Virtual London Archives - Digital Urban https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/category/virtual-london/ Data, Cities, IoT, Writing, Music and Making Things Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:57:00 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://www.digitalurban.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Dulogosm-1.png Virtual London Archives - Digital Urban https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/category/virtual-london/ 32 32 3D London: Google Earth https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2011/10/24/3d-london-google-earth/ Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:57:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=834 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...

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]]> 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.

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]]> Virtual London – Available via Skape World January 2010 https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/12/10/virtual-london-available-via-skape/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:21:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1151 Its been some years coming but finally a high resolution, photomapped Virtual London model is about to be released. Its been produced by Infoterra under their new ‘Skape’ initative which...

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]]> Its been some years coming but finally a high resolution, photomapped Virtual London model is about to be released. Its been produced by Infoterra under their new ‘Skape’ initative which we wrote about a few months ago. The results are quite simply stunning and possibly the best 3D city model we have seen to date.

We don’t have the full facts and figures yet, but the model launches to Skape users in January/February 2010. Its nice to see Infoterra taking the lead on this, they were the company who helped us out with our early Virtual London work and one of the few companies actively involved in University based research and sharing their data.

Take a look at http://www.skapeworld.com/ for more info.

See also the Skape Blog for the latest news on the software, views and development.

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]]> Virtual London – Available via Skape World January 2010 https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/12/10/virtual-london-available-via-skape-2/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:21:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1151 Its been some years coming but finally a high resolution, photomapped Virtual London model is about to be released. Its been produced by Infoterra under their new ‘Skape’ initative which...

The post Virtual London – Available via Skape World January 2010 appeared first on Digital Urban.

]]> Its been some years coming but finally a high resolution, photomapped Virtual London model is about to be released. Its been produced by Infoterra under their new ‘Skape’ initative which we wrote about a few months ago. The results are quite simply stunning and possibly the best 3D city model we have seen to date.

We don’t have the full facts and figures yet, but the model launches to Skape users in January/February 2010. Its nice to see Infoterra taking the lead on this, they were the company who helped us out with our early Virtual London work and one of the few companies actively involved in University based research and sharing their data.

Take a look at http://www.skapeworld.com/ for more info.

See also the Skape Blog for the latest news on the software, views and development.

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]]> Textured LiDAR Scan of London: 1.5 Billion Points https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/05/15/textured-lidar-scan-of-london-150/ Fri, 15 May 2009 11:56:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1360 The movie below provides a quick glimpse of our latest dataset in CASA – a LiDAR scan of London within the M25 ring road, the model is made up of...

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]]> The movie below provides a quick glimpse of our latest dataset in CASA – a LiDAR scan of London within the M25 ring road, the model is made up of in excess of 1.5 billion points:

LiDAR Scan of London – Textured from digitalurban on Vimeo.


The points have been converted to a surface, texture mapped with aerial imagery and visualised in LandXplorer by Autodesk. A non textured mapped version can be seen below:

LiDAR Scan of London from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Thanks go to Duncan Smith at CASA for doing the processing and Cities Revealed for the data supplied by Landmap.

Note – the movie is slightly lower quality than our normal output here at digital urban as our Mac has been nicked, normal service should return next week…

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]]> Textured LiDAR Scan of London: 1.5 Billion Points https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/05/15/textured-lidar-scan-of-london-150-2/ Fri, 15 May 2009 11:56:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1360 The movie below provides a quick glimpse of our latest dataset in CASA – a LiDAR scan of London within the M25 ring road, the model is made up of...

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]]> The movie below provides a quick glimpse of our latest dataset in CASA – a LiDAR scan of London within the M25 ring road, the model is made up of in excess of 1.5 billion points:

LiDAR Scan of London – Textured from digitalurban on Vimeo.


The points have been converted to a surface, texture mapped with aerial imagery and visualised in LandXplorer by Autodesk. A non textured mapped version can be seen below:

LiDAR Scan of London from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Thanks go to Duncan Smith at CASA for doing the processing and Cities Revealed for the data supplied by Landmap.

Note – the movie is slightly lower quality than our normal output here at digital urban as our Mac has been nicked, normal service should return next week…

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]]> LiDAR Scan of London in LandXplorer https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/05/05/lidar-scan-of-london-in-landxplorer/ https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/05/05/lidar-scan-of-london-in-landxplorer/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 16:09:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1369 The movie below details a 1 meter resolution scan of London using LiDAR (an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered light to find range and/or other information...

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]]> The movie below details a 1 meter resolution scan of London using LiDAR (an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered light to find range and/or other information of a distant target via laser pulses, Wiki). The ability to load in the entire scan of London – some 1,500 kmsq – is thanks to LandXplorer by Autodesk and we are impressed:

LiDAR Scan of London from digitalurban on Vimeo.


Autodesk LandXplorer offers a collection of functions to interactively compose, present, explore, analyze, and edit geodata-based 3D models. In a sense, they represent a content management system for 2D and 3D geoinformation, which supports the effective handling of geodata assets.

Take a look at http://www.3dgeo.de/products.aspx for more info, we will have more on the LiDAR scan of London in future posts.

Thanks go to Duncan Smith at CASA for doing the processing and Cities Revealed for the data supplied by Landmap.

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]]> https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/05/05/lidar-scan-of-london-in-landxplorer/feed/ 1 The Battle to Rebuild London has Begun: The Guardian https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2009/01/25/battle-to-rebuild-london-has-begun/ Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:33:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1478 Victor Keegan, writing in The Guardian, takes a look at the number of companies working on building London as a 3D model. From high end architectual represenations to Second Life...

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]]> Victor Keegan, writing in The Guardian, takes a look at the number of companies working on building London as a 3D model. From high end architectual represenations to Second Life the article takes a look at the history and the gold rush to build a three-dimensional replica of London, complete with streets, shops, parks, even the underground system.

Our work is covered, although its almost six years of work we would like to forget, being ahead of the field, new planning laws about to go through and a real chance of changing how Londoners view and have a say about their city – still c est la vie, as Victor states:

The biggest – covering not just central London but an area stretching out to the M25 – is also the most bizarre: a publicly funded project that the public can’t see. Built by University College in association with Connect London, it boasts 3.2m building blocks and could have gone live two years ago, well ahead of the competition, as part of Google Earth, but for our friends at Ordnance Survey, which controls the vital database refused permission. Cue the Free Our Data campaign.

Take a look at the full article via The Guardian Online.

See also:

The Guardian – Virtual London and the Ordnance Survey

Londonist’s View

The Full Statements from Ordnance Survey and Google

Ed Parsons (Geospatial Technologist of Google) No Comment, Just Grab a Pint

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]]> Air Pollution in the City Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation-2/ https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation-2/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1601 Air Pollution Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London from digitalurban on Vimeo. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): NO2 is produced in high temperature combustion processes and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Road transport is...

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]]>

Air Pollution Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): NO2 is produced in high temperature combustion processes and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Road transport is responsible for 60 per cent of emissions of NOx (the pollutant that causes NO2) in London. It can affect the lungs and airways when exposed over long periods or at high concentrations over a short period.

The movie about depicts our visualisation at CASA of N02 in London, created in association with the Environmental Research Group at Kings College London. The movie was created to illustrate the use of the Virtual London model to gain a sense of location and place when communicating geo-specific information.

Moving data into the third dimension can however be counter productive. While the movie clearly communicates areas of high N02 concentration it also falsely suggests to some that the air is clear above the peaks – which is course it is not as N02 is measured from a set height. Although in general we would argue that it is more successful than the standard 2D map in getting the spatial information across…(?)

Click ‘HD’ in the movie to view in high definition via Vimeo.

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]]> https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation-2/feed/ 3 Air Pollution in the City Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation/ https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1601 Air Pollution Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London from digitalurban on Vimeo. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): NO2 is produced in high temperature combustion processes and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Road transport is...

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]]>

Air Pollution Visualisation: Nitrogen Dioxide, London from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): NO2 is produced in high temperature combustion processes and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Road transport is responsible for 60 per cent of emissions of NOx (the pollutant that causes NO2) in London. It can affect the lungs and airways when exposed over long periods or at high concentrations over a short period.

The movie about depicts our visualisation at CASA of N02 in London, created in association with the Environmental Research Group at Kings College London. The movie was created to illustrate the use of the Virtual London model to gain a sense of location and place when communicating geo-specific information.

Moving data into the third dimension can however be counter productive. While the movie clearly communicates areas of high N02 concentration it also falsely suggests to some that the air is clear above the peaks – which is course it is not as N02 is measured from a set height. Although in general we would argue that it is more successful than the standard 2D map in getting the spatial information across…(?)

Click ‘HD’ in the movie to view in high definition via Vimeo.

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]]> https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/08/12/air-pollution-in-city-visualisation/feed/ 3 Simulated Freedom: Movie https://www.digitalurban.org/blog/2008/06/04/simulated-freedom-movie/ Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:04:00 +0000 http://digitalurban.net/?p=1691 Rammy Elsaadany, a Graduate Diploma student in Architecture at the Bartlett, University College London has integrated parts of our Virtual London model into his final project movie. Using a mix...

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]]> Rammy Elsaadany, a Graduate Diploma student in Architecture at the Bartlett, University College London has integrated parts of our Virtual London model into his final project movie.

Using a mix of 3D max and After Effects, Illustrator and various other software packages he has produced the following visualisation entitled ‘Simulated Freedom’:

Its refreshing when a student takes away your model and comes up with such an intricate sequence.

Take a look at Rammy’s other movies on YouTube, especially Synthetic Space.

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