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Come to think of it, no matter how ‘planned’ Islamabad seems to be, it really isn’t that easy to navigate around in. The only good thing about this city is that it has signboards everywhere, so you know where you are at least. In order to alleviate problems, some companies decided to take it upon themselves to setup a digital map of the city. Naqsha.net was one of the pioneers in this field with a map offering using Adobe SVG viewer. Their data was quite accurate, upto 90% accurate according to some people i know, yet it was their reliance on the Adobe software which made it very hard to use.
No longer are we, the citizens of this fine city, limited by the clunky adobe software! Naqsha has taken their map offerings to the next level by integrating it with Google Maps! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the overlays they’ve created for the google maps api is very professional and extremely useful. They go down to a maximum zoom level of 1000 ft, which is close enough to give you street numbers in all sectors.
The routing function is also available, even though i wasn’t able to utilize it properly. However, for what i needed, an address in I8/2, it quite possibly saved me not only 10-15 minutes of being lost and burning fuel, but also a considerable amount of frustration! Definitely something people on the road could use! they’ve also got quite a few other cities online as well and are not just limited to Islamabad.
| Written by mansoor on 05/14/08 in PakStartup |
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May 14th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Pretty good !!
I was able to locate my street too, easily
May 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
asma: it seriously is!
May 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I use this one http://www.visitislamabad.net/islamabad/files/map-home.asp and I think it’s not bad either.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I’ve been working on http://openstreetmap.org/?lat=33.6694&lon=73.0931&zoom=12&layers=B0FT along with some friends. It’s a lot faster than naqsha and the data is 99% accurate (except for I-10 and I-9 which are still in the works).
I would stay away from CDA maps because their accuracy is way lower. You can load OSM on your mobile phones too. I’ll post a couple of applications that can be downloaded on mobile phones and set up to pull data from OSM
May 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
ali: welcome to GnW.
Open street map is really a fine applciation! I saw it and it is quite a bit more detailed than naqsha, and especially where curved roads are concerned.
thanks for sharing.. i’ll be awaiting the apps you give for mobile phones.. that’ll be a real boon for me.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Thanks Mansoor. Try MOM at http://mom.poco.org.uk/get.html or MGMaps at http://wap.mgmaps.com(get the signed JAD for your device). Both support GPS devices but MGMaps crashes sometimes.
I like MOM better because it defaults to OSM data while MGMaps has to be configured. I suggest you get MOM, let it download the world map and then go looking for Pakistan. Zoom in, let it download and then zoom in again (this will take about 5 - 10 minutes). Once data has been downloaded, you need not access the internet and can run the maps from your phone memory. You can also mark areas (i marked all the sectors in Islamabad so it’s really easy to navigate).
May 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
thanks ali! will try it over the weekend.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I work on the naqsha.net team. I would say that our maps are 99% accurate. You can test this yourself by using the Hybrid mode on our Google Maps API version. Increase and decrease the opacity using the opacity control on the top-right corner. You will see that our roads are exactly on top of the roads in the Google images. We also provide road and POI searching as well as directions/routing for major Pakistani cities. There is also a mobile application which you may download for your java enabled mobile phone at http://naqsha.net/naqsha_mobile_beta.jar.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi Nadir, You streets seem to be accurate in terms of where they are supposed to be. However, you have to work on street names because I have found a lot of discrepancies there. You are still missing quite a few streets and have named others incorrectly. I usually drive around in all streets and get their names from the street signs (instead of using CDA’s data because they seem to get a lot of names wrong). One problem with tracing off Google Images is that you don’t really visit the streets you are mapping, thus the errors in naming them. However, with GPS traces for each street you get good clean data but with petrol prices increasing every other week, this WILL take a toll on your wallet… it has on mine
May 19th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
nadir: thanks for commenting on this blog! its always nice to hear from people who are at the forefront of the applications.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Thank you. Its always nice to read other people’s comments. It allows us to improve the naqsha.net experience. Talking about comments and feedback: I have been working on a new interface for naqsha.net which you might be kind enough to give your thoughts on. Please visit http://naqsha.net/extjs . It allows multiple search results and resizing of the map view to the browser window. You guys would be the first ones to use it.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:35 am
Ali.
Where can i get ALX or COD for MOM mapping software. I am trying gmap but every time i need to search for Islamabad on OSM adn then zoom in. So i wanna try MOM on my blackberry (not registered with any blackberry server)
August 1st, 2008 at 11:44 am
Hamza,
Im not using MOM anymore because mgmap has better zoom levels. I dont even know if there is a ALX or COD for MOM. I dont see why you have to search for isb on mgmap. It should start from the last location you were at. Check the settings on it.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Ali
I did but but for some stupid reason whenever i open the application it goes to main globe view and i need to zoom in or search. I have know issues with the GPRS data it eats (as my phone bill is paid by my company) but its a tiring procedure.
Though i love the details you people have put in OSM. I think the next step remaining are teh house numbers.
My GPS receiver was pretty correct during my yesterday commute from office to home, occasionally it was showing me driving on green belts though.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Maybe we can meet up someday and figure out what is wrong with the settings. I have downloaded all the maps on my phone so i dont need to be using GPRS.
I dont know about house numbers though. It took me months just to get the streets in. Getting house numbers in will probably take a year :p
Its weird that it showed you driving on a green belt. It shoudn’t be doing that because i’ve used multiple GPS devices to get those tracks. Maybe we could check that problem out too.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Sure we can meet up and try to sort this one out.
I couple of more questions for you and hope that you might be able to help.
Firstly, can openstreetmaps be configured on a hand held or car mounted GPS systems (e.g TOMTOM or Garmin) I read somewhere that it is possible but the procedure to do that is very difficult. Has anyone over here tried to do this. I read on NAQSHA(dot)net that thier map can some fit into Garmin systems. Has anyone given it a try . I am thinking about getting one of these devices from US and mount it on my car.
Secondly most of the new Japanese Imported car have built in GPS system in them but the mapping is in Japanese and that of Japan only. Can those be some how retrofitted with the Openstreetmap system?
Hamza
August 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hamza,
It is possible to use OSM data on TomTom or Garmin. You can read more about that at these links http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/TomTom and http://downloads.cloudmade.com/
I have not tried this so i am not sure how it works. I have talked to my boss about this as he probably knows more about OSM and mapping than most people in Pakistan. He says that he will be glad to help you figure out how to get OSM to run on your handheld or car mounted GPS system. The same goes for the Japanese GPS systems.
I will be out of Pakistan from the 9th till the end of the month so we can either meet before i leave or after i return
August 6th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Hello. I’m from naqsha.net. We are currently in the process of testing our maps on Garmin GPS units and would be bringing them to the market soon. We have obtained a dealership from Garmin and are using their tools and standards to compile the maps for the Garmin GPS devices. As for the Japanese imports, we are also trying to work something out there as well. Most of the car manufacturers use propriety formats for the maps. We have talked to Honda regarding that and are still waiting for a response from them. Once we have the right tools we would be able to compile our maps for use in the Japanese imports as well.
I would suggest you wait a while longer and dont purchase a Garmin unit from the US as that would only have US maps with it and you would be paying for those too. We would be providing the same units with Pakistan maps preloaded on them.
Nadir
August 6th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Hi Nadir
Its nice to know that atleast someone is trying to bring Garmin with proper mapping.
I have checked on their website they only have one dealer in Pakistan by the name of East West Infiniti PVT LTD. But they don’t have any info on their website(http://www.eastwestin.com
) weather they have detailed maps of Pakistan or not.
If you guys need someone to test your maps please contact me, i would love to do this
Hamza
August 20th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
is the garmin map available yet? just arrived here and this would make my life sooooo much easier!!!
thanks