Talk:Hardware Guide

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

does anyone know if there has been a survey of hardware/software combinations undertaken? think it would give people a good idea of what works best.

taking my lead from >> Things_To_Do#Community_Communications i've chopped most of the camcorder stuff.

do we really need all the info on camcorders on this page: looks a bit too much 'copy-paste': --Transmode 21:00, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


I will introduce myself: I am Sam, I work for pcmend.net and have helped develop a website called motortrace.com. We are working very closely with a UK company which has designed and made GPS bluetooth devices for distributors within the UK.

Both companies are very synaptic to the open source community and want to move away from other expensive mapping companies.

I am trying to understand what hardware is needed to map and upload to openstreetmap more easily.

We have already designed a unit which records journeys and automatically uploads to our website, it will not be hard to change the software and add a few buttons to it, see below

Can we help design a unit or has one been designed which has a gps recorder, mic input, (maybe a GSM modem) and a button which records a way point and activates the voice recorder. Once the journey has been recorded can this be uploaded straight to openstreetmap.

Cheers Sam

Right now, the raw data that is stored on OSM's servers is just the track, so no waypoints or voice annotation. You would still need to get these off the unit later. Also, the raw track data needs to be redrawn by a human before it goes live on the map, since it has almost always too dense and jittery points, or places where it is totally going wild (like inside a house). And then, you need to tag it with the type of way this represents, and add information like the name of the road or such (the unit could add this already, but it would need to be associated to the correct parts of the track somehow). All in all though, a very interesting project. I suggest posting on the mailing list since it will be much more visible than here on the wiki. All the best, --Colin Marquardt 23:23, 26 March 2008 (UTC)