OpenStreetMap

Web Page: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/GSoC_Applications_2009

Mailing List: http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk

"OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways." Contributors to OpenStreetMap take handheld GPS devices with them on journeys, or go out specifically to record GPS tracks. They record street names, village names and other features using notebooks, digital cameras, and voice-recorders. Back at the computer, contributors upload those GPS logs showing where they traveled, and trace-out the roads on OpenStreetMap's collaborative database. Using their notes, contributors add the street names, information such as the type of road or path, and the connections between roads. That data is then processed to produce detailed street-level maps, which can be published freely on sites such as Wikipedia, used to create handheld or in-car navigation devices, or printed and copied without restriction.

Projects

• Android navigation application using OSM data The application will not need a data connection as it will use data in it's own binary format. The data will be split into countries the can be load separately as needed. To convert data from OSM format to internal application format a separate app will be written. the graphics will be limited to 2D for now, but as it will use Android OpenGL ES libraries the implementation of 3D graphics will be possible in the future.
• Automatic Street-Sign Detection and Reading Goal of this project is to implement a system to detect and read street signs in geotagged pictures. This could lead to less time-consuming and in the optimal case near-automatic mapping based on gathered gps tracks and timestamped pictures of street-signs.
• OSM Direction tool for Visually Impaired The application is a Keyboard accessible Directions tool using OpenSteetMap for Visually Impaired people (as well as general mass), such that maps can be used by all. It works on the principle such that,after user enters source and destination as his/her query in text boxes, the route or walking/driving directions are resulted as output not only on maps but also as detailed text explaining entire route(confirming to W3C guidelines),such that it is easily readable.
• Preprocessor to add altitude information to OSM data Build a preprocessor, that takes an OSM file, downloads the required SRTM data or uses a cached version and then outputs a modified OSM file which has tags for each way, that give the height distance of this way. Rationale OSM provides fantastic data for routing all kinds of vehicles. However for optimal bicycle and pedestrian routing one also needs altitude information to avoid unnecessarily going up and down hills. On the other hand there are cyclists who prefer really steep routes.
• Profile Based Traffic Routing The profile based traffic routing system will build road profiles from user submitted gps data to be used with routing support via pgRouting. The submitted data will be compared to OpenStreetMap data to correlate collected field data with existing roads and assign edge weights based on actual driving speeds. All collected data will be retained and aggregates used to determine link weights. In this way multiple users can submit data to such an application while favoring their individual data.
• Static Maps API The main idea of project is to create a web application which will provide a service of embedding map images. So each webmaster/developer will be able to easily put any map on his webpage. The map is going to be embedded in HTML code just like an usual image. Maps can be presented as an image in different formats (jpeg, gif etc). Also the type of map will be configurable, so by changing url parameter webmaster will be able to choose if he wants to display a cycle map or a skiing map.