The UK’s cartographer maps mission to help people and business

Feature Britain's Ordnance Survey (OS), founded in 1791, is interloping in the digital age. Minecraft, AR gaming, and EV charger locations have all become part of its portfolio, alongside the paper-based maps beloved by the nation's legion of cagoule-clad outdoor types.

But the digital mission goes deeper, CTO Manish Jethwa tells The Register, pointing to roof types as an example.

"OS has secretly, behind the scenes, been working on it. It's an embedded part of our production pipeline. The datasets that we produce today are already utilizing machine learning, including understanding roof types and roof materials automatically from aerial imagery. We use machine vision to get 3D models of the roofs and understand aspect and area. When you can then take those two datasets together, you can start to very quickly understand areas for solar potential of buildings, we can also detect where buildings already have solar ...