Mapillary Blog

How to use Mapillary point data in OpenStreetMap iD

Posted on 16 Jan 2020

Mapillary has long been integrated into OpenStreetMap editors, and we are evaluating how to increase the value of both the imagery contributed by our community as well as the data extracted from that imagery. As it stands, Mapillary’s world-renowned computer vision capabilities provide an excellent tool for fixing maps in an unusual way. Outside of Mapillary imagery, we are seeing machine learning applied toward satellite imagery and telemetry data to help map roads and buildings. The coupling of computer vision and street-level imagery, however, offers a better view of the detailed reality maps have often lacked.

Street-Level Images for Better Public Transportation in Latin America

Posted on 08 Jan 2020

community

In Latin America’s rapidly growing cities, policymakers have struggled to keep up with changes in public transportation—especially around private services that have developed spontaneously for decades. With tools like Mapillary, communities have the ability to help collect the data that highlights their own experiences and needs, allowing their governments to develop regulations that can ultimately make for safer and more environmentally friendly transportation systems.

Innovative Uses for Mapillary in Field-Based Research Projects

Posted on 02 Jan 2020

community

Street-level imagery from the Mapillary platform is not only helping to build better maps all over the globe, it has also found its way into new and exciting research projects. We recently spoke with three researchers who have found innovative uses for the Mapillary platform in salmon habitat restoration, documenting the experience of a Victorian cemetery, and the fight against invasive pests.

New Optical Flow Records using Mapillary’s Five Elements of Flow

Posted on 26 Dec 2019

computer vision

In our latest work we reveal five key techniques for improving optical flow prediction — the task of estimating apparent 2D motion of every pixel in two consecutive images from a video. Our findings are the result of carefully analyzing shortcomings in existing works and thus help to improve a wide range of them. We quantitatively and qualitatively surpass the performance of directly comparable works and set new records on challenging optical flow benchmarks.

Achieving New State-of-the-Art in Monocular 3D Object Detection Using Virtual Cameras

Posted on 19 Dec 2019

computer vision

We are introducing a new way of doing 3D object detection from single 2D images. The architecture is called MoVi-3D and is a new, single-stage architecture for 3D object detection. Starting from a single 2D image, it uses geometrical information to create a set of virtual views of the scene where the detection is performed using a lightweight infrastructure.

A Look Back at 2019 and the Road to One Billion Images

Posted on 16 Dec 2019

news

The Mapillary platform now hosts one billion high-resolution images from around the world, all open and available for improving maps. With 2019 drawing to a close, we are looking back on some of the events that helped us reach this important milestone.

Unveiling our Latest Research: Multi-Object Tracking and Segmentation from Automatic Annotations

Posted on 05 Dec 2019

news computer vision

Access to high-quality training data is one of the most important requirements to push the boundaries with machine learning in computer vision. Today we’re unveiling our latest piece of research, where we roll out an entirely new way to generate training data for multi-object tracking and segmentation. The approach turns raw street-level videos into training data with unprecedented quality—even compared to results based on human-annotated data. By allowing machines to generate training data, the cost for training computer vision models can go down substantially. We validate our approach for multi-object tracking and segmentation and obtain new state-of-the-art results. Here is how.

Building Resilience Through Mapping: Learnings from Understanding Risk and State of the Map Africa

Posted on 04 Dec 2019

community

From artificial intelligence for mapping in low resource settings to encouraging women to map, there were several reoccurring topics when Understanding Risk West and Central Africa and State of the Map Africa recently met in the Ivory Coast.

Mapillary on the AWS Marketplace: An Even Easier Way for AWS Customers to Get the Map Data They Need

Posted on 03 Dec 2019

news map data

We have published 20 Mapillary datasets on the AWS Marketplace to make it easier than ever for AWS customers to access the map data they need.

The Data That Paves the Way: How We’re Building the First Open Dataset for HD Maps

Posted on 20 Nov 2019

news computer vision map data

We are building the first open dataset for maintaining and updating HD maps with Zenuity, AstaZero, RISE, and AI Innovation of Sweden. Together, we will collect map data in a highly controlled environment through cheap dashcams, lidar, and radar, in an effort to build a cost-effective way of updating HD maps and teaching autonomous vehicles to understand their surroundings through an HD map — even when the surroundings have changed remarkably.

Helping Cities Across the US to Understand Their Streets: Unveiling our Partnership with IWorQ

Posted on 13 Nov 2019

news

We’re celebrating GIS Day by unveiling a new partnership with IWorQ, the cloud-based software provider that helps 1300 US municipalities to manage their assets, facilities, licenses, and more. Together, we will help local governments all over the US to capture street-level imagery and understand their streets and roads through computer vision. With the help of computer vision technology, municipalities will get access to more and better data, which will improve decision-making and cut costs.

Accessing Machine-Extracted Map Data: Improved Data Downloads

Posted on 08 Nov 2019

product news

Downloading the map data that you’ve subscribed to is now much more flexible. You can choose the object types you wish to download, which also means your download files will get prepared faster. There are two new file types available, and notifications for when your data is ready.

Mapillary at ICCV 2019: Unveiling our Latest Benchmark Wins

Posted on 24 Oct 2019

computer vision news

Mapillary is heading to ICCV for a week packed with activities. Here’s where you will find us.

Mapillary, OpenStreetMap, and OSGeo: State of the Map and FOSS4G Retrospective

Posted on 22 Oct 2019

community

August and September proved to be a busy and exciting time of year for Mapillary, with travel and presentations to some of the most important conferences in the open geospatial world. Our team was present in Bucharest, Minneapolis, and Heidelberg to talk about Mapillary’s role in fixing maps and growing the largest collect of global street-level imagery. Read on to hear about what we presented at State of the Map, State of the Map US, and FOSS4G!

The Camera That Turns Any Fleet into a Mapping Fleet: Say Hello to the Mapillary Dashcam

Posted on 17 Oct 2019

news product

Mapillary is releasing the world’s first end-to-end encrypted mapping dashcam to help delivery and ride-sharing fleets access the map and navigation data they need to serve their customers. The camera is light, flexible, and while it requires no extra work from drivers, it can capture up to 150,000 high-quality images in one eight-hour session. The images and the data are available on the Mapillary platform within hours of uploading. Finally, a quick and easy way for fleets to get the map data they need to fix maps.

See Your Mapillary Milestones in the iOS App

Posted on 15 Oct 2019

news product

Our newest feature in the iOS app lets you see the milestones you’ve reached as a Mapillary contributor, and the next goals that await.

Towards a driverless future: How Mapillary is teaming up with Siemens to teach streetcars to see in a fully autonomous depot

Posted on 08 Oct 2019

computer vision news map data

Mapillary is teaming up with Siemens, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, and others to make driverless streetcars in a self-operating depot a reality. The project takes place in Potsdam and will over the course of three years teach a driverless streetcar to get from A to B with the help of sensor fusion and street-level imagery that Mapillary is turning into map data to allow the streetcar to see.

Using Mapillary in Education: Street-Level Imagery for the Next Generation of GIS Professionals

Posted on 03 Oct 2019

map data

Esri Education Manager, Joseph Kerski, explains how teaching with Mapillary is helping to train the spatial awareness of students who will go on to create the communities of tomorrow.

Announcing the Second Global Verification Challenge

Posted on 01 Oct 2019

computer vision

Verification projects help train the algorithms that identify objects in street-level imagery. More verifications mean more accurate detections, and that means better maps for everyone. Join us as we strive to complete one million verifications and compete for cameras and other prizes.

More Ways to Teach the Machine to See: Spotting Missed Objects

Posted on 17 Sep 2019

news product

With Verification Projects, you can do quality review of the automatic object detections that underlie Mapillary’s machine-generated map data. In addition to verifying whether detections are correct, you can now also check images for missed objects, as we release a new type of task that’s now available in all verification projects. This will help improve our algorithms even more, enabling you to scale up mapping with high-quality map data.

Protecting Privacy in the World of Better Maps: How Collaboration Paves the Way

Posted on 12 Sep 2019

computer vision

Roughly 2 million images are uploaded to Mapillary every day. Mapillary’s computer vision algorithms automatically anonymize all images by blurring sensitive information like faces and license plates. Today we’re happy to reveal that our blurring algorithms are the best available for anonymizing street-level imagery. By uploading imagery to Mapillary, you get all the data you need without compromising on privacy.

Mapping Accessibility in Istanbul and Beyond

Posted on 22 Aug 2019

community

Mapillary’s Community Operations Manager, Said Turksever, introduces us to his passion project—mapping accessibility issues and wheelchair access. Through ICT4Society, Said introduces young people from across Europe to open data and mapping tools. In the process, they build accessibility maps to help government officials make better decisions for their citizens.

Welcoming lvl5 Imagery and Contributors to Mapillary

Posted on 12 Aug 2019

news

Today we’re announcing hundreds of millions of new images being added to Mapillary. Following lvl5 moving on to new adventures, all images they collected through paid drivers are now coming to Mapillary—and made available to everyone.

Mapping the Galápagos Islands for a Better Understanding of Human Impacts on the Environment

Posted on 07 Aug 2019

thoughts

Last summer, a team of researchers from the University of Chicago embarked on an ongoing project to map the Galápagos Islands using Mapillary. Annually mapping the islands with street-level imagery contributes to a better understanding of how people affect the natural environment and our very own Chris Beddow had the opportunity to assist the team this summer with their important work.

Looking Back at Esri UC 2019

Posted on 30 Jul 2019

thoughts

Every July, Esri hosts its annual User Conference in sunny San Diego, California. Rumors say that attendance was at a record level this year, and it certainly set records for Mapillary. Six members of our team gathered from five different cities around the world to represent Mapillary. Aside from the world-class team at our exhibition booth, our latest demos and case studies helped make for a very busy week talking to new and potential customers.

Announcing the Winners of #map2020

Posted on 25 Jul 2019

community news

There were 33 projects submitted for the #map2020 challenge to build better maps in undermapped regions. Mapping teams joined in from Europe, Asia, and Africa for the chance to demonstrate how street-level imagery can play a role in addressing a humanitarian challenge. Two projects were selected to present at the HOT Summit in Germany.

How Innovative Student Research Projects Help Map the World

Posted on 18 Jul 2019

community

Mapillary is a great tool for student mapping projects since the platform allows anyone, anywhere, to map what is important to them. Whether traveling over rugged mountain terrain or through the jungle, anywhere you can bring a camera, you can map with Mapillary.

Introducing the Mapillary Partner Program

Posted on 10 Jul 2019

news

Many businesses and organizations, ranging from governmental to geospatial and mapping, already take advantage of our global street-level imagery platform to provide solutions for their customers. Today, we are making it easier than ever by announcing the latest and greatest iteration of our partnership program.

Winning at CVPR 2019: Mapillary Tops Two Computer Vision Benchmarking Challenges

Posted on 02 Jul 2019

news computer vision

At CVPR this year, Mapillary won two computer vision benchmarking challenges. We will always keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible in computer vision, and it is our award-winning models that allow us to produce the highest quality map data possible.

Introducing the Mapillary Traffic Sign Dataset for Teaching Machines to Understand Traffic Signs Globally

Posted on 27 Jun 2019

news computer vision

Today we’re releasing the Mapillary Traffic Sign Dataset, the world’s most diverse publicly available dataset of traffic sign annotations on street-level imagery that will help improve traffic safety and navigation everywhere. Covering different regions, weather and light conditions, camera sensors, and viewpoints, it enables developing high-performing traffic sign recognition models in both academic and commercial research.

The End of the Map as We Know It

Posted on 26 Jun 2019

thoughts

Whether it’s OpenStreetMap, HD maps, our mobile navigation and map applications, the up and coming story is often the same theme: everything is about to change. Mailing list discussions and State of the Map presentations have both mourned and praised OpenStreetMap in this light. The arrival of cutting edge methods of collecting or extracting map data has left many wondering if there is space for a community and the touch of human hands.

From Ghana to Iraq: How #Map2020 Mappers Use Street-Level Imagery to Tackle Humanitarian Challenges

Posted on 20 Jun 2019

community news

From Ghana to Iraq, Zambia to the Philippines, we take a look at some of the 33 mapping projects that are taking part in #map2020 to build better maps in undermapped regions. The mapping participants are collecting street-level imagery to improve things like waste management, natural disaster response, and damaged roads, addressing some of the most pressing issues in undermapped regions.

Visualizing the 3D World: A Practical Approach to Polygon Triangulation on the Sphere

Posted on 11 Jun 2019

tutorials

Mapillary uses semantic segmentation to understand the contents of each image on the platform. We visualize the segments with different colors overlaid on the image objects. This is quite the challenge when done on 360° images, which are rendered as spheres in the Mapillary viewer. Let's take a look at our approach to solve the spherical visualization problem.

Training Machines to Attain a 3D Understanding of Objects from Single, 2D Images

Posted on 05 Jun 2019

news computer vision

We sit down with Peter Kontschieder, the Director of Research at Mapillary, to talk about “Disentangling Monocular 3D Object Detection”, the latest academic paper to be published by Mapillary’s Research team. Peter tells us about how 3D object detections made in single 2D images have the ability to improve mapmaking and push down the cost of autonomous vehicles, and how the team unveiled a fundamental flaw in the metric used by the most dominant benchmarking dataset in this area.

Effortless Mapping with a Customized Mapillary Dashcam

Posted on 04 Jun 2019

news

Dashcams are the perfect type of camera for hours of imagery capture without needing much interaction from the driver. That’s why we developed the Mapillary edition of BlackVue DR900s, a high-resolution and high-performance dashcam, explicitly optimized for effortless mapping. This custom dashcam makes image collection more efficient while simplifying uploads, enabling both individual mappers and entire fleets to scale up fresh imagery collection for better maps everywhere.

Against All Odds—Mapping by Bicycle Along the Elbe in Spring

Posted on 30 May 2019

community

Mapillary is a distributed team of 55 employees in eight different time zones and twice a year we all get together at company offsites. We are all mappers at heart, so after the last gathering Tobias Ollmann, one of Mapillary’s Computer Vision Engineers, decided his trip home to Graz, Austria would be the perfect time to capture imagery for the Mapillary platform. For this reason, he decided to ride his bicycle 1,500 km from Sweden to Austria, and even though all of the odds seemed stacked against him, he was determined to finish his ride.

Geochicas: Helping Women Find their Place on the Map

Posted on 28 May 2019

community

In 2016, Geochicas was created by a small group of women in OpenStreetMap who noticed a structural issue in data communities due to the lack of female participation and project leadership. By promoting work that analyzes how women are represented in geospatial and technological spaces, they are helping to improve the overall diversity and quality of the data that goes into OpenStreetMap.

How to Use Mapillary Data in OpenStreetMap

Posted on 23 May 2019

map data tutorials

Mapillary has been processing street-level imagery with computer vision in order to extract traffic signs for several years, but in 2019 we’ve started to offer an expanded dataset. Point features such as fire hydrants, crosswalks, and manholes are also now available, with their location approximated on the map thanks to 3D reconstruction of scenes combined with segmentation of the images where these objects are recognized. To date, Mapillary has identified more than 191 million of these map features, and one of the results is GeoJSON data that can be used to enhance a map.

Map Data on Demand: Announcing the Mapillary Marketplace

Posted on 22 May 2019

news

Today, we launch the world’s first demand-driven marketplace for generating street-level imagery and map data. Mapmakers, cities, and NGOs can post mapping requests that anyone can pick up and help complete. Mapillary’s collaborative contributor network already spans 190 countries and is open for everyone to join and work on map data projects to improve maps, cities, and mobility everywhere.

Scale Imagery Collection with Capture Projects: Android App Now Available

Posted on 16 May 2019

product news

With our recently released Capture Projects, organizations like the City of Detroit have collected thousands of kilometers of fresh street-level imagery by having a team of drivers cover the area, task by task. Today we’re making Mapillary Driver, the app that drivers use for completing their tasks, available on Android. This improves access to Capture Projects as teams are now able to use a broader range of devices in the field to see what they need to map.

Announcing #CompleteTheMap V

Posted on 14 May 2019

news community

#CompleteTheMap is back for the Northern Hemisphere summer. We’re encouraging location submissions from around the world with the goal to capture dense street-level imagery within the challenge area. The top three participants will be awarded cameras for the contributions at the end of the challenge.

Launching #Map2020: A New Campaign for Building Better Maps in Undermapped Regions

Posted on 09 May 2019

community news

Mapillary and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team are joining forces to accelerate map data collection in undermapped regions. Local mappers are invited to use street-level imagery in mapping projects that address humanitarian or developmental challenges. Two of the projects submitted to the #map2020 campaign will be selected for a fully-funded trip to HOT Summit in Heidelberg, Germany this September.

Building the Global Street-Level Imagery Platform: How We Test Software at Mapillary

Posted on 25 Apr 2019

tutorials

When building a global platform for street-level imagery, there are lots of moving parts in the system that need to work together. At Mapillary, we pay a lot of attention to quality assurance and have built a testing framework that is reliable, developer-friendly, and scales as we keep developing the platform further. Here is how we do it.

Five US Departments of Transportation Upload 270,000 Miles of Road Data to Mapillary to Understand Road Safety

Posted on 17 Apr 2019

news

Road safety is a big problem in the US and a key focus for states across the country. In a big step towards ensuring road safety for their residents, Departments of Transportation in Utah, Florida, Arizona, Connecticut, and Vermont have now all made their state photologs publically available on the Mapillary platform. These images cover 270,000 miles of roads and are automatically processed with computer vision to detect guardrails, traffic signs, and pedestrians’ interactions with vehicles at scale.

Improved Viewing Experience: Announcing Combined Panning in the Mapillary Viewer

Posted on 16 Apr 2019

news

We've just enhanced the Mapillary viewer with the Combined Panning feature that lets you pan between overlapping regular images just like you would do with a full panorama, simply by dragging with your mouse. This provides a more natural and convenient viewing experience as you navigate among Mapillary imagery to look around in an area.

500 million images available to everyone

Posted on 05 Apr 2019

news

We just hit another milestone for our platform. More than 500 million images have been uploaded to Mapillary by our amazing community, customers, and partners worldwide.

Announcing Verification Projects: A Scalable Way of Validating Machine-Generated Data

Posted on 27 Mar 2019

news

With Verification Projects, map makers and GIS experts can review machine-extracted map data by adding human validation to the workflow. Comprising a project dashboard and a simple game-based tool for verifying object detections, Verification Projects enable quality assurance of the data available in any area, as well as help to improve Mapillary’s machine learning algorithms with human feedback.

And here are the winners!: Guess When We Hit 500 Million Images and Win a BlackVue Camera

Posted on 25 Mar 2019

news

Approaching the 500 millionth images on the Mapillary platform, we invited our community to guess when the 500 millionth image would be uploaded and enter the race to win a BlackVue camera and Mapillary swag.

Introducing Seamless Scene Segmentation: Allowing Machines to Understand Street Scenes Better by Turning Two Models into One

Posted on 19 Mar 2019

news computer vision

Today we’re announcing that Mapillary will publish four papers at CVPR this year. In this post, we’re looking at the paper named Seamless Scene Segmentation, which, as a world-first, rolls out a new computer vision model that slashes up to 20% computing powers when teaching machines to distinguish between people, cars, and map data like traffic signs, together with its overall environment.

Full Speed Ahead: How Toyota Research Institute is Accelerating its Machine Learning Algorithms with Mapillary

Posted on 12 Mar 2019

showcase computer vision

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is focused on developing state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms for autonomous driving to realize safe and accessible mobility for the future. In this blog post, Jie Li, Research Scientist at TRI, outlines how TRI utilizes the Mapillary Vistas Dataset as a benchmark for driving scene understanding algorithms providing geometric and semantic diversity at scale.

Improved Upload Management in the Desktop Uploader

Posted on 07 Mar 2019

news

Uploading thousands of images got even easier with the latest release of the Mapillary Desktop Uploader, which adds functionality for previewing images and managing your upload history. Spend less time handling your uploads and more time improving maps!

Deriving Data from Imagery: An Intro to Deriviste and OpenStreetMap

Posted on 19 Feb 2019

community

A lesser-known OSM tool, Deriviste allows creation of new point data by clicking in the Mapillary viewer, or referencing a point on the map with a marker in the viewer. In this post we’ll learn where it came from and how it works.

Announcing Capture Projects: An Entirely New Way of Collecting Map Data at Scale

Posted on 13 Feb 2019

news

Today we’re announcing Capture Projects to help cities, mapmakers, and transportation agencies everywhere ramp up imagery and map data collection. With the release of a new project dashboard and an accompanying app, called Mapillary Driver, organizations can now manage an unlimited number of drivers to capture street-level imagery at any given point, rapidly escalating how quickly maps can be updated at scale.

From Sideline to Center: The Potential for OpenStreetMap to Seize the Curb

Posted on 12 Feb 2019

community

As technology evolves, there is a growing need for more detailed information in maps. Curbs are a great example of a street asset that has a wide variety of purposes, which puts increased pressure on maps and the details they do—or rather, don’t—provide. In this post, Daniela Waltersdorfer J joins Mapillary's Christopher Beddow to explore the potential for OpenStreetMap to embrace the curb.

Doing way more with Less: Catching up with the Mapillary Research Team

Posted on 30 Jan 2019

news computer vision

Since 2016 when we opened our AI lab in Graz, the research team has been busy publishing papers, winning benchmarking competitions, and developing the building blocks that power Mapillary. Now we are celebrating the opening of a brand new Graz lab and looking back at how it all came together.

Updating Maps with Cameras: 42 New Object Classes Now Available as Map Features

Posted on 23 Jan 2019

news

Today we’re announcing 42 new types of map features that Mapillary extracts from street-level imagery and automatically positions onto the map. Ranging from utility poles and streetlights to mailboxes and manholes, this will help cities, mapping companies, and transportation agencies keep their maps up to date using cameras.

2018 Year in Review

Posted on 27 Dec 2018

news

2018 is coming to a close, and it’s that time of year where we look back at some of the best moments.

Ramp up Imagery Collection with the New Mapillary Desktop Uploader

Posted on 27 Dec 2018

news

The latest addition to the Mapillary toolset is a desktop application that lets you upload thousands of geotagged images with little time and effort.

Announcing #CompletetheMap IV

Posted on 20 Dec 2018

community

After a few months in hiding, CompletetheMap is back.

Community Mapping Projects in 2018

Posted on 13 Dec 2018

showcase

With 2018 coming to a close, we are highlighting some of the outstanding community projects from this year.

Mapillary in Japan

Posted on 06 Dec 2018

community

The Mapillary community is spread across the world, with significant contributions coming in from Finland in the north, Argentina in the south, and—if we’re slicing the world in half by the international dateline—the USA in the west and Japan to the east.

Exploring Zanzibar with Mapillary: Pt 2 - The End of the Road

Posted on 28 Nov 2018

showcase

After the labyrinth of Stone Town’s alleys and a ship wreck on the west coast, our story heads east. This blog post is a continuation of Pt 1 - The Chief Officers’ Logbook. If you haven’t read part 1 of our adventures in Zanzibar, start there. If you have, welcome to part 2!

Exploring Zanzibar with Mapillary: Pt 1 - The Chief Officers’ Logbook

Posted on 22 Nov 2018

showcase

Following FOSS4G 2018 in Dar Es Salaam, Mapillary's own Chris and Ed went on a mapping adventure across Zanzibar. This is part one of a two part series about their mission to help create one of the most accurately mapped areas in Africa.

Automating the Process: Collecting Traffic Sign Data in Clovis

Posted on 14 Nov 2018

showcase

In many one-person GIS shops across the United States, collecting and managing local assets can be a daunting task. For Steven Hewett of Clovis, New Mexico, Mapillary presented a way to streamline and automate the process of completing a city-wide traffic sign inventory.

Announcing Mapillary SDKs: Add Mapillary Capture Functionality to Any Mobile App

Posted on 06 Nov 2018

news

The Mapillary mobile app SDKs enable anyone to build a street-level imagery capture component into their app with custom features. This makes it easier and more convenient for people to collect Mapillary imagery, which they can then use to update and enrich maps.

Launching the Better, Faster, Upgraded Mapillary Web

Posted on 30 Oct 2018

news

We have just launched an upgraded version of our website that features notable improvements (up to 80%) in page loading times. In addition, we’ve implemented the latest MapillaryJS release which helps straighten up distorted images and make transitions smoother between images. With this, we’re offering a much faster and better experience when using the platform.

“A lot of white roads waiting to be turned green”—JB Brown and his 200,000+ mapped kilometers

Posted on 25 Oct 2018

community

With more than 200,000 km mapped, JB Brown has dominated the Mapillary contributions leaderboard since joining two years ago. We recently caught up with him to hear about what motivates him, and how he explains Mapillary and mapping when he gives members of the Amish community a ride in his van.

Building Maps with Street-Level Imagery for Disaster Risk Reduction and Response

Posted on 15 Oct 2018

community

For this International Day for Disaster Reduction we are profiling some of the different ways people and organizations are using street-level imagery to spring into action before, during, and after disaster strikes.

Five Years of Mapillary—From the First Image to a Global Platform

Posted on 11 Oct 2018

news

This week marks five years since we started this little “project” of ours. It seemed controversial at first but now, five years later, it’s become a completely normal and sane thing. Time for a short reflection on this half-decade.

Improving the Viewing Experience: Image Undistortion in MapillaryJS

Posted on 04 Oct 2018

news

Radial distortion is a common problem when the 3D world is represented in 2D images. With the latest MapillaryJS release, we are now undistorting every image. This leads to a better 3D representation and improves the viewing experience of Mapillary images.

Map the Alps with Mapillary, HERE, and Garmin

Posted on 24 Sep 2018

community

Map coverage in the Alps needs improving. That’s why Mapillary, HERE, and Garmin are offering prizes for mappers who increase map coverage in the given areas. The Alps are visited by over 120 million people annually, so up-to-date maps are important. Here’s how you can help (and how you win one of the prizes!).

Analyzing Parking Signs at Scale: How Mapillary is Working with Amazon Rekognition to Help US Cities End Their Parking Troubles

Posted on 13 Sep 2018

news map data computer vision

Managing parking infrastructure is a billion-dollar problem for cities all across the US. There has been no easy way for cities and Departments of Transportation to access parking sign data, resulting in poor decisions around parking infrastructure and planning. Today, Mapillary and Amazon Rekognition are introducing a scalable way to help US cities get a handle of their parking infrastructure.

Announcing the Winners of the Joint COCO and Mapillary Recognition Challenge Workshop for ECCV 2018

Posted on 10 Sep 2018

news

Earlier this year, COCO and Mapillary invited computer vision researchers to participate in a workshop co-located with this year’s European Conference on Computer Vision. Today we’re announcing the winners.

Winning the ECCV Semantic Segmentation Challenge for Autonomous Navigation in Unstructured Environments

Posted on 29 Aug 2018

news

Mapillary just scored another success in computer vision benchmarking. This wouldn't be possible without our community: by contributing more than 350 million images from all over the world, they've created a dataset that helps build robust algorithms for making sense of any street scene that a self-driving car may encounter.

Celebrating Five Million Kilometers of Mapillary Coverage

Posted on 31 Jul 2018

news

At Mapillary, we believe that the best way to visually represent our planet is through people and organizations working together. As of today, our community has collectively mapped five million kilometers!

Extending the Mapillary Vistas Dataset for Perfecting Street Scene Segmentation Models

Posted on 30 Jul 2018

news

The newly released extension of the Mapillary Vistas Dataset provides over 60 new object classes and even more granularity, including traffic light states. With a total of more than 150 classes, it remains the most diverse publicly available training dataset covering street scenes from around the world.

Welcoming Till Quack to the Mapillary Team

Posted on 12 Jul 2018

news

This week we're happy to welcome Till Quack as Mapillary's first VP of Product

Up-to-date GIS Data Across the Globe with Mapillary for Organizations

Posted on 10 Jul 2018

showcase

Learn how our GIS customers use Mapillary for infrastructure maintenance, traffic sign inventory, and asset management—now with support for working with your organization on the Mapillary platform.

The Road Less Traveled: How Students Used Mapillary and OpenStreetMap to Highlight Accessibility Issues in Their City

Posted on 04 Jul 2018

showcase

This is a guest post by a group of engineering students at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology, showing the importance of individual mappers in getting the less common perspective when evaluating mobility conditions in cities around the world.

Building the Tools to Show Us the Way: How Mapillary is Ramping up Traffic Sign Recognition Globally

Posted on 15 Jun 2018

computer vision

We’re releasing an update to Mapillary’s traffic sign recognition, featuring wider support of traffic sign classes globally, improved recognition accuracy, and traffic sign taxonomy.

Winning the CVPR Semantic Segmentation Challenge: How Mapillary Makes Computer Vision Algorithms Effective and Robust

Posted on 14 Jun 2018

news

Mapillary has won the Semantic Segmentation Challenge as part of the 2018 CVPR Robust Vision Workshop. Here's how we did it.

Launching Mapillary for Organizations: Work Together with the Freshest Map Data

Posted on 12 Jun 2018

news

Mapillary now supports organizations to easily create and share street-level imagery and automatically extracted data to keep maps and geospatial datasets up to date.

Balancing Urban Infrastructure: Perspectives from Valencian Cyclists

Posted on 11 Jun 2018

showcase

Citizens and the city council in Valencia, Spain, are working together to increase the safety, efficiency, and popularity of cycling. They use street-level imagery to provide a visual reference of the current situation and extract data for updating maps. This improves information exchange between stakeholders and helps the city government decide how to allocate the €4.5M budget assigned to developing bicycle infrastructure.

Simpler Command Line Tools for Everyone

Posted on 31 May 2018

news

The updated Mapillary command line tools make uploading and preprocessing your imagery easier—and not just for programmers.

More Flexibility to Compare Images with MapillaryJS

Posted on 30 May 2018

news

After the recent update of MapillaryJS, you can now compare any pair of images, regular as well as panoramas. It also features a simpler design to make MapillaryJS integrate smoothly in various applications.

Editing in Map Creator with Mapillary Imagery

Posted on 18 May 2018

tutorials

Learn how you can add points of interest and road information in Map Creator with help of Mapillary imagery.

Join the HERE Game of Maps

Posted on 16 May 2018

community

Put your mapping skills to the test and participate in HERE’s Game of Maps with awesome prizes!

(Geo-)Social Media and Mapping: Which Spatial Footprints Do We Leave via Online Services?

Posted on 15 May 2018

community

At Mapillary, we are all in for research and innovation. In this guest post, Levente Juhász describes his academic research about Volunteered Geographic Information and asks for some help from our community.

HERE and Mapillary: Linking Two Global Communities

Posted on 10 May 2018

news

Our partnership with HERE goes global to reinforce the power of community mapping.

Creative Commons Summit and How Mapillary Makes Global Relations

Posted on 27 Apr 2018

community

Peter Leth, our active contributor and educational advisor for Creative Commons Denmark, represented Mapillary at the Creative Commons Global Summit. He shares his insights (and an unexpected meeting) in this blog post—published under the CC BY license, giving everyone the ability to share, copy, distribute and reuse it.

Global #CompletetheMap Returns

Posted on 25 Apr 2018

community

The second Global CompletetheMap Challenge will launch on 1 May. Nominate your location and compete with Mapillary contributors across the world—and win awesome prizes!

Accurate Privacy Blurring at Scale

Posted on 19 Apr 2018

news

We have developed an accurate and fast algorithm for privacy blurring on street-level images. The new model, based on semantic segmentation, detects 99.9% of identifiable faces and license plates and is optimized for large-scale processing.

Scaling up with a $15M Investment

Posted on 12 Apr 2018

news

BMW i Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and NavInfo join our existing investors to support growing the world’s largest collaborative street-level imagery platform for extracting map data using computer vision.

March 2018 Leaderboards

Posted on 10 Apr 2018

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and verifications in March.

Mapping and Machines: Level up with AI

Posted on 29 Mar 2018

thoughts

Knowledge and supervision from humans, speed and scale from machines. This is how we can keep up with the freshness, coverage, accuracy, and high level of detail that we require from our maps.

Vermont Opens Up 5 Years of Road Imagery for Improving Transportation Services

Posted on 28 Mar 2018

showcase

The Vermont Transportation Agency is the first State Department of Transportation (DOT) in the U.S. to bring their photo logs to Mapillary. Five million images collected over five years are now easy to integrate into the agency’s workflows, and also available to the public as open data.

How Red Cross Uses Data During Global Disasters

Posted on 21 Mar 2018

showcase

Dan Joseph, GIS Officer at the American Red Cross, gives us an insight into using street-level imagery in disaster response and the challenges they face when time is critical.

Let's Visualize the World with AI and GIS

Posted on 09 Mar 2018

thoughts

GIS specialist Sanna Jokela from Mapillary's partner Gispo was invited to give a speech on AI and GIS. This is what she found out, exploring the unfamiliar topic of artificial intelligence.

February 2018 Leaderboards

Posted on 05 Mar 2018

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and verifications in February.

MapillaryJS Now Enables Fast Sequence Navigation

Posted on 22 Feb 2018

news

With the recent update of MapillaryJS, we have added controls for fast sequence navigation and better sequence overview. Now you can easily navigate to the beginning, end, or any other position of interest in a sequence.

Challenging the Winter Dip, from Australia to Uganda

Posted on 21 Feb 2018

community

The first edition of the Global Complete the Map challenge has drawn to an end with remarkable results despite the hardships of the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Here’s a recap of what was achieved and what’s planned next.

What We Learnt about GIS at the Mapillary Meetup

Posted on 13 Feb 2018

community

Conversations at the first Mapillary GIS Meetup had a recurring theme. GIS work can include some cumbersome processes, but the experts working in the field have lots of creative solutions. Mapillary’s role is to provide the tools that help bring these to life.

January 2018 Leaderboards

Posted on 09 Feb 2018

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and verifications in January.

Mapillary for ArcGIS Pro Enters Public Beta

Posted on 07 Feb 2018

news

Mapillary for ArcGIS Pro is now available as a Public Beta with considerable performance improvements compared to the previous version. We invite you to join directly from the Mapillary for ArcGIS page.

From Street Level to Peak Level: Adventure Mapping in Morocco

Posted on 01 Feb 2018

tutorials

Can you hike in unknown wilderness and make maps at the same time? Absolutely. Here is how I did it in Morocco last summer, gathering lots of details that are useful for the explorers coming after me.

Citizen Engagement for Youth—Reporting School Route Issues with Mapillary

Posted on 26 Jan 2018

showcase

The City of Turku together with Mapillary partner Gispo used Mapillary for reviewing school routes of students to discover potential safety hazards and other issues.

Tracking Placemaking in Public Spaces

Posted on 17 Jan 2018

showcase

In this guest post, Anna Siprikova from Project for Public Spaces explains how they used Mapillary to make the process of analyzing public spaces easier, faster, and available to everyone.

Mapillary GIS Meetup—Malmö, 6 Feb

Posted on 15 Jan 2018

news

Join us for an evening of GIS talk and demos to learn how street-level imagery can help automatize road and street inventories.

Autonomous Intelligent Driving Advances with the Mapillary Vistas Dataset

Posted on 15 Jan 2018

showcase

Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH has licensed the Mapillary Vistas Dataset to develop technology for self-driving cars across the whole Volkswagen Group.

Between the Lines in Helsingborg: Locating Assets via Imagery

Posted on 12 Jan 2018

map data

Helsingborg, a forward-thinking Swedish city, makes visual geospatial data available on Mapillary for both staff and the public. Automatically extracted map features complement the city's geospatial records and help get an overview of Helsingborg's assets.

New Benchmarks for Semantic Segmentation Models

Posted on 11 Jan 2018

news

Mapillary Research ranks no. 1 for semantic segmentation of street scenes on the Cityscapes and Mapillary Vistas leaderboards.

December 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 04 Jan 2018

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and verifications in December.

2017 Year in Review

Posted on 29 Dec 2017

news

With another year coming to a close, we’d like to highlight some of its best Mapillary moments.

Boosting Semantic Segmentation Performance with NVIDIA and Amazon

Posted on 22 Dec 2017

news

The new NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics processing units and TensorRT 3.0 library together with Amazon EC2 P3 instances make Mapillary’s semantic segmentation models 27 times faster while using 81% less memory.

Experts, Crowds, Machines—Who Will Build the Maps of the Future?

Posted on 21 Dec 2017

thoughts

Geospatial data is the building block of the modern web map, but its production has evolved rapidly in recent years with a vast quantity of user-created content. What once was the realm of experts has now been democratized for the common user, but crowdsourced and volunteered data faces criticisms over its quality. Machine learning is offering an intelligent and objective way to enhance collaborative work and bring added precision and accuracy. But which source will be the one providing the maps of the future?

Advancing Map Data Extraction with Line Features

Posted on 13 Dec 2017

news

We’ve taken a big step forward in extracting map data from images. 19 of the object classes we’re detecting in images via semantic segmentation, all representing line-shaped real-world objects, are now available as line features located on the map.

Added Controls for Sequence Playback: Change Speed and Direction

Posted on 11 Dec 2017

news

The latest MapillaryJS release adds support for changing the speed and direction when playing a sequence.

Massive Memory Savings for Training Modern Deep Learning Architectures

Posted on 08 Dec 2017

computer vision

Mapillary Research has developed a novel approach to training recognition models to handle up to 50% more training data than before in every single learning iteration. With this technology, we can improve over the winning semantic segmentation method of this year’s Large-Scale Scene Understanding Workshop on the challenging Mapillary Vistas Dataset, setting a new state of the art.

#CompletetheMap—Launching the Global Challenge

Posted on 05 Dec 2017

news

After a number a successful local challenges, Complete the Map is going global. To participate in the largest Mapillary challenge, register a location you'd like to contribute to. Kick-off on 11st December!

November 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 04 Dec 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, tags, and verifications in November.

Introducing the Mapillary Tasker: Collaborate with Anyone on Mapillary

Posted on 28 Nov 2017

news

To reinforce the power of collaboration, we made it easier for contributors to work together on clearly defined tasks focused on street-level images. The Mapillary Tasker will let you invite people to help complete capture, map editing, or data verification tasks in your area.

Mapping Arctic Research Stations on Svalbard

Posted on 24 Nov 2017

showcase

As a part of an EU infrastructure and collaboration project, the father-son team that photo mapped the Faroe Islands last summer is now inviting you to take a virtual tour of the Ny-Ålesund Arctic research station on Svalbard.

The Future of Maps for Mobility (Presentation from Geography2050)

Posted on 23 Nov 2017

thoughts

Take a look at the Mapillary presentation from the American Geographical Society's Geography2050 event.

Rutmap Introduces New Technologies in Presenting Tourist Attractions of Sarajevo

Posted on 20 Nov 2017

showcase

Sarajevo's most popular virtual map is going to show street-level views of the city via a Mapillary integration.

Completing the Map for Bicycle Advocacy in Ottawa

Posted on 17 Nov 2017

map data

Bike Ottawa members captured 450,000 images across 2,000 km in just a little over a month to gather data for bicycle advocacy work. Determining the need for infrastructure creation and maintenance, building a model for traffic stress levels, and monitoring progress are just some of the ways they are now using the imagery.

GIS Day Special: 15 Stories in Street-Level Imagery

Posted on 15 Nov 2017

showcase

We're celebrating GIS day with 15 customer stories told with street-level imagery—from asset inventories and city planning to disaster response and open data initiatives. Also, we're involved in a number of events!

October 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 10 Nov 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, tags, and verifications in October.

Behind the Scenes of the First State of the Map Africa

Posted on 06 Nov 2017

thoughts

In this guest post, Mapillary Ambassador Geoffrey Kateregga shares the background and backstage of organizing the first continental State of the Map conference in Africa.

Taking the Tour: Mapillary in Esri Story Maps

Posted on 26 Oct 2017

tutorials

Esri Story Maps are meant for telling stories with a combination of text, images, and multimedia content. They are also a great method for quickly sharing interesting Mapillary sequences, particularly if you want to thread them together into one narrative.

Disaster Resilience Starts Today. What Can You Do to Help?

Posted on 20 Oct 2017

thoughts

We don’t know when disaster strikes but we know that everyone—individuals, organizations, and companies—can act already today to contribute to disaster resilience and recovery. Here are some examples of how the mapping community has come together to support disaster-related activities that save lives.

Anyone Can Teach the Computer: The Mapillary Verifier Tool

Posted on 18 Oct 2017

news

Today we release a feature for verifying Mapillary’s object detections. The Verifier tool gives anyone the chance to help improve data accuracy while competing in a fun game.

Human in the Loop: Perfecting AI Algorithms

Posted on 12 Oct 2017

computer vision

Machine learning needs human input. By creating a loop where human feedback is provided to the output of AI detection algorithms, we can significantly improve the accuracy of the models and the resulting map data.

A New Way to Organize Imagery: Introducing Tagging

Posted on 11 Oct 2017

news

The tagging feature in Mapillary will let you organize imagery by adding tags to whole images or specific objects in images. As Mapillary in general, this function is also collaborative, so anyone is able to search for tags added by everyone else.

Celebrating 200 Million Images

Posted on 05 Oct 2017

news

Thanks to all of you, we've added another hundred million images in less than a year!

The Road to Safety: Network Effects from Collaboration

Posted on 04 Oct 2017

thoughts

Considering that there are network effects in developing self-driving cars, collaboration is the crucial element that helps increase traffic safety for everyone.

Map Data in the Era of Autonomous Driving

Posted on 29 Sep 2017

computer vision

The development of autonomous driving sets high requirements to map data. Next to using advanced equipment to collect map data, collaborative mapping combined with computer vision is a lower-cost, faster, more scalable approach.

Celebration with Open Data: Making Lithuanian Road Imagery Available to Everyone

Posted on 28 Sep 2017

map data

The Lithuanian Road Administration is making imagery from the entire road network in Lithuania available to the public. This is an open data initiative of the modern civic state that will soon celebrate its Centennial.

Mapillary Partners with Trimble: High-Precision Street-Level Imagery at Your Fingertips

Posted on 27 Sep 2017

news

Trimble releases support for Mapillary Exporter to facilitate getting map data from high-quality, high-precision street-level imagery.

Editing Map Data with AI Detections

Posted on 22 Sep 2017

tutorials

Here's a step-by-step example for using Mapillary AI detections for map editing, based on the video tutorial by Mapillary Ambassador Nuno.

Microsoft Donates Imagery to Help with Disaster Recovery in Texas and Florida

Posted on 14 Sep 2017

news

To support disaster recovery efforts related to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Microsoft is sharing 360° street-level imagery of the affected areas in Texas and Florida to the Mapillary platform.

August 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 05 Sep 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and capture days in August.

How to Make Time Travel Happen

Posted on 30 Aug 2017

computer vision

The Time Travel feature on Mapillary is great for observing how places change in time. Here's an insight into how it works and what you can do to get more matches between images.

State of the Map 2017: An Evolving Map Ecosystem

Posted on 29 Aug 2017

thoughts

State of the Map 2017 highlighted the mutual dependence of individuals, NGOs, universities, and companies when it comes to the future of OpenStreetMap. This post outlines why this is a positive development and covers some of the takeaways from this year's international conference.

Fast Traffic Sign Mapping with OpenStreetMap and Mapillary

Posted on 21 Aug 2017

tutorials

Mapbox engineer Bryan Housel explains how to use the Mapillary layer in iD editor to speed up mapping traffic signs in OpenStreetMap.

Navigating with Images: Mapillary Plugin in OsmAnd

Posted on 18 Aug 2017

tutorials

Street-level views are now available in the OsmAnd app via the Mapillary plugin. Use Mapillary imagery for improved navigation with OsmAnd, and OsmAnd for better planning of your Mapillary routes. Anna Soloviova from OsmAnd's community support explains how.

Adding Park Attributes to OpenStreetMap

Posted on 16 Aug 2017

tutorials

The final part of the video tutorial by Mapillary Ambassador Nuno shows you how to add details about parks to OpenStreetMap.

Adding Road Attributes to OpenStreetMap

Posted on 11 Aug 2017

tutorials

Here is part II of the video tutorial about editing OpenStreetMap with help of Mapillary imagery by our Ambassador Nuno. This time we take a look at road attributes.

Visualizing AI Detections for Improved Map Editing

Posted on 08 Aug 2017

news

Our new AI detections feature lets you quickly find images where objects have been automatically detected, making it easier to use Mapillary imagery to edit maps and geospatial datasets.

July 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 07 Aug 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most images, edits, blurs, and capture days in July and find out who managed to contribute more than a million images within a month.

Adding Building Attributes to OpenStreetMap

Posted on 03 Aug 2017

tutorials

This tutorial is a write-up of the video instructions provided by Mapillary Ambassador Nuno on how to add building data to OpenStreetMap using street-level images.

Mapillary 2 Commons: A Tool for Easy Image Exporting

Posted on 02 Aug 2017

tutorials

In this guest post, Albin Larsson introduces the Mapillary 2 Commons tool that he has built for easy exporting of Mapillary images to Wikimedia Commons so they can be used in different projects and Wikipedia articles.

Introducing Mapillary for ArcGIS Pro

Posted on 31 Jul 2017

news

Mapillary imagery is now available in ArcGIS Pro. The Beta release of Mapillary for ArcGIS Pro will let you use street-level imagery for visual reference, feature editing, and comparison over time.

More Accurate Map Data: Improving 3D Reconstruction with Semantic Understanding

Posted on 26 Jul 2017

computer vision

Reconstructing a 3D world from 2D images is not as straightforward for a computer as it is for humans due to the fact that some objects are moving around in the real world. Understanding an image scene through semantic segmentation improves the 3D reconstruction, resulting in more accurate map data and better navigation in the image viewer.

Collaboration, Computer Vision, and Data—Challenges for Building Maps and Automotive AI

Posted on 21 Jul 2017

thoughts

The main challenges for the mapping and automotive industries are people applying methods that don’t scale, and people holding on to their data in a prisoner’s dilemma like manner.

Get on the Bus! With OpenStreetMap and Mapillary

Posted on 17 Jul 2017

news

Let’s work together to improve the information on bus routes across the US. Join us for the OpenStreetMap US Summer Bus Mapathon!

How to Map Bus Routes and Infrastructure on OpenStreetMap

Posted on 17 Jul 2017

tutorials

There’s lots of data about bus routes and bus stops that you can add to OpenStreetMap. Here is an overview of how to add information on routes, accessibility, and amenities by using street-level images.

Street-level Storytelling: Introducing the Mapillary Photostories Tool

Posted on 13 Jul 2017

news

Tell your stories in more than words and images! The Mapillary Photostories tool lets you take viewers to the places that matter to you and tell the tales around them.

From Panoramio to Mapillary: Jorfro's Spectacular Captures

Posted on 07 Jul 2017

community

Our community member `jorfro` loves taking photos—he used to do it in his work and for Panoramio. Now he is retired and Panoramio is gone, but he has found a new hobby in Mapillary and is one of Sweden's top contributors.

June 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 05 Jul 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most photos, edits, blurs, and capture days in June.

#CompletetheMap Challenges—Targeted Collection of Fresh Imagery

Posted on 29 Jun 2017

news

We're running challenges around the world to create fresh coverage in selected locations and explore the potential for targeted image collection. The goal is to complete the map.

Amsterdam in 360: From Imagery to Map Data in Seven Days

Posted on 28 Jun 2017

map data

The City of Amsterdam captured 800,000 panoramic images of the city and brought them to Mapillary in an open data effort. In just a week's time, the street-level views and the map data derived from the imagery have been made available for anyone to use.

Collaborating to Map the Planet: Extending Our Partnership with HERE

Posted on 27 Jun 2017

news

Following a successful pilot, we’re continuing our partnership with HERE, the global map data and location services provider. We’re working with HERE and their Map Creator community to deliver better maps to millions of people—and add millions of images to the Mapillary database along the way.

City Mapathon: (San) Juan more time!

Posted on 21 Jun 2017

community

Our Ambassador Erwin recaps a mapathon of the MapAmore initiative in San Juan, Philippines, and shares good examples for evacuation and emergency related mapping on OpenStreetMap.

The Route 66 on a Bicycle: Do It Now, Don't Wait Too Long!

Posted on 16 Jun 2017

community

Mapillary cyclist Volker shares his experience from crossing the US from east to west on a 4,000-km bicycle tour along the famous Route 66. Read about the good, the not-so-good, and the practical tips for covering the ride with over 300k photos.

Mapillary API: Hello to v3 and Goodbye to v2

Posted on 14 Jun 2017

news

Here is what you need to know about migrating to Mapillary API v3 as v2 retires.

Pushing the Limits of Scene Understanding: LSUN’17 Workshop and Semantic Image Segmentation Challenges

Posted on 13 Jun 2017

news

We invite researchers to participate in a challenge for large-scale scene understanding models as part of the LSUN workshop at this year’s Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference.

New iOS Camera Features and Updated User Interface

Posted on 08 Jun 2017

news

Mapillary for iOS now lets you capture with the phone's internal camera together with external cameras, and use each camera in any of the three capturing modes (distance- or time-based automatic, or manual mode). In addition, we've added support for more GoPro cameras, and freshened up the camera screen to make it really easy to use the new functions.

May 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 07 Jun 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most photos, edits, blurs and mapping days in May.

From Uganda Mapillary Challenge to State of the Map Africa: Announcing the Winner

Posted on 05 Jun 2017

community

The Mapillary challenge in Uganda resulted in great mapping experiences and over 100,000 new images of the country. Our Ambassador Geoffrey announces the winner who'll be holding a Mapillary workshop at State of the Map Africa.

Making Digital Mapping Technologies Smarter with an Austrian Research Grant

Posted on 24 May 2017

news

We are glad to acknowledge that Mapillary Research has received funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) for building next-generation maps. We have added more computational power and two expert researchers to our Research team to ramp up developing the computer vision algorithms that generate digital map data from Mapillary imagery.

Complete the Map Challenge - Berlin

Posted on 22 May 2017

news

Over the next three weeks, we’re bringing together the Mapillary community in Berlin in a challenge to photo map zones of Mitte and Kreuzberg. Anyone in Berlin or passing through during this time is welcome to join the

How to Improve OpenStreetMap Road Data with Mapillary

Posted on 18 May 2017

tutorials

Mapillary Ambassador Nuno teaches you how to use Mapillary to enhance road data in OpenStreetMap, including turn restrictions, speed limits and bumps, turning lanes, traffic signs, and sidewalk information.

By the Numbers: How to Make Your Own Leaderboard for Mapillary Uploads

Posted on 12 May 2017

tutorials

You can now build a custom leaderboard for your event or challenge with help of the Mapillary API. Here's how.

April 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 10 May 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most photos, edits, blurs and mapping days in April.

Two New Mapillary Partners

Posted on 08 May 2017

news

Meet our newest partners Sige and Red Hen Systems.

Releasing the World’s Largest Street-level Imagery Dataset for Teaching Machines to See

Posted on 03 May 2017

news

Mapillary Vistas, the world’s largest and most diverse publicly available, pixel-accurately and instance-specifically annotated street-level imagery dataset, will empower autonomous mobility and transport at the global scale.

Jacob and the Meaning of GPS-enabled Cameras

Posted on 27 Apr 2017

community

Read how armchair mapping, cameras with GPS, and the passion to make oneself useful have shaped one of Mapillary's most active community members.

Save and Share Your Filter Setups with URLs

Posted on 26 Apr 2017

news

You can easily save and share the filters you have set up in the Mapillary viewer, since we now store filters in the URL.

Volcano Mapping: Ascending el Bosque del Niño

Posted on 18 Apr 2017

community

Read the sequel to the adventures of the Costa Rican Mapperspace group as they capture and map the nature of Costa Rica in "the Forest of the Child".

Uniting Against Potholes: Partnership Between Járókelő and Mapillary

Posted on 13 Apr 2017

showcase

The Hungarian citizen community Járókelő is integrating Mapillary to help people detect and report potholes to their local government for infrastructure improvements.

Where’s My Data? How to Retrieve Mapillary Images to Use in External Tools

Posted on 12 Apr 2017

tutorials

Getting your Mapillary tracks and photos as line and point data is easy. Here is a step-by-step guide to pull the data you need via the Mapillary API, so you’ll be able to use it in any tool you want.

How to Map Hiking Routes in OpenStreetMap and Mapillary

Posted on 07 Apr 2017

tutorials

Detailed maps are essential to enjoy hiking to the fullest. Combining Mapillary with OSM gives you the ability to map your favorite trails and let everyone else explore the area.

March 2017 Leaderboards

Posted on 05 Apr 2017

community

To keep the competitive spirits up, we're going to start publishing a series of monthly leaderboards. Take a look at who contributed with most photos, edits, blurs and mapping days in March.

Mapanica Workshop: Using Mapillary for Urban Cycling

Posted on 30 Mar 2017

community

The Nicaraguan OpenStreetMap community, Mapanica, organised a workshop to teach people how to use Mapillary for improving maps and infrastructure for urban biking.

Edit Map Objects with MapillaryJS

Posted on 29 Mar 2017

news

The latest MapillaryJS release adds support for map object editing in the viewer.

More Mapillary Partners

Posted on 28 Mar 2017

news

We are happy to add three more organizations to our list of partners to help make the most out of street-level imagery.

Mapillary's Rhythm

Posted on 21 Mar 2017

map data

Over the past few years Mapillary has matured into a worldwide repository of street-level photos. Take a quick look behind the scenes and see how millions of photos are flowing into the system.

11 Frequently Asked Questions About Mapillary

Posted on 17 Mar 2017

community

There is a lot to explore on Mapillary, but also so much to explore about Mapillary. Here are answers to 11 of the most common things people want to know.

Find Your Local Vendors on Eniro with Mapillary Street-Level Photos

Posted on 16 Mar 2017

news

We're proud to announce that Eniro has integrated Mapillary into their search services, enabling their visitors to find the location of businesses and individuals via street-level images that have been provided by local people.

Photo Mapping the Canals with Maptime Amsterdam

Posted on 15 Mar 2017

community

A recent Maptime Amsterdam event was the perfect chance to discuss using street-level images in map making and try out some hands-on activities to capture the beautiful city.

Community Story: MapperSpace #2 - Mapping the Poás Volcano

Posted on 12 Mar 2017

community

This is a guest post by Mapillary Ambassador Leo, originally posted on his own blog. He and other local MapperSpace members put the Poás Volcano in Costa Rica on the map with help from as many tools as they possibly could.

Mapping Your Perspective: Mapillary and Viewshed in ArcGIS Online

Posted on 06 Mar 2017

tutorials

This is the first out of two blog posts that teach you how to combine the power of viewshed and Mapillary to give a more complete idea of what is visible from a given point on the map.

I Saw the Sign: 3 Trends in Traffic Sign Inventory with Street-level Photos

Posted on 02 Mar 2017

thoughts

Keeping an overview of the traffic signs in an area is not an easy task. We’ve learnt a lot from our customers in this field and want to share 3 trends in harnessing technology for traffic sign inventories and asset inventories in general - 360 views, cameras offering competition to LIDAR, and the “Daily Street View”.

Street-level Imagery for Appraisals: Partnering with Bruce Harris

Posted on 27 Feb 2017

news

We are glad to announce our partnership with Bruce Harris & Associates to make street-level imagery accessible and affordable in appraisal services.

Planning the City of Tepic with New Technologies and Citizen Participation

Posted on 08 Feb 2017

showcase

In this guest post Alberto Partida from the Municipality Planning Institution of Tepic, Mexico, shares his thoughts about the importance of collaboration between citizens and organizations in order to build better cities.

Towards Global Traffic Sign Recognition

Posted on 06 Feb 2017

news computer vision

We are taking a big step towards recognizing traffic signs all over the world by adding support for more than 500 traffic signs globally, together with an appearance-based taxonomy for traffic signs. This is the beginning of our journey of recognizing every road sign in the world, no matter where it is.

Mapping with Action Cameras, Mapillary, and OpenStreetMap

Posted on 31 Jan 2017

tutorials

Learn some great tips about photo mapping with action cameras in this guest post by Mapbox engineer Bryan Housel.

Mapillary for ArcGIS Online v2 Now Available

Posted on 30 Jan 2017

news

Improved performance, design and availability—the new Mapillary for ArcGIS Online app is now on the ArcGIS Marketplace.

Are You up for the Challenge? Win an LG 360° Cam

Posted on 27 Jan 2017

news

It is time for a Mapillary challenge! Take the chance to win an LG 360° camera by sharing your favourite Mapillary photo sequence with the hashtag #MapillaryExplore.

More Power to Manage Mapillary Resources: Introducing API v3

Posted on 26 Jan 2017

news

The API is an important way to make Mapillary useful to developers. Today we are glad to announce the release of Mapillary API v3 that is more simple, powerful, and flexible to use.

Creating 3D Views with Mapillary: The End of Photosynth

Posted on 24 Jan 2017

community

Photosynth will be discontinued on the 6th of Februrary. Read on to see how you can create 3D views with Mapillary.

Meet Mapillary Ambassadors for 2017

Posted on 22 Jan 2017

news

We're happy to introduce you the latest team of Mapillary Ambassadors—15 awesome people that work with our community.

Full Resolution Zoom: View Exactly What You Captured

Posted on 19 Jan 2017

news

Our new full resolution zoom feature lets you view every photo in its finest detail and make the most out of high-resolution imagery.

Improved Notifications: Stay on Top of Your Mapillary Activities

Posted on 16 Jan 2017

news

You may have noticed that a few things have changed in the Mapillary app. We made it easier for you to get an overview of your Mapillary activities while also providing a deeper understanding of what is going on with each activity.

Scaling Down an Elasticsearch Cluster

Posted on 12 Jan 2017

tutorials

In the general pursuit of scaling things up, sometimes you want to scale down instead. Just like we did with the Elasticsearch cluster on the Mapillary backend.

2016 Year in Review

Posted on 29 Dec 2016

news

As we are approaching the end of 2016 I wanted to share some details and stats with you all. 2016 was a great Mapillary year. Here are some of the highlights.

7 Community Achievements in 2016: The Unseen Leaderboards

Posted on 28 Dec 2016

community

The Mapillary community has had a great 2016, reaching 100M photos and much more. Let's look at some achievements from this year that are not on our regular leaderboard.

7 Photo Mapping Projects from 2016 to Inspire You in 2017

Posted on 19 Dec 2016

community

As the year comes to a close, we have looked back on seven of the many inspiring photo mapping projects that have taken place in 2016. Learn and get inspired by projects where Mapillary has been used to create and improve maps, showcase unknown places and help people tell their stories.

7 Remote Places Explored by the Mapillary Community

Posted on 15 Dec 2016

community

This week we highlight some of the most remote, far-flung and/or exotic places captured by the Mapillary community. These are places you won't find on any other photo map.

7 Photo Mapping Innovations from the Mapillary Community

Posted on 05 Dec 2016

community

As Einstein has noted, "Creativity is contagious. Pass it on." Here are 7 innovative thoughts that members of the Mapillary community have put into practice during 2016.

Mapillary Raster Tiles Are Back

Posted on 03 Dec 2016

news

Next to vector tiles, we're glad to bring back Mapillary raster tiles to enable better mapping.

Find the Route to Photo Map: Mapillary Image Layer in OsmAnd+

Posted on 02 Dec 2016

tutorials

The OsmAnd+ app helps you find routes that are not yet covered on Mapillary so that you'd know where to photo map. Our Ambassador Nuno explains how.

Embed Mapillary Street-level Photos Anywhere

Posted on 30 Nov 2016

news

Today we are excited to introduce embedding for Mapillary street-level photos. The embed will help you bring Mapillary photos with you anywhere to tell your story.

Mapping, Tech and Communities—State of the Map Latin America

Posted on 29 Nov 2016

thoughts

It was really amazing to be part of the annual gathering of the OpenStreetMap community in Latin America last weekend, and I would like to share with you some of the conversations that took place at this great event.

Around the World in 100 Million Photos

Posted on 15 Nov 2016

community

Two and a half years, 100 million photos, countless wonderful explorations - here are some of the most spectacular captures on Mapillary.

100 Million Photos - Geotagged, Connected, and Available for All

Posted on 15 Nov 2016

news

Last year I wrote a blog post when we hit 10 million photos, to mark the date and thank everyone who helped us get there together. Today, we just passed 100 million.

Exploring the Atlantic Paradise: Madeira by a Local and a Visitor

Posted on 11 Nov 2016

community

Madeira is a paradise island that goes beyond palm trees and sandy beaches. It keeps fascinating locals as well as visitors - so we're sharing some highlighs from both.

Map Your Hometown in a Day: An Evaluation of Mapillary

Posted on 08 Nov 2016

community

This is a guest post about the experiences of Dutch students from a photo mapping day in Almere. They see great potential as well as crucial points of improvement for Mapillary.

Faster Navigation: Introducing MapillaryJS 2.0

Posted on 04 Nov 2016

news

MapillaryJS 2.0 improves the general performance of retrieving data and decreases the image loading time when navigating to a new place on the map.

Building the MapillaryJS Navigation Graph

Posted on 04 Nov 2016

computer vision

In MapillaryJS 2.0 we completely changed the way we retrieve data and build the navigation graph to improve performance. Here is how it works.

Denser 3D Point Clouds in OpenSfM

Posted on 31 Oct 2016

news

We've improved OpenSfM—the technology we use to create 3D reconstructions from images. By adding post-processing, we get denser 3D point clouds resulting in better visualization, positioning, and much more.

A Week in Manila—Crisis Mapping and the Growth of Mapping in Asia

Posted on 24 Oct 2016

community

Looking back on an action-packed week at the International Conference of Crisis Mappers, State of the Map Asia and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

Time Travel by Mapillary

Posted on 21 Oct 2016

news

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles to do some research on time travel. After a couple of weeks of work on design and implementation, we arrived at time travel the Mapillary way.

Mapillary for Android—Same Mission, New Beginning

Posted on 20 Oct 2016

news

Today we are excited to share a complete makeover of Mapillary for Android with the 3.0 release. Reviewing, uploading and exploring are now much smoother and "more Mapillary", making it really easy to help you create a visual representation of the world.

The MapAmore Initiative is a go!

Posted on 16 Oct 2016

community

An initiative to map San Juan Municipality in Manila while engaging students with OpenStreetMap, free and open source software and of course Mapillary.

Your Chance to Shape Our Community: Become a Mapillary Ambassador

Posted on 15 Oct 2016

news

We’re happy to announce that the Mapillary Ambassador Programme is expanding. If you feel enthusiastic about Mapillary and want to help grow the community then this is your opportunity.

26 Miles Across the Sea, Capturing Catalina with Mapillary

Posted on 12 Oct 2016

community

A sunny weekend full of adventures around Avalon has put Santa Catalina Island on the photo map, making its winding paths and breathtaking views open for exploration.

Migrating from Panoramio: A New Home for Geotagged Photos

Posted on 10 Oct 2016

community

With Panoramio closing down, we want to welcome the passionate community to Mapillary and demonstrate why it is the perfect home for geotagged photos.

Photo Mapping Cuba: The Miraculous Havana and Beyond

Posted on 06 Oct 2016

showcase

A photo mapping camp in Havana kicked off the voluntary efforts to open up wonderful Cuba for everyone to explore, and a seed has been sown to discuss open data in the country.

ToeBee, the Collector of Challenges

Posted on 03 Oct 2016

community

From bike riding to OpenStreetMap to Mapillary - read about the journey that has made our community member Toby ([toebee](https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/toebee)) one of our most active photo mappers, and brought him to capture photos while paddling a kayak.

HOT Summit and State of the Map 2016: Good Community Vibes

Posted on 29 Sep 2016

community

Four days, two conferences and many new friends. Last week we had the inspiring opportunity to meet the global mapping community at the HOT Summit and State of the Map in Brussels

Mapillary Now Able to Recognize and Label Objects in the Wild

Posted on 27 Sep 2016

news

We are happy to announce one of the first new contributions driven by our AI Lab in Graz, Austria - adding a feature that provides semantic segmentations for a select number of object categories. In this blog post, we will discuss what this is all about and why we think that this development will be useful for our members and customers.

Mapillary Joins Berkeley DeepDrive

Posted on 27 Sep 2016

news

We’re incredibly excited to join University of California Berkeley’s DeepDrive initiative to help push computer vision and deep learning forward. This, we hope, will improve understanding of street images for safer cities, autonomous cars, and better maps.

Everything is Better in 360: iOS App Gets 360 Support

Posted on 27 Sep 2016

news

We have added 360° camera support to the iOS app. The first camera we have added support for is the LG 360 Cam.

Visualizing Global Mapillary Connections

Posted on 25 Sep 2016

map data

Taking Mapillary with you on your adventures is easy. Below are some map visualizations revealing how people move around the globe while photo mapping interesting places.

Photo Mapping the World with YouthMappers

Posted on 22 Sep 2016

news

Announcing our partnership with YouthMappers!

State of the Photo Map 2016

Posted on 22 Sep 2016

news

Two months ago I wrote a longer update on Mapillary and OpenStreetMap for the State of the Map US conference in Seattle. A lot has happened since, so I wanted to share a short OpenStreetMap-related update in time for State of the Map in Brussels.

The Story of the Jungle Camp: Days Travel Fast, Hope Keeps Us Alive

Posted on 18 Sep 2016

community

With this post we want to share the story of the Jungle Camp - the refugee camp in Calais, France - through photos. Although a small one, this is a step towards understanding a life that for most of us is very hard to imagine.

Mapillary Named By Fast Company in 2016 Innovation by Design Awards

Posted on 12 Sep 2016

news

Big news! We’re finalists in two categories in Fast Company's Innovation By Design Awards 2016.

How to Share Mapillary Captures on Jekyll

Posted on 06 Sep 2016

tutorials

Capturing the world around us involves a lot of fun and an adventure worth sharing. Maybe you want to explain how you captured, or just share a street-level experience. Learn here how to include navigable Mapillary sequences into a static web blog with Jekyll.

View What Interests You Most: Introducing Filters

Posted on 31 Aug 2016

news

Today we're re-releasing filters from the old Mapillary, sprinkled with a new flavor. If you're not familiar with filtering in general, here is the lowdown.

Photo Mapping the Faroe Islands (Sheep not Included)

Posted on 30 Aug 2016

community

How to map a whole country in five days with two action cameras and a phone?

How to Start Photomapping - Mapillary 101

Posted on 26 Aug 2016

tutorials

Welcome to Mapillary! This post is about what it is and how it works. After finding out the answers to the six questions below, you will be ready to start photo mapping!

Partnering With HERE: Community Mapping Pilot

Posted on 25 Aug 2016

news

Today we're launching a community mapping pilot with HERE, the global provider of map data and services. We’re excited to welcome fans of MapCreator, HERE’s community tool for editing maps, and hope we can help each other in our mapping projects.

An Olympic City—Photo Mapping a Fast Changing Urban Landscape

Posted on 22 Aug 2016

community

Community member Arlindo helps to photo map urban infrastrucure in Rio de Janeiro.

How accurate is Mapillary and how to improve?

Posted on 19 Aug 2016

computer vision

The accuracy of Mapillary to put photos and objects on the map is in the hands of the community, literally and figuratively. Read on to find out how.

Celebrating 12 Successful Years of Crowdsourcing with OpenStreetMap

Posted on 15 Aug 2016

community

At the fourth Maptime Copenhagen event, we met up to celebrate the 12th anniversary of OpenStreetMap, the wonderful crowdsourced mapping initiative that keeps on gaining ground.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Elliott

Posted on 11 Aug 2016

community

Meet Elliott, Mapillary Ambassador from Baltimore, USA. Elliott is a geographic informations systems consultant and is passionate about maps, open data, and photography. He thinks Mapillary is at the intersection of all three of those passions. He enjoys adding photos to Mapillary in support of efforts to improve navigational directions and local points of interest information. Elliott is a regular contributor to OpenStreetMap, a Maryland Open Data Council appointee and a military veteran. He is also active on Twitter @talllguy.

Open Data from Citizens to Develop Their Cities

Posted on 29 Jul 2016

community

Celine Jacquin believes that the potential for open data to improve our world relies on a collaborative approach. Read about the projects she's initiated to make impactful open data a reality.

Story Map: Westchester County Trails

Posted on 28 Jul 2016

showcase

Happy Parks & Recreation Month! The Westchester County GIS team has been photo-mapping up a storm.

Introducing the Mapillary Humanitarian Mapping Kit, in Partnership with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team

Posted on 23 Jul 2016

news

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) does amazing work in building and supporting local mapping communities around the world for people to create their own maps for socio-economic development and disaster preparedness. This is also one of the founding blocks of what we are creating with Mapillary.

Introducing A New, Better Mapillary

Posted on 21 Jul 2016

news

Today we’re excited to release the new Mapillary. This major update will improve the experience of exploring places with a redesigned map and a new viewer. We’re also releasing a new editor to edit photos captured by the Mapillary community, as well as improved upload functionality.

The New Mapillary—Design Principles

Posted on 21 Jul 2016

news

Redesigning and reimplementing Mapillary turned out to be an unprecedented project in the life of the company, as we basically rebuilt everything from scratch. We started from the ground up: first, we built a new tiler, which allowed us to actually show each photo in a sequence, just like beads on a string. We then asked ourselves if it would be possible to use Mapillary on the full screen map/photo at all times?

Common voids: mapping chowks in one of the world's fastest growing cities

Posted on 18 Jul 2016

community

Meet Us at State of the Map US 2016!

Posted on 17 Jul 2016

news

This week we’re going to State of the Map US in Seattle and we’re looking forward to connect with both old and new friends from this vibrant open community.

Mapillary and OpenStreetMap

Posted on 15 Jul 2016

thoughts

Approaching this summer’s State of the Map conferences I wanted to take a minute to write some paragraphs on Mapillary, OpenStreetMap, and the bigger picture of collaboratively mapping the world.

Large-scale Map Matching with Meili

Posted on 14 Jul 2016

news

This is a joint post by Kevin Kreiser (Mapzen) and Tao Peng (Mapillary).

Community Story: Cycloscope Mapping the Way to Great Adventures

Posted on 12 Jul 2016

community

Cycloscope travelers believe in crowdsourcing biking-related information that helps make great adventures happen - why rely on Google's car when you can do it yourself? In this guest post they explain how and why.

Let's Photo Map Guadalajara This Weekend

Posted on 30 Jun 2016

community

Community Story: Mapping 300 Banyan Trees of Saalumarada Thimmakka

Posted on 29 Jun 2016

community

Almost 60 years ago, Saalumarada Thimmakka started the quest to create greenness around her home area in India. Today, the results are captured on OpenStreetMap and Mapillary. In this guest blog post Chethan H A tells the story.

Mapillary Announced as 2016 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

Posted on 28 Jun 2016

news

Our goal at Mapillary is to change the world — at least, to change the way we capture our world and record that representation. So we’re excited to announce this week that we’ve been honored by the World Economic Forum as one of their 2016 Technology Pioneers, a selection of the world’s most innovative early-stage companies.

Mapillary Partners with Continental Mapping for High Accuracy Imagery Acquisition Services

Posted on 28 Jun 2016

news

Mapillary Partners with Esri to Support Open Data Initiatives

Posted on 27 Jun 2016

news

The Next Level of OSM Editing—Using Mapillary with iD Editor and JOSM

Posted on 26 Jun 2016

tutorials

Editing OpenStreetMap can be taken to the next level by using the rich information in Mapillary street photos. Our video guides show you how to do that with iD Editor and JOSM.

5,000 km of Cycling with Mapillary in May

Posted on 09 Jun 2016

community

Here at Mapillary, many of us like cycling. Apparently, it’s not just us but our awesome community as well. In celebration of National Bike Month we thought we would check on cyclists of Mapillary to reveal where in the world they use their bikes to photo map places they care about.

Mapillary Ride on Rio de Janeiro’s New Tram VLT Carioca

Posted on 05 Jun 2016

community

The first stretch of the new light rail in Rio de Janeiro (VLT Carioca) opens up today. The 28-km system connects the port region with the city's financial district and Santos Dumont Airport, and is scheduled for completion in time for the 2016 Olympics. Arlindo Pereira writes about his sneak preview of the inaugural ride. This blog was first published on Medium.

Mapillary Chrome extension

Posted on 30 May 2016

news

Mapillary community members have captured and shared millions of photos with the world. You might have seen some spectacular examples on our Instagram and in our newsletters. We'd like to announce a new way to discover great photos on Mapillary in the official Mapillary Chrome extension! Every time you open a new tab you'll see a beautiful photo from Mapillary. You'll also be able to experience walking around these photos thanks to MapillaryJS. Just hit "Explore".

MapillaryEDU: Supporting a New Generation of Mappers

Posted on 25 May 2016

news

While doing some routine analysis of our photo coverage a few months ago, we noticed some unusual activity in a very specific area in Washington D.C.:

How to Use Mapillary for Editing OpenStreetMap

Posted on 24 May 2016

tutorials

We at Mapillary are great fans of OpenStreetMap and are very happy to see that Mapillary is a useful tool for map editing. With Mapillary you can capture street photos when you walk, ride your bike or drive. Once you upload the photos to Mapillary they are available for map editing on OpenStreetMap. The photos are useful for capturing features you can’t see on satellite imagery like building information, road conditions, traffic signs etc. By nature, it's often the most up-to-date source of reliable information on the ground.

MapillaryJS Tagging

Posted on 19 May 2016

news

The latest component in a growing list extending the functionality of MapillaryJS exposes an API and functionality for photo tagging. With the tagging component we are adding support for displaying, creating and editing tags.

Say 'Servus' to Our New AI Lab!

Posted on 19 May 2016

news

Today we're excited to announce our recent addition to the computer vision side of Mapillary. We're opening an office and a deep learning AI lab in Graz, Austria. This is a big step in our quest of understanding places and how these places change over time based on our community's photographs.

Community Story: Using Mapillary For Humanitarian Mapping

Posted on 15 May 2016

community

#MapatónxGuajira is an initiative from OpenStreetMap Colombia and it is also supported by several tech communities from all over Colombia. We are really excited to support this initiative and to share their story of testing different tools for humanitarian mapping. Thank you Fredy Rivera, Juan Carlos Pachón, Carlos Felipe Castillo, Leonardo Gutierrez, Miguel Sanchez and all other people involved in the mapping project in Colombia. This is a translated version of Juan Carlos Pachón's post. Juan Carlos Pachónwho is a volunteer for OpenStreetMap Colombia.

Community Story: Lace Up For A Nine Mile National Park Hike

Posted on 13 May 2016

community

Our community member and Mapillary Ambassador @talllguy is a passionate photo mapper. He brings Mapillary in his car, on his bike and on his runs. He has captured almost 250,000 photos (!) in Maryland, U.S. Last weekend he brought Mapillary on a nine mile hike through three of America's national parks. Here's his #MapYourPark story.

It’s National Bike Month! We’re celebrating Mapillary Bikers

Posted on 11 May 2016

community

Photo-mapping in Old Havana (Photo credit:@dicepb)

Community Story: A Pedestrians Street Level View Through A Wheelchair

Posted on 06 May 2016

community

This week in Mexico City, Mapillary had the opportunity to participate in a walk through the city center as part of the 3rd edition of Liga Peatonal, a non-profit organization in Mexico that promotes better infrastructure for pedestrians.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Jean-Louis

Posted on 04 May 2016

community

Meet Jean-Louis, Mapillary Ambassador from Orange, France. Jean-Louis works at the local government and is a board member of OpenStreetMap France. He likes to use slippy maps that gather several sources of information (like OpenStreetMap, Flickr, Mapillary). Examples are Lizmobility, which is a map to show accessibility, and OpenLevelup, which allows to do micromapping on several floors. He is also active on Twitter @JLZIMMERMANN.

Remake of mapillary.com

Posted on 28 Apr 2016

news

Did you think that things are slowing down at mapillary.com? Quite the opposite is happening. We're giving our entire site a complete remake.

Support for Multiple Action Cameras

Posted on 28 Apr 2016

news

A couple of months ago, we added support for Garmin cameras in the iOS app, and early adopters have shown that it produces amazing photos and sequences. Today we are adding support for multiple Garmin cameras. This means that you can create flexible "camera rigs" so that you can capture more than one direction. With four cameras, you can capture 360 degrees at the same time and don't have to drive the same route as often.

Mapillary at GISWORX 2016, Dubai

Posted on 25 Apr 2016

community

Community Story: Mapillary On A Roadtrip To America's National Parks

Posted on 24 Apr 2016

community

The U.S. National Park Service is celebrating 100 years and to support their work we invite you to bring Mapillary to your closest national park and tell your story with the #FindYourPark and #MapYourPark campaign. Some of our community members have already done some mapping and we got the opportunity to talk to Canadarunner who took Mapillary with him on his roadtrip to the national parks.

Earth Day Story: Sunder Nursery in Delhi

Posted on 22 Apr 2016

community

Bombax ceiba or Semal in Hindi, the flowers bloom in February-March followed by fruit pods which contain cotton balls.

Community Story: Photowalk Lima And Initiatives With The Andino Community

Posted on 19 Apr 2016

community

This past weekend we had the chance to get together with two communities from Peru, the excuse was to map a local park in the city of Lima. But most importantly talk about what the community is doing regarding maps and the recent open data movement in Latin America.

Mapillary and GoPro: Taking Street Photos into the Hands of the Adventurer

Posted on 15 Apr 2016

news

We are excited to finally announce that we are part of GoPro's new Developer Program, which was unveiled yesterday at Pier 35 in San Francisco. The program includes more than 100 developers, and we were selected along with 33 other companies to showcase our integration at the launch expo yesterday. It was a busy day showing off how easy our integration lets Mapillary members capture using GoPro cameras. We also met some of the other developers in the program and many GoPro engineers.

Create Virtual Tours Of Your Favorite National Park

Posted on 13 Apr 2016

community

National Park Week, April 16 to 24, 2016, is America’s largest celebration of national heritage. It is the perfect time to discover national parks and a great thing is that you can do it at no cost as every national park offers you free admission for the full week. Each park also arranges a lot of activities so make sure to stay updated on yours.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Shravan

Posted on 04 Apr 2016

community

Meet Shravan, Mapillary Ambassador from Ahmedabad, India. Shravan is an urban researcher at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University. He is an active contributor on OSM. He was inspired to start using Mapillary by how Google was not allowed to do their Street View project in India. He makes it a point to contribute to Mapillary whenever on a trip or just randomly driving or biking around town. He co-organizes Maptime and Datameet events in India, encouraging people to use Mapillary and improve OSM. He is also active on Twitter @shravanshah.

Mapillary Joins the US National Park Service’s Centennial Celebration

Posted on 31 Mar 2016

news

In 1916, the US National Park Service (NPS) was created to oversee land that had been protected with national park status. Today, the NPS is responsible for more than 84 million acres, which includes areas such as historic sites and monuments, in addition to parks like Yellowstone. This year, the NPS is celebrating its 100th birthday by encouraging people to explore local sites that are part of the National Park System and then share their stories with the #FindYourPark campaign. It’s a beautiful initiative that showcases how the NPS protects areas of all shapes and sizes.

MapillaryJS Slider

Posted on 21 Mar 2016

news

The component based architecture of our open source library MapillaryJS makes it easy to extend with new functionality that is independent from the logic of other elements. Inspired by the historical image comparisons created by @neogeografen we decided to build our own slider component.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Nuno

Posted on 19 Mar 2016

community

Meet Nuno, Mapillary Ambassador from Madeira, Portugal. Nuno is a geographer, photographer and an avid OpenStreetMap contributor. He uses Mapillary to more easily map on OSM. He is also active on Twitter @iamnunocaldeira and shares his amazing photography on Instagram.

Community Story: Mapillary Goes to School

Posted on 15 Mar 2016

community

Last week Ciarán, our community member who is very involved in #MapLesotho visited Portmarnock Community School. The objective with they day was to show the students (who already are experienced with OpenStreetMap) how to use a mobile phone to help with mapping. As we got very excited about Mapillary being used in schools we asked Ciarán to tell us a bit about his day.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Katie

Posted on 11 Mar 2016

community

Meet Katie, Mapillary Ambassador from Portland, USA. Katie is an advocate for safe walking and a recent OpenSource GIS convert. She's on a mission to encourage smart coders and policy makers to rebuild the urban landscape, particularly with regard to the walkway network: sidewalks, curb ramps, connections to urban trails... Katie's doings can also be followed on Twitter @rbracket.

Walk Through The Safest Cities For Women

Posted on 08 Mar 2016

To commemorate International Women's Day, we teamed up with travel information startup GeoSure to showcase the top 20 cities in the world, ranked by safety for women.

International Open Data Day

Posted on 05 Mar 2016

community

Today is International Open Data Day! It's been great to see pockets of Mapillary activity at Open Data events all over the world.

Announcing Our $8M Series A Round

Posted on 03 Mar 2016

news

We just closed an $8 million Series A financing round to enable us to expand. Last year was an incredible year for our community and for Mapillary as a company but we still have a long way to go to realize our vision of visually mapping the world. With this investment, we are in a great position to go all the way. Atomico led this round, with participation from our previous backers Sequoia, LDV Capital, Playfair, and Wellington.

Meet Mapillary Ambassador: Leo

Posted on 02 Mar 2016

community

Meet Leo, Mapillary Ambassador from San José, Costa Rica. Leo is a free software programmer working on Ubuntu and an OpenStreetMap contributor. He's been attending Hackerspace events and encouraging people to use Mapillary as a source for improving OSM. He is also active on Twitter @yoelopio.

Feeling It Out At FedGIS

Posted on 26 Feb 2016

community

We’ve learned a lot from cities and municipal services since we released Mapillary for ArcGIS back in October last year. FedGIS this week was one of the first opportunities to engage with GIS professionals at the state and national level. Here’s what we took away from the conference:

New Mapillary Ambassadors

Posted on 25 Feb 2016

news

We are happy to announce that our Ambassador Program has expanded and we have eight new Ambassadors!

Mapillary Meets Mickey Mouse: Mapping Disneyland in 3D

Posted on 24 Feb 2016

community

When Google's Street View cameras made headlines last week after being spotted at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, Mickey Mouse aficionados rejoiced at the prospect of seeing their favorite landmarks come to life with street level photos. However, lucky for them, photos like this already exist on Mapillary.

Citizenship Effort in Mexico—Lindavista Neighborhood

Posted on 18 Feb 2016

community

On Saturday February 13th we got together in the Lindavista Neighborhood with several communities from the Mexico City tech community, it was a joint effort to reach one goal: to map a complete neighborhood in Mexico City.

#MapLesotho Mapillary Sessions

Posted on 17 Feb 2016

community

The end of the first #MapLesotho training week was dedicated to Mapillary sessions. With presentations, discussions, a mapping event and hands on data harvesting, the planners got deep knowledge about the potential of using Mapillary as one of their mapping tools.

Maptime Copenhagen—Historical Images

Posted on 13 Feb 2016

community

At the second event of Maptime Copenhagen, Mapillary Amabassador Søren introduced us to geocoding historical images and uploading them to Mapillary. This provides a great way to experience time travelling in the Mapillary viewer!

MapLesotho Impressions

Posted on 11 Feb 2016

community

Three days after arriving in Lesotho there are a lot of impressions to gather. Meeting the Lesotho planners and the trainers from Fingal County Council has been amazing. Getting a first hand view of the progress and challenges of the #MapLesotho project is very eye opening.

MapillaryJS

Posted on 10 Feb 2016

news

MapillaryJS is a tool used for displaying street level photos anywhere on the internet. Today we are putting it into your hands. It enables you to add street level photos to your blog, website or even into your professional mapping applications. Getting started with MapillaryJS is easy:

Capture Street Photos for DC Vision Zero

Posted on 05 Feb 2016

community

Between traffic congestion, hurried pedestrians, and natural wear and tear, major cities are plagued with numerous road safety issues. To spur dialog about these issues, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and OpenGov Hub will be hosting a Vision Zero hackathon in Washington D.C. on February 13.

Support for more action cameras; GoPro Hero3 and Garmin VirbX/VirbXE

Posted on 05 Feb 2016

news

Not long ago, we added support for GoPro® cameras in the iOS app, and early adopters have shown it produces amazing photos and sequences. Now we add support for GoPro® Hero3 as well as Garmin® VirbX/VirbXE and also introduce a high-speed mode using the time-lapse feature of these action cameras.

Lesotho Bound

Posted on 28 Jan 2016

community

In the second week of February Mapillary is traveling to Maseru, Lesotho, as part of the #MapLesotho initiative in collaboration with Fingal County Council. There we will be holding workshops dedicated to giving Lesotho’s Physical Planners better knowledge about the potential of using Mapillary to help improve maps and infrastructure.

Citizenship Cartography in Gualajara, Mexico

Posted on 19 Jan 2016

community

We kickstarted 2016 with an event in Mexico. This time the city of Guadalajara hosted a Citizenship Cartography event. Thanks to the support of the local authorities of Jalisco, the OpenStreetMap Mexico community and also civic hackers from Codeando Mexico where at hand to map the streets of Guadalajara.

How Mapillary Works with Cities

Posted on 05 Jan 2016

news

At the last Esri User Conference, I met an environmental consultant who worked on a project verifying fire hydrant locations for a small town. He checked out each coordinate on Google Street View -- “by hand!” he insisted, referring to restrictions on using the Google Maps API for deriving datasets and asset tracking. He hadn’t minded the laborious process so much as an unexpected problem: Street View was neither current nor complete. Street View cars had driven through the town over three years ago, and hadn’t captured smaller streets and hiking trails.

Capturing Antarctica

Posted on 21 Dec 2015

community

It’s not often one gets to hit up a friend in Antarctica for a favor. When I heard my friend Ed Young was out there, I jumped at the opportunity to ask him to do a Mapillary walk. Sometime in the course of Antarctic mountaineering and running Ice Marathons, Ed squeezed this in.

Mapillary and GoPro® – A Match Made in Mapping Heaven

Posted on 18 Dec 2015

news

We love GoPro® cameras. These tiny action cameras create stunning, quality images. They have a wide field of view and can capture up to two photos every second, making them perfect when you're creating Structure from Motion, like we are with our 3D Navigation tool. Also, they are easy to mount on pretty much anything.

Building Infrastructure with Mapillary in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Posted on 17 Dec 2015

community

This is a guest post by Beata Felix Rutabingwa from the World Bank. The World Bank has been using Mapillary, a crowdsourcing photo app that maps the world with street level photos, to chart Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, in a project called Dar Ramani Huria. This community-based mapping project trains university students and local community members to create highly accurate maps of the most flood-prone areas of the city.

Map-in-Camera

Posted on 12 Dec 2015

news

First, there was Picture-in-Picture (PiP). It was awesome and all the kids were raving about it. Now we introduce the next big thing, Map-in-Camera, or simply MiC.

Mapillary Ambassador Program

Posted on 11 Dec 2015

news

We are thrilled to announce a new way to engage with the Mapillary community to create a photo representation of the world.

Mapillary Walk Wrap Up

Posted on 10 Dec 2015

community

The Mapillary Walk competition has drawn to a close. Over the course of the competition we’ve seen walks submitted from around the world, from beaches in Rio de Janeiro to snowy fields in Sweden. The underlying purpose of #MapillaryWalk has been to encourage people to share their favorite places, using stunning photos to tell a story of why the place is special to them.

The Best Business in the Smart City Industry at Smart City Expo

Posted on 24 Nov 2015

thoughts

Mapillary works hard to make cities smarter. We’ve spent a lot of time perfecting our uploading capabilities, automatic GIS integration and our traffic sign detection - and it’s paid off. 4YFN (4 Years From Now), a business platform focused on connecting global startups, selected us as the best business in the Smart City Industry.

Major Improvements to All Shapes in Mapillary

Posted on 11 Nov 2015

news

We have been struggling a long time to get detailed shapes for statistics, notifications and exploration at Mapillary. We have been relying on simplified shapes which were not fully accurate.

Point Clouds: Behind the Scenes of Our 3D Navigation

Posted on 10 Nov 2015

news

At Mapillary, we don’t want to simply show you photos on maps – we want you to feel immersed in whichever landscape you’re exploring. Behind-the-scenes, we have been 3D reconstructing every location our members photograph and now, we want to show you. We're giving our community the power to virtually explore their photos like never before.

Lesotho Mapping Competition

Posted on 06 Nov 2015

community

Over the last few months Fingal County Council and mappers in Lesotho have been working hard to create an accurate base map of the country on OpenStreetMap. With vastly better maps, the planning and delivery of services and facilities across Lesotho such as healthcare and education can be greatly improved.

1 Million 'Thank You's

Posted on 30 Oct 2015

news

Panorama Connections and Navigation

Posted on 26 Oct 2015

news

Consumer spherical cameras are coming. Some, like the Ricoh Theta, are already here. This means that it is now possible for individuals to capture spherical images massively. Preparing for that, we are now enabling pano navigation mode.

Mapillary Location Search Now Powered by Mapzen Search

Posted on 15 Oct 2015

news

Recently Mapzen launched Mapzen Search. It is a search engine for places worldwide, fully powered by open data and freely available to everyone.

Announcing Mapillary for ArcGIS

Posted on 14 Oct 2015

news

Today we're pleased to announce the release of Mapillary for ArcGIS!

First Photo Day - A Look at Two Years of Mapillary

Posted on 08 Oct 2015

news

Today, October 8, is First Photo Day here at Mapillary, the day when the first Mapillary photo was published in 2013. A lot has happened in these two roller-coaster years. Here is my summary.

Viewer Improvements

Posted on 30 Sep 2015

news

We are continuously working on enhancing the user experience for looking at and navigating between photos in the viewer. Lately we have introduced two new concepts which bring both eye-candy and usefulness.

Explore the Mapillary World

Posted on 25 Sep 2015

Every day we are amazed and thankful to our community members for taking us to places we have never seen before. When we in the morning check into the Mapillary world there is always something exciting and surprising to discover. We think this is amazing and wanted to share some of our favorite tours.

Map the Developing World with Missing Maps and Mapillary

Posted on 23 Sep 2015

This is a guest post from Drishtie Patel from the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross has been using Mapillary in their Missing Maps project.

Big Update of the iOS App

Posted on 16 Sep 2015

We are proud to present version 4.0 of the Mapillary iOS app. This is a major release that brings a lot of improvements. Most notably, we have replaced all the old web views with native counterparts.

Maptime NL Summer Camp 2015

Posted on 15 Sep 2015

This is a guest post from one of our very dedicated users filipc who took part of a mapping event in the Netherlands.

Fotocaminata - Mexico City

Posted on 31 Aug 2015

As part of our reach out to mapping communities all over the world, we have been organizing a couple of photo walks in cities that are interested in hosting them.

We Have a Forum - Join the Fun!

Posted on 28 Aug 2015

We have up until today been using Github, Twitter and email for a lot of community conversation. It has been working okay but not perfect so many of you have suggested to use a forum instead. We think this is a great idea and are today very happy to release the very first version of our new community forum.

Traffic Sign Updates

Posted on 26 Aug 2015

Last month, we talked about the accuracy improvement of traffic sign recognition with the help of Mapillary users. Today, we would like to share some more updates on traffic signs.

what3words Integration on Mapillary

Posted on 25 Aug 2015

A couple of days ago we silently integrated what3words to Mapillary. what3words is "a global grid of 57 trillion 3m*3m squares." Every single place in the world can be described by three simple words. For example go to "exhales.singer.back" and you will end up at the Mapillary office.

Announcing Mapillary API v2

Posted on 05 Aug 2015

Ever since we started Mapillary, we have always had the ambition of keeping the platform as extendable as possible. The release of API v2 is in line with that vision.

Using Tangram with Mapillary Vector Tiles

Posted on 04 Aug 2015

Mapillary data vector tiles allow for simple, interactive integration of Mapillary data. Here's a great example of integrating vector tile data using MapZen's Tangram map render.

New viewing experience

Posted on 30 Jul 2015

As you've probably noticed today, the Mapillary web viewer looks very different. Here's a bit more detail on what actually happened and why.

Image Connections and Transitions with 3D

Posted on 30 Jul 2015

The new Mapillary viewer comes with improved navigation using our global 3D reconstruction. It is now easier for you to move across images of the same place and you will see much nicer 3D transitions when moving.

What We Saw at the Esri UC 2015

Posted on 28 Jul 2015

"Everyone in GIS uses ArcGIS. And everyone who uses ArcGIS is here!"

Traffic Sign Feedback Matters

Posted on 23 Jul 2015

About 6 months after we introduced traffic sign recognition, as of today, we have received ~180,000 (edits/confirms) in EU and ~23,000 (edits/confirms) in US through the traffic sign feedback system. This is an amazing achievement by our users. Thank you for all the great work!

Mapillary Plugin for JOSM

Posted on 25 Jun 2015

This is a guest post from Mapillary user Jorge López Fueyo @nokutu reporting on the state of the JOSM Mapillary plugin.

Geocamp ES, Sevilla 2015

Posted on 23 Jun 2015

This weekend I attended the Geocamp ES in Sevilla and it was great! Geocamp is a so-called unconference. That is a friendly, unstructured event to talk and share ideas with Geo professionals and geeks. That was the 3rd edition in Spain and the 1st in Sevilla organized by the super-motivated Geoinquietos Sevilla

New Mapillary Activity Reports

Posted on 23 Jun 2015

Yesterday we started with something new. We started to send weekly activity reports to many of you. The report is a snapshot of your Mapillary activity the last seven days and it is a great way to keep track of your activity and progress.

Mapillary at State of the Map US

Posted on 09 Jun 2015

Jan Erik, Johan and myself attended the State of the Map US conference on June 6-8. With more than 800 map enthusiastic attendees, the event became the biggest OpenStreetMap conference in history. It was held in the UN Headquarters in New York City. We experienced interesting talks, inspiring conversations and excellent social events. Special credit goes to the organizers who put together a fantastic conference.

Mapillary Traffic Signs in iD

Posted on 02 Jun 2015

After the first steps of integrating iD and Mapillary, we are happy to announce that we have integrated the Mapillary Street Signs as a layer into our fork of the iD editor. This was done together with the help of the OpenStreetMap community and the fantastic developers at Mapbox like @jfire. We hope to get this accepted into the main code base after more feedback.

New Viewer with Vector Maps

Posted on 28 May 2015

As you have probably noticed, we at Mapillary love to experiment with bleeding edge technology. Recently we showed technical implications and benefits of using vector tiles and what it means to you as Mapillary users. However, we did not give you the full picture yet as along with vector tiles we'd like to share improvements to our web app.

Mapillary Vector Tiles

Posted on 27 May 2015

Today we're announcing the first version of our Mapillary data vector tiles. Vector tiles are the vector data equivalent of image tiles commonly used for web maps. The Mapillary data vector tiles encode image sequences and sequence properties in a neat format that doesn't need to be served from any database.

The SCRIPTORIVM: a Hackathon About Pompeii and Cultural Heritage

Posted on 25 May 2015

This is a guest post from Mapillary user Andrea Borruso (@aborruso) announcing an upcoming cultural heritage event in Pompeii using Mapillary.

Updating the Windows Phone App

Posted on 24 May 2015

We are really happy to share that we now have a major update of the Mapillary Windows Phone app out in the Windows Store. This release corresponds to the updated iOS app and Android app earlier this spring.

Mapillary and Public Road Data

Posted on 30 Apr 2015

This week we started our first project using public road imagery. Many cities and municipalities collect road imagery, for example for the purpose of inventorying their road network. Mapillary enables a way to spread this data and get something back in the process.

Brussels Mapillary & OpenStreetMap Mapping Party

Posted on 25 Apr 2015

Today the Brussels OpenStreetMap community had a mapping party where the attendants learned how to edit OSM data in the iD, Potlatch and JOSM editors.

Mapillary Device Stats

Posted on 20 Apr 2015

Here's a short update with some stats on what devices our community is using to map the world. Hopefully this will be the first post in a series with interesting stats and data.

Mapillary Meetup in Mérida-Yucatan

Posted on 15 Apr 2015

We got invited by the fine folks at HITTCO to do a talk in Merida, it is in the Peninsula of Yucatan and it is close to Cancun. So we thought it would be a great opportunity to do our first meetup in Mexico and explore this fine city.

Uses of Mapillary

Posted on 14 Apr 2015

As you may have seen in Jan Erik’s last blog post, Mapillary now has over 10 million photos, 11.6 million as I write this. This is a huge milestone for not only us, but for the whole team of mappers out there who are finding ever more ways to use Mapillary. The purpose of this post is to shed light on the many ways the Mapillary community is mapping and to encourage users to interact with one another to share the knowledge.

Introducing Video Upload & a Manual Upload Update

Posted on 31 Mar 2015

We are constantly trying to find new ways of sourcing photos for our community. Until today you could upload photos to Mapillary through our apps, manual upload or upload scripts. From now on, you can also upload video files, which we will happily process into photo sequences!

10M Geotagged Connected Photos

Posted on 23 Mar 2015

Today we passed a sort of milestone on Mapillary - 10 million geotagged, connected photos! We have seen fantastic growth since the start of this year and almost doubled the number of photos in the last three months.

SXSW Meetup and Biking - Part 2

Posted on 18 Mar 2015

We had quite a weekend in Austin with lots of events going on and the chance to meet some great people.

SXSW Meetup and Biking

Posted on 11 Mar 2015

Last week the team visited Barcelona and we had a great time mapping the Laberint d'Horta. But this weekend promises to be even more fun, since we are heading to Austin for SXSW Interactive.

Mapillary Meetup in Barcelona - Laberint d'Horta & MWC 2015

Posted on 04 Mar 2015

Our Barcelona trip could not have started any better, today we where rewarded with great weather to do our first Mapillary Meetup in Catalunya. In just a few days we manage to put together a mapping party around the Horta Labyrinth, one of those enigmatic places that represents Barcelona. A garden museum in the northern part of the city with a great view to the Mediterranean sea.

Mapping MWC and Party

Posted on 27 Feb 2015

We have arrived a little bit early for a must attend event for any company involved in the mobile space which is Mobile World Congress. It is a great excuse to visit Barcelona, one of the most enchanting cities in the Mediterranean with a lot of places to see and map.

Notifications and Emails

Posted on 25 Feb 2015

Over the last few weeks you may have noticed that there has been increasingly more and better emails from Mapillary. We were testing things out and at first there were too many of them and the layout was not great. You can change your notification settings here..

Updating the Android App

Posted on 18 Feb 2015

We are extremely glad to finally release a new major version of the Mapillary Android app. This release corresponds to the recent release of the iOS app. We have gotten a lot of feedback over the last year, and finally we got around to completely rewrite big parts of the application. There are a few things that stand out as important so we want to mention them.

Traffic Sign Recognition Feedback

Posted on 11 Feb 2015

A week and a half ago we released our traffic sign detection and got an awesome response from you guys. We deliberately released it without any feedback system. We didn’t know if this was something that anybody cared about so we didn’t want to spend valuable developer time on something nobody wanted.

Traffico - An Open Source Traffic Sign Font

Posted on 28 Jan 2015

Along with opening up the traffic sign detection to everyone, we wanted to share a small tool we have developed while working on that project. Meet Traffico, a font we use for generating the beautiful traffic sign icons you can see in the map view at Mapillary.

Traffic Sign Recognition

Posted on 27 Jan 2015

Today we are happy to announce another feature requested by our faithful Mapillary users - traffic sign recognition. We have processed over 6 million images and detected all the traffic signs in the United States and Europe. From now on every image added in these regions will go through our system and will be categorized with traffic sign data.

Mapillary Raises $1.5M Seed Round

Posted on 15 Jan 2015

We just closed a $1.5M seed round led by Sequoia. Also participating in the seed round are some great funds, Playfair, Wellington, and LDV Capital, and a number of prominent angel investors. (list updated soon)

Updating the iOS App

Posted on 14 Jan 2015

Over the last year we have received a lot of feedback on our app. Some of the most asked for features related to how to improve photo collection, better reviewing before uploading on device, better browsing on device, more information on processing progress and what happens around you. After looking the same since we started, it is now time to update the app.

Getting Started With Mapillary - A Beginner’s Perspective

Posted on 13 Jan 2015

The purpose of this blog post is to welcome beginners to the Mapillary community and guide you on getting started with using Mapillary.

User activity and @ mentions

Posted on 18 Dec 2014

New ways of following your progress and interacting are coming! We have just added the possibility to see interactions from you and other users - e.g. uploads, image processing status, comments, mentions, blur requests, edits, etc.

Tech Sneak Peek: Navigating Your Photos in 3D

Posted on 15 Dec 2014

Ever since we started the OpenSfM project, we have been exploring the potentials of the 3D reconstructions built using photos contributed by Mapillary users.

Hello. Hola. 你好. Cześć. Hallo. Hej.

Posted on 17 Nov 2014

One of the most exciting things with working on Mapillary is that everything we do is global. Our apps are available everywhere and we make no restrictions on who can contribute from where. Being available globally from day one also presents some challenges.

Open Sourcing 3D City Reconstruction

Posted on 14 Nov 2014

One of the downsides of using simple devices for mapping the world is that the GPS accuracy is not always great, especially in cities with tall buildings. Since the start we have always wanted to correct this using image matching and we are now making progress in that area.

Mapillary for Long Hikes

Posted on 27 Oct 2014

A few weeks ago one of our users, malenki, asked us if it would be feasible to use Mapillary to record an extensive and truly fantastic hike over the course of 10 days in Albania. Turns out it is. He has written a great blog post about the hardware setup.

Mapillary in the OpenStreetMap iD Editor

Posted on 21 Oct 2014

As we have written in an earlier blog post, we have been working with the OpenStreetMap iD editor developers to integrate Mapillary as a source for editing OpenStreetMap.

Sharing, finally!

Posted on 15 Oct 2014

Mapillary is getting social! Today we’ve added a way to easily share images you like. Introducing: the share modal. Below you'll find a quick run through of the most important aspects.

Setting Up The Android Mapillary App With An External GPS

Posted on 01 Oct 2014

There are a number of very capable, cheap Bluetooth GPS devices out there like this Garmin GLO which gets much better accuracy than a normal smartphone. Most of them work out-of-the-box with iOS, but on Android some setup steps are required to get them working.

Privacy Policy and Terms

Posted on 13 Sep 2014

Six months after our launch it is now time for an update of our policies. While our previous terms regulated what we can do with photos contributed to Mapillary we decided that more clarity and detail would be helpful on things like how you are allowed to use the service, your rights to photos, how we handle your personal data, copyright infringement and more.

Now Supporting Panoramas and Photo Spheres

Posted on 10 Sep 2014

Uploading panoramas

Mapillary iD Editor for OpenStreetMap

Posted on 19 Aug 2014

We have been working closely with the OpenStreetMap community in order to find the best way to leverage all the fantastic coverage that is starting to emerge on Mapillary to improve OpenStreetMap data.

jq - JSON Power For The Terminal

Posted on 12 Aug 2014

Do you find yourself sometimes writing small scripts just to introspect some JSON? Say we want to get some image from the Mapillary API, the URL for getting GeoJSON from an image search is http://api.mapillary.com/v1/im/search?min-lat=55.611&max-lat=55.613&min-lon=12.994&max-lon=12.995&max-results=3&geojson=true:

Time Filtering and Web Interface Improvements

Posted on 07 Aug 2014

Filtering & Interface Improvements

Introducing Places and Regional Stats

Posted on 24 Jun 2014

We are continuing our work on showing all the great data that we have. Recently we added connections and notifications to connect mappers.

Making Connections and New Profile Pages

Posted on 22 Jun 2014

At Mapillary, our main task is connecting the many photos uploaded to the service. We do this all the time, in the background, using computer vision and reasoners.

Privacy Blurring - Now in the Editor

Posted on 25 May 2014

At Mapillary we do a lot of things with the photos you upload. One thing we do is to automatically blur license plates and peoples faces for privacy purposes. No license plate detector or face detector is perfect and sometimes we will incorrectly blur areas, sometimes we will miss important areas that needed blurring.

Flying Drones, Capturing Mapillary Tracks

Posted on 20 May 2014

The task A few days ago, we tested what it would take to capture tracks using professional equipment like the awesome drones by Intuitive Aerial in Linköping, Sweden.

A Mapillary Windows Phone App!

Posted on 15 May 2014

Today Mapillary - the project to provide a street level view of the world - arrived at the Windows Phone platform with the first release of the app for Windows Phone 8 / 8.1.

A Capture Workflow

Posted on 15 May 2014

This past weekend we captured some data for the upcoming Traffic Jam Session hackathon here in Malmö. Since the event is about hacking public transportation data, we mapped some of the local bus lines. We used six Android phones running the Mapillary app that captured a total of 50GB of photos.

Weekend Hack - a Mapillary GoPro Bike Mount

Posted on 05 May 2014

After we sent out the car mounts after our survey, we received a lot of positive feedback. However, there are not many mounts for bikes that are suitable for Mapillary.

License Update: Now Creative Commons Share Alike

Posted on 29 Apr 2014

It has been six weeks since we announced that we were licensing our photos with Creative Commons. The license we chose was the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC). Our reasoning was explained in the accompanying blog post.

Bulk Editing Compass Angles - Yay!

Posted on 28 Apr 2014

Today, we finally got around to implement one of the most requested editing operations for Mapillary - the bulk-straightening for all images in a sequence.

A Startup Dashboard with Google Spreadsheet

Posted on 04 Apr 2014

When you are a startup, you don't have much time. In our case, we want to track some of our KPIs, as the numbers of users, images and power users over time (lots of other historic KPIs like user retention too, but that's another blog). We also want have a nice dashboard but not build a system for that.

The Disqus Integration is Working - Let's Start Talking!

Posted on 19 Mar 2014

Hi there, you probably have seen the disqus footers under the Mapillary pictures. While this has been working for a while (we are talking days here :), we now have integrated a polling on new blog posts that will mail the photographer of the image with any new updates on the discussions.

An Angular.js Confirm Dialog Directive ftw!

Posted on 18 Mar 2014

We got a complaint from a user who flagged an image by accident, see this issue. As we are now entering a phase of Complaint Driven Development, this morning I found a great little fix to this. Angular.js which we use for the web client, does not come with a built-in confirmation dialogue. However, here is a great little generic confirm-button directive that avoids the onClick method and can be reused.

Mapillary Goes Creative Commons

Posted on 17 Mar 2014

One thing we have been struggling with since starting Mapillary is the issue of licensing Mapillary photos.

Embed a Mapillary View

Posted on 04 Mar 2014

As Mapillary is starting to grow in popularity, we got a number of requests to be able to embed the Mapillary view into other web pages. So, we built it! This is how it goes - for details, see the developer page:

Making the Static Dynamic

Posted on 26 Feb 2014

The right stack for the job

Manual Upload

Posted on 21 Feb 2014

One question we get a lot is if you can upload photos that you have taken with another camera, outside of our apps. Maybe you have some great street sequences taken with your DSLR or older photos that you would like to add.

Mapillary to OpenStreetMap

Posted on 20 Feb 2014

We have been working with the OpenStreetMap community lately and we wanted to investigate how Mapillary can be used as a tool for some serious mapping.

Photo Capture Modes

Posted on 13 Feb 2014

With our latest update to the iPhone and Android apps today, we made some changes in how you capture photos. Where before, you selected "photo" or "sequences" when launching the camera, we now added three capture modes:

Editing Uploads

Posted on 31 Jan 2014

Starting out Mapillary with the idea of crowdsourcing street view photos using smartphones we were fully aware of the limitations of the devices used. Typically, your phone will at best give position within a few meters accuracy, sometimes a lot more than a few meters.

Mapillary for Android

Posted on 24 Jan 2014

The number one thing people have been asking us during our short history is "when will you have an Android app"?

A Graph of Images

Posted on 21 Jan 2014

Yesterday we updated the site with some major changes. Some of you may have noticed that loading the photos after clicking the map took a long time for certain locations with lots of photos.

Welcome to Mapillary!

Posted on 01 Jan 2014

With this post we are starting our company blog to share long-form content on topics that we are passionate about and topics that relate to Mapillary. For announcements and short-style content, follow us on twitter.