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Potholes are not a joke. They get in your way, damage your car and make you spill a Starbucks Venti’s worth of coffee on your already-dingy upholstered seats. But new research shows that Google Street View may be all municipalities need to correct the problem.
The U.S. has about 4 million miles of road where potholes can form, and almost all of it has been imaged by Google satellites and Street View cars. To utilise this resource, researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park developed some software that allows volunteers with virtually no training to scan through the streets in a neighbourhood marking potholes as they go. The study crowd sourced from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, and used a simple training video to orient participants.
The program can turn the pothole data into detailed, highlighted maps so road crews know where to go. The US government has expressed interest in the research, and future versions may not rely on volunteers at all, if computer algorithms can be used to “see” potholes with even more accuracy. Here’s the road to widespread integration is a well-paved one. Let’s hope this makes it to Britain holly roads. [New Scientist]
Image credit: Shutterstock/wawritto
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On the hole, this should change road repairs as we know it.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/orson_wells_Slow-Clap.gif
I don’t think spotting pot-holes is a particular problem here in the UK.
It’s more that the councils can’t be arsed/don’t have the budget/brains to get them filled in properly.
I know in Buckinghamshire it took up to last November to fix the previous winters attack on the roads… just in time for this winter to start all over again.
And when I say it took until last November… I mean it took until then to START filling them in.
This is sue to the fact that those in charge of the roads, don’t actually use them, and therefore couldn’t give a couple of shits.
I agree. I absolutely beleive that the Bucks councils fly to work on their over-inflated ego balloons. Some of them even have the sense of self importance and righteous zeal turbo boost.
Courtesy of the tax payer of course. No expense spared.
Sounds very typical South to me
Spill a big gulp? Spit a big gulp? and surely a ‘gulp’ is when you’ve already swallowed it, so “spit a mouth full of Fanta?” Sorry, just really confused me.
Anyways, Oxford is really bad for pot holes! Don’t come here if you love your suspension.
It’s all about the capitalisation – a ‘Big Gulp’ is a notoriously large drink you can get in American 7-Elevens:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#Products_and_services
I had no idea!….. But maybe as it’s a UK Blog, the reference should have been changed as I guess now this is just an article ripped form the Giz us site.
I always used to think a 7-Eleven was just a term in the US for a corner shop that opened 7 days a week for 11 hours. Learn something everyday!
I don’t know if the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) has a suitably outlandish equivalent!
Best way to mark pot holes is to make a game out of it (to encourage crowd sourcing). You get points for being the first one to mark a pot hole (which is then later verified). Add in levels and badges and you generate competition. Job done.
Good idea.
Dodged tax paid back in full, there you go UK Gov!
I still can’t get over how good Google Maps and Street View are. When you think about it, it’s an unbelievably vast and complex exercise Google have completed, just to provide Maps.
Then when you take into account the sheer extent of Street View coverage (which even covers country lanes in the middle of nowhere) and my mind still boggles.
With the latest Photosphere camera in Android 4.2 people can even map interiors of places in Street View fashion, further extending Google’s coverage.
I’d have thought there are still many, many applications of Google Maps in the future.