Capture projects

Capture Projects is a toolset for organizations that want to collect fresh street-level imagery and map data in an area. By dividing an area into smaller tasks that several drivers can work on simultaneously, it’s possible to quickly and systematically cover an area with street-level imagery and access map data from that area.

Capture Projects consists of a project dashboard on the Mapillary web app and a mobile app called Mapillary for Drivers. The dashboard lets you set up capture tasks in your area of interest, assign them to people in your team, and see progress in real time.

Mapillary for Drivers is a mobile app that the drivers use for completing their tasks, as it lets them accept tasks, see what needs mapping in each task, and submit the results when the task is complete. It's available for iOS and Android.

The mobile app includes the functionality to capture images, but you can also have your drivers use some other camera that matches your requirements, such as an action camera or 360° camera. (See our help section about Contributing and don’t hesitate to get in touch for advice, especially if you're about to buy new equipment for your project).

This article is about the project dashboard and will cover:

1. Accessing Capture Projects
2. Setting up a project
3. Managing a project
4. Editing and deleting projects

For more information about the mobile app, please see the articles about Mapillary for Drivers for Android and Mapillary for Drivers for iOS.

 

Accessing Capture Projects

To start using capture projects, go to your organization dashboard on the Mapillary web app. As an admin, you’ll see the “Capture” item in the left-side menu where you can request access to capture projects. We ask you to share a few details about the project you have in mind, after which we’ll enable the feature for you and get you started. (You won’t have to submit the request for subsequent projects after the first one.)

Once the feature is enabled for your organization, you and all other admins in your organization will see the “Capture” tab of the dashboard with a list of all your projects. You can open each one to manage it or just check in on progress, as well as add new projects.

 

Setting up a project

To set up a new capture project, click on the “Add new project” button in the Capture tab of your organization dashboard. Each project is based on an existing shape, so you need to have at least one shape set up. You also have to have organization imagery enabled.

In the first step of setting up the project, you need to choose the originating shape for your project. The shape will be the outer boundary of your project, onto which you’ll place a task grid in the next step.

If your organization has both public and private imagery enabled, you also need to choose the imagery target of this project—this also means that imagery within a project can be only public or only private, not a mix of the two. Note that private imagery can be seen by all admins and members of your organization, regardless of whether they're a part of that particular project or not.

In this step, you also name your project. Considering how you may want to use capture projects over time, it can be a good idea to name the project “Malmö, spring 2019” or similar—something that will help you always easily identify the project.

Next, you’ll be setting up your task grid. Drag and zoom to the desired view on the map within your shape.  To draw a rectangle over your shape, click once to mark the upper left corner, move the mouse, and click again to mark the lower right corner. You will see the task grid appear (this can take a moment, depending on the size of the area). If you draw a rectangle that’s larger than your shape, only areas inside your shape will be included in the task grid.

In the sidebar, you’ll also see the summary stats about your grid: how many tasks there are how many km of roads/streets they contain on average. If you wish, you can change the task size by entering a number in the box (decimals are supported too).

At any time, you can click on the “Start over” button at the bottom of the sidebar if you want to discard the current grid and draw a new one. Once you’re happy with your grid, click on “Add drivers” to proceed.

The third step is to add drivers to your project. You’ll see a list of all the team members in your organization and can choose who to add to the current project.

Tip! If you’re involving people in the project specifically for image capture, you can add them to your organization with the “Contributor” role. That way, they’ll be available to participate as drivers in the project (using the designated mobile apps) but won’t have access your organization dashboard on the Mapillary web app. Note that only admins can create and manage capture projects (learn more about team roles).

When done adding drivers, click “Finish” (you can also opt to not add any drivers at the moment and do that later on). Proceed to click on the “Create capture project” button at the bottom of the sidebar to complete the setup.

 

Managing a project

When you’ve set up a project, you will see it on the list in the Capture tab of the organization dashboard. Click on a project to view its details, check in on progress, and manage tasks and assignment of drivers. This is how it works:

1. You assign a driver to a task.
2. The driver signs in to the Mapillary for Drivers app and accepts the task. You will see the task status as “Accepted” in the project overview.
3. The driver captures in his task area to complete the task, using the app to record progress (and capture images, if you’ve asked them to use the smartphone as a camera).
4. The driver can also decline the task if they feel like they can’t fulfill it for some reason. Then you’ll have the chance to reassign it to someone else.
5. You will see progress in the task, represented by lines on the map.
• Orange lines mean the driver has been capturing these tracks but hasn’t uploaded the imagery yet.
• Purple lines represent uploaded imagery. You can zoom in and click to view the images, giving you the chance to check on their quality.
6. Once the driver is done, they will submit the task. You will see the task status as “Submitted”.
7. You review the task and if happy with the outcome, approve it.
8. If you think it needs more work, you can reject the task and add a comment for the driver with further explanations. Then you can assign it back to them (or another driver). The progress so far will be retained.

Tasks are represented on the map as well as a list in the sidebar, together with their current status. Click on the task number to open it and see the details and activity log about the specific task. In the list, tasks that need your attention will be moved to the top—e.g. submitted tasks that you should review.

 

Editing and deleting capture projects

Once a capture project is set up, you can’t edit the task grid anymore, nor the upload target (public or private imagery). So make sure to figure the best setup out before drivers start capturing.

You can always add and remove drivers in the project. Just open the project and click on the “Drivers” tab in the sidebar, where you’ll see the “Manage drivers” button. If you remove someone from the drivers list for a project, their progress and contributed imagery will be retained but they cannot access the project in the Mapillary for Drivers app anymore. If you re-add them at a later stage, they can resume from where they left off (their data, including traces on the map, are retained).

To delete a capture project, click on the three dots in the project list in the Capture section of the organization dashboard, and choose “Delete”. All imagery that has been uploaded to the project so far will remain in your organization; it’s the progress reporting that will be deleted. Also, if any drivers have collected imagery that’s still pending upload, they won’t be able to upload it to the project anymore so make sure to check up on this before deleting a project.