[OSM-talk] POI collection methods

[Toby Murray]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 6:23 PM, Svavar Kjarrval <svavar at kjarrval.is> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I'm trying to collect POI information en masse in my home town by taking
> daily walks in different areas each day. I use the program OsmPad to
> collect housenumbers and it's good for that purpose but I have to stop
> for awhile when typing in additional information like a housename or
> construction year. Now I'm trying to collect information about POIs like
> shops and other amenities; I discovered that it would take an even
> greater time if I were to use the same method for them, nevermind that
> OsmPad was not designed for such a massive amount of information.
>
> It started to hit me that I needed a method which would enable me to
> quickly collect the information and continue with my walk, sorting out
> the information later, or handing it over for someone else to type in.
>
> I started to look into other programs and stumbled upon OSMTracker and
> noticed a photo feature and a voice recorder. Sadly, I cannot move the
> cursor around to configure the coordinates. Otherwise it would solve my
> problem because then I'd be able to take a picture of the entrance and
> know where on the building it was. When I'm fairly close to buildings,
> there's a danger of the GPS chip losing contact with satellites and the
> GPS coordinates to be less accurate. Also, it could be hard for someone
> else to review my data and know where exactly I'm pointing the camera.
>
> What methods do you use? Are there any programs for Android which could
> fit my needs?

You don't have to get everything right down to the centimeter. I
wouldn't worry too much about a little lost accuracy here and there.
If you're using OsmTracker then I assume you are editing in JOSM after
you get home where you can review your trace and correct for any
obvious GPS drifting. I've used OsmTracker a fair amount, sometimes in
a car, sometimes on foot. Note for car use: It geotags pictures at the
time that you exit the camera and return to OsmTracker, not when the
picture was actually taken. If you are traveling at 70 mph this can be
a big difference :)

The other good option is to use a standalone GPS device and a camera.
Dedicated GPS devices tend to have better antennas than phones so you
don't have to worry about losing accuracy as much. Then you can match
the trace from the GPS device to your pictures based on timestamp in
JOSM and do your editing there where you can also reference aerial
imagery, assuming Bing has some in your area.

Other Android apps are OsmAnd which lets you add POIs and upload them
directly to OSM from your phone. But it only allows you to capture
name and opening hours.

There is also Vespucci which is pretty powerful but will also be slow
to use on the go. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci

Toby