With Mapillary for ArcGIS Online, you are able to use the Mapillary application to supplement your own projects with street-level imagery from our community’s uploads, as well as to view your own custom imagery. In this tutorial we will go over the following:
Viewing the imagery is a quick and simple process. On the map, the Mapillary vector tile layer is displayed by default. These green lines represent the location of Mapillary sequences or a series of images that you may navigate through. Zooming in, the lines transform into points, and each point represents an image.
Clicking on the sequence or point in the Mapillary vector tile layer, you will see the associated image load in the Mapillary viewer window. The map will now display a directional icon, indicating which cardinal direction the camera is facing. Inside the Mapillary viewer, there is also a compass symbol showing the direction of the camera, which will update if you choose to click on the window and pan around. Some images are regular and have a black background outside the camera's field of vision, while others are full 360-degree images.
The image in the Mapillary viewer also displays an attribution to the user who captured it, and the arrow in the top right corner will expand the viewer to be a full-screen image.
Looking at the green sequences on the map, you’ll notice that there are many places worldwide where Mapillary imagery does not exist—sometimes in the middle of the Atacama desert, and sometimes in your own neighborhood. When imagery is lacking in a place you need it, Mapillary allows you to take matters into your own hands. Because of the way Mapillary is structured, it is perfectly possible for you to capture imagery using your mobile phone, action camera, or 360-degree camera and upload it to Mapillary all within a few hours.
The advantages to this are significant—you have complete control over what content is depicted in the images, from what angle, and during which season or even time of day. In a nutshell, you can make your own street-level imagery, then use it as a reference for building and editing your own GIS datasets. To learn more about capturing imagery, read here.
Finally, you will notice two sets of arrows: the sequence navigation and the spatial navigation. The sequence navigation consists of a triangular play button flanked by a left and right arrow on each respective side. Meanwhile, the spatial navigation arrows are rendered inside the image, showing which direction you can move to keep viewing the scene on the ground. These include forward, backward, left, and right in addition to turn arrows to rotate the camera entirely.
Clicking a new location in the Mapillary vector tile layer will jump to the image at that location. In our next step, we will import a project of your own, and demonstrate that clicking on your point data brings up the nearest image that looks at your feature—this allowing you to click any point on the map in order to get a look at it in the Mapillary viewer.
You may also filter the Mapillary vector tile layer to show a specific user's uploads, and/or a specific date range. At the top of your screen, there is a green logo for "Mapillary for ArcGIS Online". To the right are three icons—Mapillary Filter, My Maps, and Edit. Clicking on Mapillary Filter, you will see the window appear that allows you to choose which filter options fit your need.
Finally, you may turn off the vector tile layer at any time by clicking the Layer List icon on the right-hand side of the screen and removing the checkmark beside Mapillary.
Importing your own dataset requires that you have already created a separate map in your ArcGIS Online account. For example, to view a shapefile of points of interest across Catalina Island, you will need to create a new map in your ArcGIS Online account’s My Content section, add the shapefile to it, then save the map. Next, you can open the Mapillary for ArcGIS Online application, and click the My Maps icon to see your newly created map. Clicking your map of choice will add it to the Mapillary for ArcGIS Online application, combining your personal project with the Mapillary vector tiles and Mapillary viewer. Please note that the application only supports viewing of point data at this time, although you may still add polyline and polygon data that will not be rendered in the Mapillary viewer.
Once your data has loaded, you must first click on the green sequence layer to initiate the viewer. Once an image has loaded, click on any point in order to get the nearest image that looks at the point. The point will also appear as a colored marker inside the image, indicating where exactly it is located.
Please note that the accuracy of this marker is limited to the accuracy of the image itself—it assumes that no interference with the GPS signal has obscured the camera angle and that the image has been uploaded to the correct longitude and latitude. Areas with a single image showing street-level views tend to be less accurate when displaying point data, while areas with many overlapping sequences are more accurate.
You may begin navigating from the location of any point you've clicked on, and you will continue to see the point while within about 50 meters distance. With this in mind, it is possible to navigate around your point to see many different angles that help you to confirm that its location on the map corresponds to the context in the image.
Editing your data requires you to have your own map already loaded, as in the previous step, followed by enabling edit mode. The Edit button is to the right of My Maps, and will open the editing toolbar. With editing enabled, you may move your point data by clicking and dragging on the map. You will see the location of the marker in the Mapillary viewer update to reflect this change. It is useful to take note of the compass indicator in the Mapillary viewer in order to guide you as you move your point data, as this can show you which way is north, south, etc. in the image.
The default editing tool in ArcGIS Online also allows you to edit the attributes of a point, which will not affect the marker as rendered in the viewer. Only changing the map location will affect the marker location. When you're satisfied with your edits as they appear in the Mapillary viewer, simply save your edits.
Creating a new project from scratch requires that you create a new map outside of the Mapillary for ArcGIS Online application. Just like when viewing and editing your data, you will add your new project by clicking My Maps and importing it to Mapillary for ArcGIS Online. The key difference here is that you must first create a blank map, rather than using an existing dataset. In your ArcGIS Online account, navigate to My Content, click Create, click Feature Layer, then choose either a template or existing data to base your empty feature layer upon.
For templates, the Field Notes template under the General category is a good start—you can add points on top of objects on your map, and make notes about them. There are many other templates that may be appropriate for your project as well—look for examples under the Transportation, Public Safety, or Water Utilities categories.
Now that you’ve created a feature layer, you’ll need to once again navigate to My Content. Find your new feature layer in the list of your content, and see the small downward arrow icon to the right of the layer name. Clicking this, you will find the option 'Add layer to a new map with full editing control'. Click this, let your map load, give it a title, and save it. You may now open Mapillary for ArcGIS Online, click the My Maps icon, and add your blank map.
Next, click on the green Mapillary sequences to find the location where you’d like to add a new point. The Mapillary viewer will display an image. Now click the Edit icon, and you can click the plus symbol to start adding a new feature on the map. Click on the map to add your point, and check to see if it appears in the right location in the image. If not, click and drag the point on the map until it aligns with the correct part of the image. For example, you may be trying to place a point on the map representing a tree, so you can drag it around on the map until the marker in the image is precisely on top of the tree you’re mapping.
When you’ve finished editing, be sure to save your edits by clicking the Edit icon again. Your edits will now be universal through your ArcGIS Online account, so the map you imported will reflect the changes, as will other maps that use the same feature layer.
In order to view traffic signs detected in major cities, you may turn on another vector tile layer. Under the Layers List on the right hand of the screen, you will see a check box beside the Mapillary_Traffic_Signs option. Clicking the box, a check mark will appear. On the map, be sure to zoom out, then zoom back in to make the tiles load, as vector tile loading is limited when zoomed in too close. Sample areas of a variety of detected signs include Los Angeles and New York City. These traffic signs are detected in images using Mapillary’s computer vision technology and pinpointed to a location on the map.
If you are interested in acquiring an Esri Shapefile format or other feature layer format of traffic signs detected in your area of interest, complete with the ability to edit attributes and adjust locations, please contact us.
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