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Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

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Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#3
post #2

I did some work in this field, although years ago. There is a huge amount of existing models, datasets, tools, etc. https://github.com/satellite-image-deep-learning

This is an amazing set of resources, thanks for sharing. I have been tinkering with QGIS, and signed up for a slew of public/private satellite imagery APIs to bring in data to play with. The EU’s space agency has a lot of really good data sources with fully open access (no user accounts necessary). I am looking forward to working with this new collection of ML-specific tools.

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#4
Hi from the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Please don't add AI-detected features directly to the database.

The algorithms have problems with false positives, and with mapping straight or rectangular objects as wobbly, as shown in the second-to-last screenshot.

As a helper to detect missing features, this is a precious tool. But we still need human intervention to make sure the detected objects are drawn correctly.

See also: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits_code_of_...

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#5
post #3
post #2

I did some work in this field, although years ago. There is a huge amount of existing models, datasets, tools, etc. https://github.com/satellite-image-deep-learning

This is an amazing set of resources, thanks for sharing. I have been tinkering with QGIS, and signed up for a slew of public/private satellite imagery APIs to bring in data to play with. The EU’s space agency has a lot of really good data sources with fully open access (no user accounts necessary). I am looking forward to working with this new collection of ML-specific tools.

> really good data sources with fully open access (no user accounts necessary)

Ola!

I am the author of the repo, worked in satellite projects for the Galician goverment some years ago.

You don't need an account to download the data from OSM (you do need to contribute back, which makes sense IMO). You don't need an account to download tiles from some publicly available sources (i.e. https://pnoa.ign.es/ in Spain) but I prefer to made the code work with MapBox and let them pay the infra (until they stop free offering). Happy to share a simple snippet to use a different tile provider.

Any public dataset (that I am aware) is not really meant to be frequently updated, at best you get a second version release a year later. A lot of public money (I know because have been payed a small portion of these budgets) is spent on building datasets that are used for a couple of research papers, uploaded to the web and then become outdated.

If I want to help updating them or correcting label mistakes, in most (all?) cases, there is no practical way for me to do it.

I believe that OpenStreetMap has the potential to be the best publicly available spatial "dataset" for (some specific) CV use cases.

If we focus on creating ways to contribute with quality data (the idea behind this small project), it will just keep getting a better dataset, that anyone can contribute to be up-to-date.

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#6
post #4

Hi from the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Please don't add AI-detected features directly to the database. The algorithms have problems with false positives, and with mapping straight or rectangular objects as wobbly, as shown in the second-to-last screenshot. As a helper to detect missing features, this is a precious tool. But we still need human intervention to make sure the detected objects are drawn correctly. See als…

> But we still need human intervention to make sure the detected objects are drawn correctly.

Hi, I am the author.

The demo app and any provided code example includes a step asking a human to verify the detected features. You can't upload them automatically unless you modify the source code.

I reiterate the human verification across the docs, linked post, and any code samples.

I haven't ever uploaded features automatically. In fact I manually edited and labeled hundreds of swimming pool samples myself before even training the first version.

Happy to hear and implement any ideas on how to improve the process to prevent automated features to be uploaded.

I know some people might say: just don't publish the tool, I think we can do better at embracing AI and having an open discussion.

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#7
post #4

Hi from the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Please don't add AI-detected features directly to the database. The algorithms have problems with false positives, and with mapping straight or rectangular objects as wobbly, as shown in the second-to-last screenshot. As a helper to detect missing features, this is a precious tool. But we still need human intervention to make sure the detected objects are drawn correctly. See als…

> straight or rectangular objects as wobbly, as shown in the second-to-last screenshot.

This is a because the polygon is drawn as a mask in order to overlay it on the image. The actual polygon being uploaded doesn't have the wobbly features.

It is True there are cases were the predicted polygon is wobbly and I encourage people to discard them. However I didn't publish this demo until I got a first version of the model that reached some minimum quality.

There is logic in the code to simplify the shape of the predicted polygon in order to avoid having too many nodes.

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#8
Experiencing automated mapping first-hand makes me extremely wary of it. I've travelled across South America on a motorcycle, and OSM has a large amount of edits there that look automated (particularly in Brazil), making it barely usable in certain places. I'm not even talking about rural roads but also fairly large cities.

Re: Map Features in OpenStreetMap with Computer Vision

#9

Experiencing automated mapping first-hand makes me extremely wary of it. I've travelled across South America on a motorcycle, and OSM has a large amount of edits there that look automated (particularly in Brazil), making it barely usable in certain places. I'm not even talking about rural roads but also fairly large cities.

Armchair mapping will always result in bad maps. I usually try to use mapwithme and leave photo notes describing issues when I travel, I take photos of fences and play grounds, other people take scenic pictures.

So it might very well be automatic mapping, just saying that I know my armchair mapping can be pretty bad when I gonand check it OTG.

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