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Google Earth Beaten By Autorendering From Photos
Flu writes "Sweden's major engineer newspaper NyTeknik writes about a new technology which is used to automatically convert 60.000 aerial photographs of Stockholm, Sweden, into a 3d-world, similar to Google Earth's rendering of major buildings in some US cities. But unlike Google's laser-measured rendering, this technique took less than 8 days (including the photography) to automatically generate the 3D-model of Stockholm — which includes every building and details as high as individual trees!
The program was developed by C3, a subsidiary of the Swedish defense industry company SAAB, together with a PC gaming company called Agency 9. The complete article is available (sorry, Swedish only), but the 3D-rendering of Stockholm is available as a Java applet from the Swedish phone-dictionary service Hitta.se (tick the checkbox — it's an ordinary disclaimer, and click 'Till 3D-kartan')." The technique used gives a cool water-color look to the scenes, too.
does playing with the maps count as RTFA ?
http://revj.sourceforge.net
all the buildings in Stockholm are partially melted, this must prove global warming!!!
This kind of model is what you get when you take the point cloud from Photosynth, mesh it and use the photos as textures.
Then we can plan out bank robberies and gauge the different police reactions in a virtual game before one proceeds to ...
...
Oh wait. Someone's at the door. Guantanamo ? But I don't want to go to
The 3D map looks more like post-apocalyptic Stockholm.
I'm posting the article in English here with some changes due to Translate.Google not being able to translate everything 100%.
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Hitta.se beats Google Earth
with new 3D-technology from Saab.
Search company Hitta.se has a new Web service that is better than Google Earth to show Sweden in a 3D view. In Stockholm there, for example, every single building as a realistic 3D model.
With the help of robotics from Saab and the Swedish software for computer games Hitta.se search company has developed a Web service that shows Sweden in 3D and which is clearly better than the corresponding service from Google Earth.
Directly in the browser, users can zoom in, tilt and turn the flygfotograferade views across the country. With the help of altitude measurements images of the land are created where the mountains and valleys appear with genuine feeling of depth.
The new service, which launched May 29, is also all buildings from Stockholm, in the form of realistic 3D models.
Although they can be turned and turned and seen from any height and angle.
Later this year, including the second appearance of Sweden's largest cities as a complete 3-D models.
The major competitor in the show Sweden in 3D is Google Earth. But there are only a few dozen 3-D buildings from Stockholm and a few other cities.
Google's 3D view of Sweden was also much lower quality than that Hitta.se offer. Both in terms of image resolution and altitude.
-- We have created 3-D feature to give users a more fun and more realistic ways to use our maps, "says Rui de Sousa Brit who is president and CEO of Hitta.se
But the new service does not yet cover all planned features. Therefore, it's "sneak launched" and goes by the name of "the lab" on the company's website.
Moreover, such as some 3D buildings refined when the houses angles can be a little crooked and some facades have bad sharpness.
The technology used was developed by the Swedish companies C3 Technologies in LinkÃping and Agency9 in Lulea.
C3 is a subsidiary of Saab and develop technology that has its origin in seeker for robots.
The technology is based on high resolution aerial photography with carefully calibrated cameras. In order to build 3-D model of Stockholm, which covers an area of 200 square kilometres was 60 000 images from 600 metres above sea level, which took three days.
Then, it took only a few more days to automatically create 3-D model, where even individual trees are included.
Tommy Johansson who is president and CEO of C3 know that some defence in the world have developed similar technology. But he is not aware of anyone else who introduced the technology for civilian purposes.
-- We aim to launch our technology globally and believe that, for example, urban planners and businesses similar Hitta.se can become our customers, "says Tommy Johansson.
Other companies based 3-D models of entire cities primarily use lasermÃtningar to collect 3D data. For example, Google and Microsoft for their service Virtual Earth.
It is a technology that is much more costly and time consuming than the C3's way.
Photo and mapping services from Google and Microsoft require users to install special software on your own computer. In Google Earth in the form of a stand-alone program and the Virtual Earth as a plug which is available only for Windows.
But Hitta.se 3D runs directly into the browser by using javateknik and works for most operating systems and browsers.
-- I think that both Google and Microsoft may have some problems with sleep when they see the new service from hitta.se, "says Tommy Johansson.
In order to be able to present all 3D data in the new map in the form of realistic buildings used technology developed for computer games.
It comes from the Agency 9 of Lulea.
The company began by building a so-called rendering engine for web games. Eg. software that draws up 3D environments on the computer screen.
-- But the web
OMG - Stockholm has been hit by an earthqua... oh wait... there it goes...
this is great! Let me zoom in...
OMG - Stockholm has been hit by an earthquake!