[Imports] Facebook's AI-Assisted Road Tracing for OSM

Wed Mar 15 04:23:34 UTC 2017

Data looks great!

The roads that have the tag "source=digitalglobe" line up very nicely!

Very impressive, keep it up!

+1 for me

*~~~~~~*
*Denis Carriere*
*GIS Software & Systems Specialist*

On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 10:39 PM, osm <osm at fb.com> wrote:

> Dear OSM Community,
>
> This email is to share the Facebook process and sample data for review by
> the OSM community. We welcome feedback.
>
> Our goal is to collaborate with the OpenStreetMap community to create
> quality road data, validated by trained mappers and local OSM communities.
> Our import documentation on the wiki
> <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/AI-Assisted_Road_Tracing> explains
> the process in depth, but we're happy to answer any other questions you
> might have.
>
>
> To get community feedback we are sharing our sample data (attached) and
> outlining our process. We understand our process is not a traditional OSM
> import because we are creating the data ourselves and conflating it with
> existing OSM. As you will see on the wiki, the process is similar to
> remote tracing using satellite imagery, where human mappers are assisted
> with road suggestions generated by machine learning algorithms. Using the
> tasking manager, multiple people go through each node and way making sure
> to tag each road appropriately, connect them to current OSM data, fix
> alignment, when necessary, add sensible changeset comments/notes and
> resolve conflicts before finally saving where it is merged with the current
> OSM data.
>
> We are working with just one country at a time and our edits will happen
> slowly by grouping areas into small regions so we complete one before
> moving to the next. We plan to spend the next few months in Thailand.
>
>
> We hope to continue to engage the local community, as we know this is an
> important part of being an OSM contributor. We are open to feedback and
> willing to improve processes and learn from feedback. We are happy to share
> our Tile Service as mentioned here
> <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/AI-Assisted_Road_Tracing>. For now
> we can also share .osm files for specific areas of interest, while we work
> on creating a better way to share this through a Tasking Manager or
> something similar that is public facing. So far we have been chatting with
> a few members in the community, but as we learnt from the forum discussion
> we should have also posted publicly and will do that going forward.
>
> Here is an example of how we plan divide the tasks for the country. The
> colors indicates the current density of roads going from blue to red for
> high density areas. Of the 77 province boundaries we plan to start in the
> Southern Region in the province of Yala. Image 1
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16686312_1226149567492788_3453256145248976896_n.png?oh=77893d88f0e4a8dffbb8d0427c9ce026&oe=5936917E%5C>
>
>
>
>
> Using DG's Vivid+ imagery and have found we can get a 30% increase in road
> coverage for Thailand. Because imagery in OSM is much older in most areas
> we are able to pick newer roads with this imagery. Here are some examples
> of places we have been able to get road masks for in Thailand compared with
> OSM's current imagery. (Image 2
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16686458_1635190336509160_6301217537245839360_n.png?oh=a47d4813312469aca2068cd113d73693&oe=59304471>,
> Image 3
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16781470_1359746720759904_2477208192824639488_n.png?oh=eca7a3e9c7e5f644532c693865a9d292&oe=596D0EF6> Image
> 4
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16686846_1187920531335558_7954053478257524736_n.png?oh=db31bdd4af9acd3d6d309d1687a5ebc0&oe=5926F69E>,
> Image 5
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16686541_998489256917970_4428448510123180032_n.png?oh=f5e95744de1ab7c20aae37b755353abb&oe=5938D11B>
> )
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Please take a look at the attached .osm file for an area in Thailand that
> contains both our generated and vliadated roads and current OSM data.
>
> Best,
> Drishtie on behalf of the OSM at Facebook Team
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *Frequently Asked Questions*
>
>
>
> *What does AI mean?*
> Artificial Intelligence (AI) is training a computer to do things that
> require intelligence when done by humans. In this case it involves creating
> training data for an area by tracing out satellite imagery the same way you
> would when editing and feeding it to a computer. The output of this is road
> masks. Here is an example prediction result
> <http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.10482-6/16685038_1348901108507836_4612480449938194432_n.png?oh=be39e0c615c0d1dad3e1c55f7b7193ed&oe=59341B65>
> using deep learning for an area in Thailand.
>
>
>
> *Are there limitations with AI?*
> Yes, AI and algorithms still have a long way to go to figure things such
> as assigning tags according to OSM region specific guidelines, figure out
> the correct OSM relation, add bridges over waterbodies or figure out
> connections with crossing railways among many other things. Currently all
> of this is done by our mappers manually.
>
> *Are you adding roads directly to OSM without humans validating?*
> Every single road from the AI output will be added only after multiple
> rounds of human validation. After some processing of the road masks shown
> above we end up with a .osm file. We then treat this like remote tracing.
> Using iD editor and/or JOSM mappers make sure that merging with the current
> data has happened smoothly. They tag each road appropriately, connect them
> to current OSM edits, fix alignment, when necessary, add sensible changeset
> comments/notes and resolve conflicts before finally saving where it is
> merged with the current OSM data.
>
> *Why are you using iD Editor versus JOSM?*
> We know JOSM is efficient at what we are trying to do. In fact, we started
> primarily with JOSM. This said, to make our internal process more
> efficient, our engineers improved the iD editor so our version has
> comparable functionality as JOSM. We are working on making this public so
> we can share it with the community.
>
> *What Imagery are you using?*
> We are using DigitalGlobe's Vivid+ which is high-resolution (50cm / pixel,
> or zoom 18) color-corrected and cloud-free.
>
> *Can we share DG imagery?*
> While our license does not currently permit this. DG as noted in this
> forum <https://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=57387> is looking
> at options to publish imagery for OSM editing similar to the imagery that
> is being used by us.
>
> *Who are your editors?*
> Our team consists of 3 engineers and 14 editors, and usernames can be
> found on the Import wiki. All editors have also updated their profile to
> say they map for Facebook.
>
> *Why did you choose Thailand?*
> Facebook has a high number of users in this country and we would like to
> improve that map for this community. It is also our mission as a company is
> to make the world more open and connected and one way we can do is by
> filling in the missing gaps on the map. We also saw a strong OSM community
> that we could learn from and engage with while we refine our process for
> mapping. We are hoping for community feedback as we move forward so we can
> contribute high quality edits.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Imports mailing list
> Imports at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports
>
>
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