A project I wish existed is an open source competitor to Google Earth's automatic generation of 3D models from satellite images. Their generator is pretty smart and even generates pretty good approximations of trees, bushes, streetlights, and so on. This is very useful when you need to figure out 360° line-of-sight from a point in space (i.e. a viewshed) for things like planning where to put RF antennas as topographic maps don't take vegetation or other obstructions into account.
Google Earth even has built-in viewshed generation which uses their 3D model data (works great), but unfortunately the 3D model layer only seems to exist for fairly populated areas (probably because it's computationally expensive) - so doing RF planning in rural areas requires more traditional legwork.
So it would be cool for a project to provide similar functionality for OpenStreetMap using this public satellite data. OpenStreetMap does have 3D modeling support but last time I looked it seemed pretty focused on buildings and people hand-editing the data.
The fact that Google has so many cities mapped for aerial imagery is very interesting to me. Do we know how they get this aerial imagery data? (i.e. Is it one or more subcontracted companies that specialize in aerial photography?)
"The US National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) offers aerial image data of the US at one-meter resolution, including nearly complete coverage every several years since 2003. Earth Engine includes this data as well as sample imagery from several commercial providers."
I’d argue that we shouldn’t be so quick to say what isn’t in OSMs scope.
To me, OSM should be the open Source Of Truth for all worldwide GIS data, a way to refer to our entire cartographic world in a digital format. Perhaps now it’s restricted to mapping data, but I would love to see the steering committee bring additional products out (temporal layers, the mapping you mention, and so on).
If OSM is important to you, there’s an open executive position advertised on the last HN Who’s Hiring post.
> If OSM is important to you, there’s an open executive position advertised on the last HN Who’s Hiring post.
That position is only for the "OpenStreetMap US" local chapter, not OSM globally. OSM is quite large outside the US, so if you get that job, don't expect to be able to shape the OSM community & project, which can be like herding cats...
The best way to affect change like this in OSM, is to become active and respected in the project. It's quite a do-ocracy.
They certainly would have a lot of influence within the OSM US org, and amoung US companies who do OSM stuff. But the OSM community isn't as big in the US (per capita, or in raw numbers) compared to other countries.
The technology would be available already, what is needed is the data on a competitive scale. Google buys a lot of high resolution aerial imagery. A free project has no chance against that.
The 3D buildings are generated using photogrammetry, which needs aerial photos taken from multiple angles. Satellite imagery doesn't work for the sort of approach they're using. This is why it's mostly cities and important landmarks: it's very expensive to fly the planes to capture that imagery.
Photogrammetry is not rocket science and recent smart phones scan photos into 3D. Provide some Exabytes server space and start a movement with people taking city selfies ;)
Google Earth even has built-in viewshed generation which uses their 3D model data (works great), but unfortunately the 3D model layer only seems to exist for fairly populated areas (probably because it's computationally expensive) - so doing RF planning in rural areas requires more traditional legwork.
So it would be cool for a project to provide similar functionality for OpenStreetMap using this public satellite data. OpenStreetMap does have 3D modeling support but last time I looked it seemed pretty focused on buildings and people hand-editing the data.