Will “Ground Truth Data Specialists” or the iWatch Save Apple Maps?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) appears to be taking steps to improve its troubled Apple Maps app, which launched in September 2012 as part of iOS 6. On February 20th, Apple posted a job listing on its website for a “Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist” with “local expertise” who will “collect ground truth information” for Apple Maps in NSW, Australia.

Presumably Apple will also seek “ground truth information” from other parts of the world, although Apple Maps for Australia bore the brunt of some especially bad publicity last year after it misdirected several travelers to the middle of a national park instead of a city.

Bruce Tognazzini, a former employee of Apple, has outlined another possible method for Apple to improve its Maps app on his Asktog webzine. Tognazzini proposes that Apple create a more accurate map by utilizing crowdsourced altitude data collected from the rumored-to-be-forthcoming iWatch. That data could potentially be used to correct the geographic distortion that currently plagues the “3D View” in Apple Maps.