[OSM-dev] Garmin GPX madness

[Stefan de Konink]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008, Nick Black wrote:

> If you had 30 traces down a road and no dop information and you
> derived a centre line, using only the lat lons of the 30 different
> traces, how much less precise would the result be than taking 30
> traces with dop info and figuring out a centre line?

The error would be the maximum variance of all tracks, since a track
without DOP would not be a track but an area with the maximum error (worst
case). Now you can claim if the amount of input is increased by a factor
that would compensate the statistical error would outweight the work for
it, you are right. But taking an Amaryllo that claims DGPS grade tracks at
many locations, I would really prefer that...

> Stefan and Oliver - if you really believe that the community have been
> brainwashed by Garmin, what's your plan of action to reverse the
> brainwashing and liberate our minds?

I see many mappers in NL being 'so happy' with Garmin because OSM maps run
on it. Happy-happy-joy-joy! As long Garmin is not actively committed to
help OSM in the compiling of maps or publishing open specifications, or
even open up the firmware, why do you even care for these devices because
they have a screen? Wake up! If someone would buy a device for tracking
take some el-cheapo NMEA receiver that does export the error-margin, and
hook up your phone or GPS, the user will get the same fancy screen...
with more possibilities of navigation and mapping.


Stefan