[OSM-dev] Summer of Code?

[Nick Burch]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006, Nick Black wrote:
> One area that I have begun investigating is developing a mobile data 
> capture system using GPS and smart phones to capture OSM data and upload 
> it to the database in real time.  If anyone has any opinions/ideas on 
> this area I'd be interested to hear.

Uploading in real time might be a bit tricky. I know that Christopher 
Schmidt (from OpenGuides) ran into problems when he was doing GPS+Cell -> 
Website stuff for an application of his - it often takes quite a long time 
to round-trip an upload, and you lose data in the mean time.

I'd personally vote for some app of the type suggested supporting uploads 
in the background.

In terms of implementing it, Python on Series 60 looks like being a good 
bet. I've already written code for talking to a bluetooth GPS, figuring 
out where you are, writing position logs to disk etc. So, most of the GPS 
side of stuff is done, and the rest is certainly possible. I believe there 
are API calls for taking photos and recording audio, so they'd need 
integrating. Then, you'd want a friendly UI, direct GPX output, waypoints 
etc.


On a related matter: Does anyone know of any standard ways of attaching 
geo-locations to images and audio streams? I guess it could go in the EXIF 
data for the image, no idea about audio. Any one know?

Cheers
Nick