[OSM-dev] Request more information about GSoC the project: JOSM Plugin to work with Mapillary images

Tue Mar 24 09:20:33 UTC 2015

Hey Jo,

Thanks for your email.  Please see the inserted lines.

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 2:07 AM, Jo <winfixit at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Michelle,
>
> Sorry for the late response. I missed your message somehow.
>
> Did you already try to make some pictures and a GPX track, then use JOSM?
> Load the GPX track, click right mouse button, import pictures.
>
> Then click on one of those pictures. A new window will open, where one can
> browse from one picture to the next/previous.
>

Yes, I have tried this. It's really interesting.  So may I understand that
JOSM is a tool for editing the OpenStreetMap?  And we use the images
downloaded from Mapillary as well as photos taken by users of JOSM
(ourselves) to improve the OpenStreetMap (generate the street views), is
that correct?   And the input of JOSM is GPX tracks, and once a GPX track
is loaded, the Mapilary plugin (the output of our assignment) needs to
download images from Mapillary.com for the area represented by the input
GPX track, and store them in a cache. This function can be activated by
pressing a button or automatically.

>
> This is more or less what the plugin should provide, but instead with
> pictures which come from Mapillary.com for the area in view (when zoomed in
> far enough).
>
> The other 'exercise' you could do is install the Mapillary app on a
> smartphone, create an account and go out to make some pictures. Upload them
> and go to view the area on Mapillary.com.
>

Yes, I have tried this too. In my side, it seems that iD hasn't provided
the 'Mapillary layer' yet, and I can't edit the uploaded pictures.

>
> Click one of the pictures, then the Information icon, then edit with iD.
> Now you get an editor in your browser. You have to manually switch on the
> 'Mapillary layer'. (It would be nice if iD could do that for you, but alas).
>
> Once the layer is activated you can click on the pictures to view them.
>
> Unfortunately there is no way to follow a sequence with iD.
>
> The other disadvantage is that it's not easy to use custom aerial imagery
> and a lot of other handy tools we have in JOSM are missing as well.
>
> So enabling download of Mapillary pictures in the current viewport to a
> cache
>
I got it. But there is a potential issue that if there are thousands of
pictures related to the current viewport, maybe we should only choose part
of them to visualize.

> Then visualizing them on the background, showing their 'orientation'
>
May I understand the 'visualizing' as 1) displaying the trace when taking
the sequence of photos downloaded from Mapillary, 2) displaying a thumbnail
or a drop symbol of each photo downloaded from Mapillary; 3) by double
clicking a thumbnail/drop symbol, a window will popup to display this photo
with full resolution and user can edit it ?

> Then providing the possibility to look at them one picture at a time
> Then having some handy controls to get from one to the next
>

Intuitively, We can provide arrows in the popup window mentioned above for
users to navigate these downloaded photos.

>
> Is more or less the basis of the assignment.
>
> When these things have become possible, the next step may be the following:
>
> Allow the possibility to update the geolocation of the picture (GPS
> devices are not always very accurate).
>
Allow the possibility to update the 'orientation' of the picture (the
> internal compass in consumer phones is on the slow side)
> Updating the orientation of the picture could be done with +/- or up/down
> left/right arrows on the keyboard. Another possibility might be the use of
> a draggable 'helper' node, then calculate the directionality.
>

OK. Once the  main frame of this mapillary layer is developed, I believe
the above functionalities will not be difficult to be implemented.

>
> Keep track of these changes in a sort of changeset and allow this
> information to be fed back to Mapillary using their API. The team at
> Mapillary is very approachable and they can be contacted in case of
> problems. Authentication happens over oAuth.
>
>
> The next step after that, may be to allow blurring/unblurring as well.
>
> And if time allows, it may be possible to allow updating of recognised
> traffic signs and possibly an interaction with the roadsigns plugin. But
> that is low priority at best.
>

OK.

>
> Please let us know if you have any other questions.
>

Thanks for your patient and informative explanation and suggestions, now I
have better understanding of this assignment's target, and I'll draft a
project proposal shortly. And hope to hear from you soon.

All the best,

Michelle

>
> Jo
>
>
> 2015-03-19 13:04 GMT+01:00 Michelle W.X.Yang <wx.michelle.yang at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hey,
>>
>> I'm a CS PhD student from the University of Hong Kong, and my research is
>> related to information visualization. I'm quite interested in learning more
>> information about the project: JOSM Plugin to work with Mapillary images.
>>
>> In my understanding, In this project, we need to develop a plugin for the
>> OpenStreetMap which allows user to navigate as well as edit Mapillary
>> images. In order to implement these functions, on the user interface of
>> OSM, we need to develop a Mapillary layer and a Mapilary Window Pane, and
>> we also need to develop some background components, e.g. cache. Even though
>> I can get the main ideas of this project from the wiki page of Mapillary
>> plugin for JSOM by referencing the website of Open Street Map and
>> Mapillary,  some details of the requirements as well as  the scope of this
>> project are needed to be clarified. I hope we can discuss about this
>> project as soon as possible.
>>
>> I have 3+ years of hand-in java experience, and since my research is
>> related to information visualization, I'm quite familiar with developing
>> user interfaces,  image processing techniques and some graphics algorithms,
>> I'm also very familiar with cache, e.g. LRU cache. Therefore, based on my
>> background I believe I will be a good candidate for this project.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Michelle.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> dev mailing list
>> dev at openstreetmap.org
>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
>>
>>
>
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