details.
Your data would be most welcome. Any additions made would be appreciated. This is exactly what OSM is for.
Comment from Mungewell on 11 March 2010 at 20:11
One way to relieve the concerns about privacy on the raw data might be to pair adjacent points (so that there is still some direction/speed relationship which is useful in 'seeing' road structures), but otherwise randomize/zero out all other data.
Just to get some idea of how we can improve the data, how do you currently use Google maps (live position display, etc) and why is it lacking??
Where in the world are you (or rather the cars)?
Simon.
Comment from Pingu on 11 March 2010 at 22:23
Our refuse collection vehicles are tracked, but I find the position rate is too slow to be of much use. So I send the vehicles out in turn with a GPS logger. Now I get decent results