The Ordnance Survey has teamed up with Intel to develop an incredibly detailed picture of the UK’s road infrastructure, using computer vision to build a map of location data on everything from manhole covers to road markings.
The national mapping agency will work with Intel’s MobileEye enterprise (an Israeli startup bought by Intel in 2017 for $15.3 billion) to build detailed utility maps of British roads and cities, using cars equipped with a range of sensors.
This data will then be cross-reference with geospatial datasets already created by the survey agency to develop accurate, highly searchable maps .
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Neil Ackroyd, Ordnance Survey CEO said in a release: “OS appreciates its role as a trusted advisor in existing and new markets and will continue to invest and innovate to support our utility customers and in new discovery projects such as CAV, 5G and IoT.”
“One key, and common, learning is that detailed and accurate geospatial data is a must for the success of these projects. We envisage this new rich data to be key to how vehicles, infrastructure, people and more will communicate in the digital age.”
UK Ordnance Survey
One potential beneficiary of the detailed mapping of road networks and infrastructure is utility companies. By giving them a precise location of existing assets such as manhole covers, streetlights, cables and network boxes, companies will be able to manage and efficiently plan future projects using the OS data maps.
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Knowing the exact location and layout of rural and urban infrastructure companies will be able to conduct maintenance and service updates in a more controlled and precise manner. Cars used for the survey will have a Mobileeye camera attached to them which is equipped with the enterprise’s EyeQ technology.
EyeQ uses Vector Microcode Processors to support the computer vision software applications used in surveying road infrastructure. Mobileeye has done extensive research and development over the years on their computer vision technology.
ItsEyeQ series uses multi-threaded processing clusters and programmable macro arrays to deliver application-specific computer vision capabilities. The system has the ability to processes eight camera sensors in conjunction, operating at 2.5 trillion operations per second, all on 5 watts of power consumption.
The physical manufacturing of its EyeQ range is done by semiconductor manufacturing STMicroelectronics. Amnon Shashua Mobileye’s president and CEO said: “Using maps to improve operations between businesses and cities will help bring us closer to the realization of smart cities and safer roads.”
