-------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: Electronic map data and GPS: Mohave Desert] Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 13:51:22 -0800 From: Wendie Helms <[log in to unmask]> To: 'Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum' <[log in to unmask]> ------------------ Ken, My library owns cd-roms from the Mojave Desert Ecosystem Program. I believe you can obtain the same data from this website: http://www.mojavedata.gov/. There is raster and vector data for roads, elevation, etc. I am not sure if the data will be at the detail or in the format your patron needs. Wendie Helms Map Curator, Map Collection, Science Library University of California, Riverside (951)827-6423 [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Johnnie D. Sutherland Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 12:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Electronic map data and GPS: Mohave Desert] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Electronic map data and GPS: Mohave Desert Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 08:25:20 -0700 From: Ken Rockwell <[log in to unmask]> To: Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]> ------------------ A student e-mailed this reference question to me. It's an area with which I've had no experience, so I wonder if others out there can advise us on resources that may help. Thanks in advance, Ken Rockwell Univ. of Utah I wanted to ask you about finding electronic map data needed for my senior project in computer science. To give you a bit of background, I'm working with three other people in a group project involved with a local company that's trying to enter the DARPA sponsored Grand Challenge event this October. The event is an autonomous vehicle race (meaning there's no direct human control over the vehicle) from Barstow, CA to Primm, NV. Our project is to take signal input from a GPS module and correct for possible errors in the latitude/longitude based on map data. By that I mean that the vehicle is following only roads and the GPS signal may indicate that it's some 10 meters (say) off the road. Our software has to "filter" the signals by finding the closest road in a straight line based on map data, give new latitude/longitude coordinates correcting for the nearest road, then recombine that with the rest of the GPS signal (which gives current time, altitude, etc.) to be used by the vehicle's navigation system. I'm not sure about sources of electronic map data for the area in question: that is what format they're available in (vector or raster), how up-to-date, and what resolution or level of detail they have. I'm looking for either free or commercial sources of maps--basically I just need to know what's available and where to get it. I'm trying to locate helper software to "read" the map given numeric latitude/longitude coordinates. I know there are a lot of companies selling such software--basically the program I'm trying to write presumably recreates what any high-end GPS receiver would already do for you. The issue is the helper software I find has to be able to understand the map data given to it. Do you happen to know of any resources for finding such information?