2011-10-31
Timelapse: Urban
Shot on a Bolex with intervalometer, this sampling from Chris Scarafile's time lapse library reflects the blur and momentum of modern city living:
We really like a) the feel of the clip and b) the fact that it was shot using a Bolex....
Tool or Toy? Virtual Globes in Landscape Planning?
Future Internet has published - Schroth, O.; Pond, E.; Campbell, C.; Cizek, P.; Bohus, S.; Sheppard, S.R.J. Tool or Toy? Virtual Globes in Landscape Planning. Future Internet 2011, 3, 204-227.
Virtual globes, i.e., geobrowsers that integrate multi-scale and temporal data from various sources and are based on a globe metaphor, have developed into serious tools that practitioners and various stakeholders in landscape and community planning have started using. Although these tools originate from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), they have become a different, potentially interactive and public tool set, with their own specific limitations and new opportunities.
However, landscape is not equally representative at all scales, and not all types of users seem to benefit equally from the tool. The risks of misinterpretation can be managed by integrating the application and interpretation of virtual globes into face-to-face planning processes.
The paper is part of a special issue edited by Dr. Christopher Pettit
Principal Research Scientist and Research Manager, Spatial Information Sciences, Department of Primary Industries Victoria, Australia and Dr. Arzu Coltekin,Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 80750 Zürich, Switzerland.
2011-10-27
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
In 2010, IBM Citizenship created the Smarter Cities Challenge to help 100 cities over a three-year period to address some of the critical challenges facing cities. They do this by contributing the time and expertise of their experts from different business units and geographies, putting them on the ground for three weeks to work closely with city leaders and deliver recommendations on how to make the city smarter and more effective.
IBM are encouraging cities around the world to apply for funding - in order to be eligible for the IBM grant, city mayors need to apply before December 16, the application is online via: https://smartercitieschallenge.org/reg.do.
IBM are encouraging cities around the world to apply for funding - in order to be eligible for the IBM grant, city mayors need to apply before December 16, the application is online via: https://smartercitieschallenge.org/reg.do.
Augmenting a Roman Fort: A Paper Model, IPad and Unity
Stuart Eve here at The Bartlett's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis has posted an update on his PhD research looking at augmenting archaeological sites. Before moving onto the real world he has built a proof of concept based on a Roman Fort made out of paper, the results on the iPad are extremely promising:
Augmenting a Roman Fort from Dead Men's Eyes on Vimeo.
2011-10-24
3D London: Google Earth
With recent developments here in CASA we somehow managed to miss the addition of automated 3D models into Google Earth for London. The mix of hand made and we presume LiDAR derived models is stunning with resolution down to modelling the chimneys on many buildings:
The quad at University College London is notably impressive, as is Trafalgar Square. The model is far from complete but we assume other areas are on their way.
Music: London Town by Rod Kinny on unsigned.
The quad at University College London is notably impressive, as is Trafalgar Square. The model is far from complete but we assume other areas are on their way.
Music: London Town by Rod Kinny on unsigned.
2011-10-21
Urban Trees: London
A short yet somehow eye opening clip that should make anyone living in London wondering why this is not already part of our infrastructure:
Created by Hixon Design, a company providing green solutions for awkward spaces, we can see a few practical issues but overall it would make many London streets slightly nicer, and that can only be a good thing...
2011-10-20
Audi Urban Future and a Smile
The Audi Urban Future Summit focused on the question of energies and forces that will shape future cities. Visionary ideas and research by experts on the development of new forms of urban mobility were in the center of the discussions. All well and good but why is the movie included here, simply it made us smile:
The animation explains the implications of three types of energies that were examined on the summit: 'Energies of Data', 'Energies of Social Relations' and 'Energies of Resources'. The complex interrelations and abstract visions are narrated by means of simple scenes and playful elements.
Creative and Art direction, Illustration and Design: onlab
Motion Design, Audio Editing: Sebastian Lange vimeo.com/sebastianlange
Creative and Art direction, Illustration and Design: onlab
Motion Design, Audio Editing: Sebastian Lange vimeo.com/sebastianlange
2011-10-17
Paper Tools in Softimage: Skoda - Curriculum
Here at digital urban we are picky, we like the best and this is why we are especially pleased to of found 'Skoda - Curriculum' by weareflink. Although not the most stand out title for a short 3D movie, it is amazing:
One of the greatest challenge was to create animations where pages of paper should fold to different geometrical objects. So they developed some “PaperTools” in Softimage ICE. Head over to Christian Schnellhammer . TD Blog for full details.
Golden Age: Somewhere
The sequel to the award winning Golden Age - The Simulation, 'Somewhere' attempts to visualise the notion of a 'downloaded architecture'. We are in a time where much of what we do is online. The notion of the online will radically change, the notion of the computer and the home will merge. We will download parks and places to relax, have skype phone calls with simulated telepresence of our friends and family, be immersed in nanorobotic replications of any kind of objects or furnishings downloaded on credit based systems. The local becomes the global and the global becomes the local. Consumer based capitalism would change forever:
The sequence was mainly constructed in 3ds Max, using thinking particles, ghosttown, box2+3, particle flow, thinking particles, and rendered in vray. Footage of character was from a Canon 7D. Final clip composited in After Effects and Premier.
Take a look at www.factoryfifteen.com for more info....
Take a look at www.factoryfifteen.com for more info....
2011-10-14
Tokyo Slo-Mode
The Canon T3i has the option to capture at 60fps at 720p, essentially allowing you to slow time by 50%. The effect is used to its max by Alex Lee with his Tokyo Slo-Mode movie:
Music Credit: Flying Lotus ft. Thom Yorke- ...And the World Laughs With You.
2011-10-12
Cities in Motion: Game or Urban Transport Model?
Often the gaming world is closer to the urban modelling and transport flow research world than many would think. One such case is Cities in Motion (CIM) a city-based mass transportation simulator for the PC. Players operate their own transportation company, building a public network with a variety of vehicle types, including buses, trams, and subway trains. By meeting the needs of city residents, the player tries to make as much profit as possible. Observing the changing and growing city, as well as the different types of people in it, is key to building a successful and efficient network.
The trailer below provides a good overview:
New cities are being added, creating an interesting possibility of using the engine behind the game with actually transport networks and flow based data. The next movie details the new German cities within the system:
The link between the gaming world and urban visualisation groups is gradually becoming clear to some in the sector, the next step is to move it into urban modelling....
New cities are being added, creating an interesting possibility of using the engine behind the game with actually transport networks and flow based data. The next movie details the new German cities within the system:
The link between the gaming world and urban visualisation groups is gradually becoming clear to some in the sector, the next step is to move it into urban modelling....
2011-10-11
Crowd Sourced 3D Modelling?
At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel CEO Paul Otellini demoed how the company's processors are being used to render a 3D model from millions of user-generated images taken from photo-sharing sites such as Flicker and Picasa. We like the view that this could lead to crowd sourced 3D modelling, indeed it seems to be the current trend:
The work is being done at the University of Washington, where researchers have crowd-sourced images from the Web and created 3D re-construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
2011-10-10
LiDAR: Urban Caves Movie
The Nottingham Caves Survey is in the process of recording all of Nottingham’s 450+ sandstone caves. The movie below is in stunning detail based purely on a LiDAR scan capturing 500,000 survey points per second:
Head over to http://nottinghamcavessurvey.org.uk/ for more movies.
Thanks go to Keith Challis of the Second Site, Landscape, Heritage and Visualisation blog for sending this in.
The Future of Augmented Reality (?)
The movie below provides a view on the future of Augmented Reality. We are big fans of augmented reality here at digital urban but someone we dont quite see it as the future. There is something that simply does not feel right within the general day to day urban context:
We maybe wrong but waving your phone around simply does not feel like the future to us, hyper location based services linked to voice recognition system such as the emerging SIRI are perhaps more likely than an augmented reality future, at least in the short term.... (?)
We maybe wrong but waving your phone around simply does not feel like the future to us, hyper location based services linked to voice recognition system such as the emerging SIRI are perhaps more likely than an augmented reality future, at least in the short term.... (?)
Earth 2.0
The whole '2.0' thing has been slightly overdone, however Earth 2.0 is a really nice movie:
Take a look at the Earth 2.0 channel on YouTube for more movies...
Take a look at the Earth 2.0 channel on YouTube for more movies...
2011-10-05
Finally a Post - An Update on Digital Urban
Firstly apologies, the blog has been sat on the sidelines waiting for a post while i have been in a whirlwind of a three weeks. The good news is the blog is back, in short, we have been in the process recently of securing grants, launching a new Masters of Research course here at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London and presenting current research to the British Science Festival and the associated press conference.
Press Conferences are everything you imagined with the various leading newspapers gathering round and shouting questions. Packing a dress worn by Annie Lennox at Nelson Mandela's Birthday Party, RFID tags and a short presentation based around the Tales of Things work we announced the concept of the Internet of Second Hand Things.
It was a fun event and we had some excellent coverage with the Financial Times, Sunday Times, Russia Channel One, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 amongst the highlights. Mixed into this were two grant bids, one with NESTA and the other for a UCL Enterprise Award. I'm please to say we won them both, opening the doors to work with the Imperial War Museum and Digital Humanities in UCL and continuing the work with the wider TOTeM group to set up TOTeM Labs.
While juggling press requests, conference presentations, grant short listings and interview boards we have welcomed 9 members to our new MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation - a Masters of Research differs from a traditional MSc as its less jumping through hoops to learn and more focused in becoming part of the research world. We purposely constructed the MRes to be the course we would like to take and as such it is an exciting mix of visualisation, coding, mapping, crowd sourcing, modelling and research methods. If you are thinking of taking a Masters, i would strongly suggest a MRes, it offers something different to everyone else with a MSc and of course sets you up for a PhD.
Our email box is horribly behind, my office is a pile of papers and people keep saying i look knackered but its been great and the last three weeks have been about creating impact and hopefully securing research funds to document and share here on the blog via posts and tutorials. Currently i am on a train returning from a two day kick off meeting in Southampton with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) on another new grant 'TALISMAN'. Based around crowd sourcing techniques, Big Data and Xbox/Chrome/PC visualisations, TALISMAN runs for the next three years.
Rounding off, our CityDB (dashboard/database) work also starts this month, following on from the JISC funded GEMMA (Geographic Engine for Mass Mapping Applications) which previews in a few weeks time. It aims to provide new live feeds for Smart Cities, but above and beyond the normal traffic/air pollution data. At the moment i have a Geiger Counter on my desk waiting to be plugged in and a 3D Agent Based Modelling world to complete and port to the iPad. Its been a slightly off topic blog post for once but perhaps a small insight into the life of at least one part of the multi disciplinary research lab that is CASA.
Finally, you can keep up to date with developments either via @digitalurban on Twitter or with the new Global Lab podcast, currently up to episode 6. If you would like to join us in CASA to do research based around spatial, cultural analysis and urban visualisation you can apply for our MRes or a PhD.
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