Mapillary Missions is a feature in our iOS app that draws attention to busier areas in cities and towns that might require imagery. This helps mappers determine higher priority areas where they may want to capture imagery. We are excited to be launching a challenge in Japan to encourage the collection of imagery in mission areas, earn prizes, and compete on the leaderboard. We’re inviting all iOS users in Japan to join us in August in our first ever Mapillary Missions challenge.

Why Mapillary Missions?

Since the early days of Mapillary, Mapillary’s community has been finding ways to focus image collection in the areas that need it most. Some have been using apps like OSMAnd with the Mapillary layer enabled to track their image collection as they go. Others have just been using their local knowledge of an area and existing Mapillary coverage to ensure important areas are mapped. We’re exploring the ways we can make this easier for mappers, by drawing attention to important areas within the app. Mapillary Missions helps with this by creating grids around commercial areas in populated locations. Each grid square represents a mission where imagery should be collected.

To learn more about Mapillary Missions, take a look at our help page article and this introductory post on the feature. Mapillary Missions is only available on iOS currently, so you will need to have an iPhone to participate in this challenge. If you’re interested to participate in challenges like this outside of Japan, let us know on Twitter (#mapillarymissions) or via our Mapillary Facebook Group.

How to participate

1. Register your interest to participate in our Japan challenge and let us know if you’d like to be eligible to receive a prize for participating.
2. Open Mapillary on iOS, and browse missions in your area via the Mapillary Missions tab. Tap the mission to see the goal associated with it. The goal is a certain number of images that you must collect, with the number of images determined by the length of roads and paths in the mission area.
3. When you are close to a mission, journey to the mission area and tap ‘Start capture’.
4. Capture the required number of images by walking, driving, or cycling the paths and roads in the mission area.
5. Upload the images you have collected to be recognised for completing that mission.
6. Check the leaderboard below to see where you rank. The leaderboard will be updated every Friday during the duration of the challenge. If you have any questions, reach out to us via support@mapillary.zendesk.com.

When

The challenge will commence at 00:00 August 8th, 2022 and finish 23:59 September 4th, 2022 JST. Final scores will be reviewed in the second week of September and announced on this blog and our social channels.

Prizes

Leaderboard

The leaderboard will update every Friday during the duration of the challenge. Participants will be ranked by the number of missions they have completed. To earn the point, you must capture the required number of images in that mission area. The same mission can be completed by different mappers. Please note, some mission areas may take a while to process and update on the leaderboard. Let us know if you do not see your completed missions on the leaderboard after a week.

To complete the mission, it is important that you move throughout the mission area, capturing every road and path. Capturing the image requirement without covering all the roads will not earn you a point.

Keep in mind that some missions will be easier than others, so choose your route wisely. The number of missions available will vary depending on your area.

Happy mapping

Thanks for your interest in our first Mapillary Missions Challenge. We’re really excited to see how the incredible Mapillary community in Japan uses #mapillarymissions.

健闘を祈る | Good luck!

/Ed