We all hate Bangalore roads. What can we do about it? Well, the political ramifications of getting BBMP to move their behinds to fix the roads may be beyond technology magic, but we might be able to do something to raise more awareness.
Lets build an Android app + Web app that lets people quickly snap a pothole (optionally add location tags), a short blurb, and post it to a public community feed.
A separate visualization would let you look at areas of the city with the most potholes (or with the most votes(?))
So anyways, this is the gist of the idea - more at the hackday.
Sounds really cool ! :) Lets do our part to help this infested city of ours
can i suggest an enhancement - use the accelerometer when driving - and detect potholes. But it may need some math to figure out what exactly is a pothole. What do you think?
Neat idea. How do you think the math would work? We'd need to distinguish someone slowing down for a pothole from a speedbreaker. Also, many people drive around the potholes to avoid them, and it may be hard to differentiate that from someone just avoiding other vehicles. Thoughts?
It won't be based on the speed, it has to be based on the y-axis.
As for driving around, the app could support both modes - the passive accelerometer based approach, and the explicit 'click and report'
Better still, let's try to have the app report somewhere that action may actually be taken - like, http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaints. They don't support pics, but you could pitch the app to them after the event
ichangemycity even has a category for potholes - http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaints/all/all/all/roads--footpaths-and-streetlights/potholes-and-manholes#complaints_filter_form
They so totally need a mobile app.
Cool, should be fun to try this out and see how the math fares.
You're right - we need to have the data reported translate into some action to close the loop. ichangemycity is an interesting idea.
It will be interesting to automatically capture and store the Geo location when a pothole is captured or detected. Then a simple web page can be built out that shows these as markers on a google map. Will be a fun element - like a control room type - for all users to see where the potholes are distributed or concentrated. (We can build a pothole busting game action on top later too :-))
I found this - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichangemycityjanaagraha.core. I'm connecting to janaagraha to see if we can help improve their app.
Great idea! BTW, if we are contributing, my preference would be that the body of it be open sourced. I suspect they'll be fine with it. What do you think?