CyberCity AG the software company behind some of the best Google Earth models and specializing in the creation and visualization of reality-based virtual 3D cities seems to of gone into liquidation.
While we cannot speculate on the demise of CyberCity, the market is increasingly crowded and with Web 2.0 based consumer level tools becoming available the creation of whole 3d cities is still seen as too costly for many clients.
CyberCitys’ coporate video from 2006 illustrating high quality output is embedded below:
It is sad to see CyberCity removed from the market and we hope to see it re-emerge soon.
CyberCity AG the software company behind some of the best Google Earth models and specializing in the creation and visualization of reality-based virtual 3D cities seems to of gone into liquidation.
While we cannot speculate on the demise of CyberCity, the market is increasingly crowded and with Web 2.0 based consumer level tools becoming available the creation of whole 3d cities is still seen as too costly for many clients.
CyberCitys’ coporate video from 2006 illustrating high quality output is embedded below:
It is sad to see CyberCity removed from the market and we hope to see it re-emerge soon.
At the moment in the research world there is a lot of activity around ground based LiDAR data capture with a number of companies mounting rigs onto vans and driving around cities. We are not convinced by LiDAR per se, the data output is overwhelming and it is limited to high end hardware.
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and University of KentuckyUrban have been working on techniques to develop 3D Models direct from video, thus negating the need for a LiDAR rig. Although it is early days, indeed we are at the dawn of this automatic modelling technology, the results are encouraging.
Embedded below is a model created of the Capel Campus using the technique:
In the words of Jan-Micael Fraham, Research Assistant Professor on the project, the research aims at developing a system for automatic, geo-registered, real-time 3D reconstruction from video of urban scenes.
From 2005-2007 the team developed a system that collects video streams, as well as GPS and inertia measurements in order to place the reconstructed models in geo-registered coordinates.
It is designed using current state of the art real-time modules for all processing steps employing commodity graphics hardware and standard CPU’s to achieve real-time performance.
The second video embedded below provides an overview of the process:
The system extends existing algorithms to meet the robustness and variability necessary to operate out of the lab. To account for the large dynamic range of outdoor videos the processing pipeline estimates global camera gain changes in the feature tracking stage and efficiently compensates for these in stereo estimation without impacting the real-time performance.
The required accuracy for many applications is achieved with a two-step stereo reconstruction process exploiting the redundancy across frames.
Will we eventually see 3D modelling via consumer digital cameras with integrated machine vision? We think this could well happen within the next ten years…
Wikikpedia states that the HSB Turning Torso, a skyscraper in Malmö, Sweden is located on the Swedish side of the Öresund strait.
It was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and officially opened on 27 August2005. The tower reaches a height of 190 metresfeet) with 54 stories. Upon completion, it was the tallest building in Scandinavia, and Europe’s second highest apartment building, after the 264-metre-high Triumph-Palace in Moscow.
The design is based on a sculpture by Santiago Calatrava called Twisting Torso. It uses nine five-story cubes that twist as it rises; the top-most segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor.
Each floor basically consists of a rectangular section surrounding the central core, along with a triangular section, which is partially supported by an exterior steel scaffold. The two bottom cubes are intended as office space. Cubes three to nine house 149 luxury apartments.
It is the sort of building that is ripe for the Google SketchUp treatment and indeed Tim Danaher of the VizArch Blog has done exactly that, complete with a movie shared via YouTube and embedded below:
Tim has written a tutorial on how to make the model, the tutorial is published in the forthcoming issue of 3D World Magazine, issue 99, we look forward to it.
While sketchup is criticised from some areas of the industry the model undoubtedly shows how it is possible to rapidly model intricate architecture. Final rendering can be significantly improved with HDR lighting, take a look at VizArch for some examples.
