Creating our own GPS maps

**meddler** · 07-11-2005, 06:15 PM

Sound like a fantastic idea in theory. The problem is the reliability and ammount of data to get usable maps. I remember talking to someone about this about 6 months ago. To get coverage of a major city it would take quite a lot of people and time. 90% of my driving is local, so my local area would be quite detailed. Unfortunately the area between myself and the next person would be virtually blank, except for maybe the major roads. I'm not saying that everybody would be the same, but I don't think there would be enough people to make it viable.
To check the reliability of the information, youu would have to have someone verify all the data. That is a huge job. I like deltafx idea of overlaying the local street directory to get the start, finish and names of streets, but it is a big job for someone to enter all the information. I'm sure that after a while the people in this project would want to be reimbursed for their time. After all, it would involve a lot of time. You could also have a mic in the car to call the street names as you drive along for varification.
Don't get me wrong, I would like to see free maps, but I don't think they would end up being free. I can see why we have to pay $600 for the maps and the software. There is a great deal of time and effort involved. If this project were to take off, I would be the first one to put up my hand to help, but just the shear size of the task is enough to scare anyone.

**Shotty** · 07-12-2005, 09:04 AM

There is nothing fun about attampting a simple problem

And I also thought about the same things you're thinking off. You would need alot of a people for it to work. Or a small number of people over a really long time

You could setup a donation system for example, which would pay for some people to spend a day doing a complex area.

Still lots of ideas to think about.

**meddler** · 07-12-2005, 09:41 PM

maybe you could use something like oziexplorer which you can scan in any type of map and have it mix the info with the vector based data from the people driving around.

**kevlar** · 07-13-2005, 02:14 AM

In case you weren't aware, a project with Open Source flair was started over a year ago called the Open Street Map. It needs a lot of work, but they're essentially just capturing GPS data, then annotating the data. It's certainly very useful, although I'm sure it'll take a long time until the data is actually useful, attractive, and accurate.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

I've seen these folks on a mailing list I'm on.

A better solution is really to modify TIGER/2004 data to reflect the Z-layering, one way streets, and up to date information, then formatting the data to be shown in 2D/3D fashion.

I have some talents in these areas, and I would be willing to help, but I have so many projects on my plate that I certainly wouldn't be able to start it myself. Unfortunately, I don't make enough money these days to donate all my time for free.

Kevin

**DjDrewDigital** · 07-16-2005, 03:31 PM

Hey All,

Have you heard of OxiExplorer? OziExplorer lets you import any type of map. You can scan maps into the system or download them from wherever and import them. You can even import satellite photos or custom maps of an OHV park for example.

If some chick draw's a map to her place on a napkin, you can scan that in and OziExplorer will tell you where you are on the map even if she can't draw straight lines.

http://www.oziexplorer.com/

If you want free maps of california, check out the California Spatial Information Library:

http://gis.ca.gov/data.epl

Since our taxpayer dollars paid for the maps, they are in the public domain and free to download. I downloaded over 1 gig of map data from this site.

**kevlar** · 07-16-2005, 03:53 PM

OziExplorer is nice for predrawn maps, but what we really need is all the data required for determining routing, etc.

TIGER/2004 data can be analyzed and recompiled into a smaller database for geocoding/geodecoding. The TIGER/2004 data can then be reconstructed again, then we need to add Z-layer data, one way street data, and update any incomplete information... which would finally be suitable for routing too.

**daxwert** · 07-18-2005, 05:36 AM

Hi @ll.

I was wondering, does anybody know of a garmin emulator software for Windows?
I only have access to Garmin Maps for my Country (Namibia) and possiblities of changing and creating Garmin Maps.
Has anybody heard of uch software?
Dax

**s003apr** · 07-18-2005, 08:34 AM

I am working on a SQL database that can be used as a database backend GPS software. Unfortunately it is US only at the time as I am only familiar with US data sources. Currently I have some python scripts which extract data from tiger line files and use MySQL spatial abilities to store the data.

It is probably to the point where others can start developing front-ends for it.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/navdb/

**s003apr** · 07-19-2005, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by kevlar

OziExplorer is nice for predrawn maps, but what we really need is all the data required for determining routing, etc.

TIGER/2004 data can be analyzed and recompiled into a smaller database for geocoding/geodecoding. The TIGER/2004 data can then be reconstructed again, then we need to add Z-layer data, one way street data, and update any incomplete information... which would finally be suitable for routing too.

Kevlar,
what is "Z-layer" data?