We have been keeping an eye on Earthmine for a while as the use of stereo panoramas to extract 3D information presents a rapid way to both create and populate a 3D model in a way that is easily understandable.
They have just put out a press release that states:
earthmineinc., 3D street side mapping company today announced it has finalized an exclusive agreement with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to license 3D data generation software and algorithms created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and utilized on the Mars Exploration Rover Missions. earthmine recently unveiled its ground-breaking technology for collecting and delivering street-level three dimensional geospatial information for cities. The agreement with JPL and Caltech includes an exclusive and perpetual license for photogrammetric technology that allows for the creation of very dense and accurate 3D data from stereo panoramic imagery. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Caltech has taken an equity position in earthmine.
The movie embedded below illustrates the technologyto such an extent that we think their use of the photogrammetric technology may of cracked the issues of rapid street level modelling:
Earthmine has the potential to be one of the most exciting technologies of the year, we are eagerly looking forward to a demo version…
See Earthmine’s website for more info.
Great technology and loving the Lemon Jelly soundtrack.