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 3D mash-up maps let you 'edit' the world

This story is from the category World Specific Developments
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Date posted: 30/11/2009

Armchair explorers who soar over 3D cityscapes on their computer may be used to the idea of maps with an extra dimension. But they are now getting accurate enough to offer much more than a preview of your next holiday destination. Accurate, large-scale 3D maps could soon change the way we design, manage and relate to our urban environments.

"Everyone is now familiar with 3D maps, we're trying to take them beyond simple visualisation," says Glen Hart, head of research at the Ordnance Survey (OS), the UK government's mapping agency, based in Southampton.

As part of a project to demonstrate the potential of 3D mapping, the coastal resort of Bournemouth in southern England has probably become the best-mapped place on the planet, says Hart.

Lasers were fired at the town from the ground and from the air to capture the height of buildings, trees and other features, using a technique called Lidar.

Adding information from aerial photos and traditional surveys produced a full-colour 3D map, built up from more than 700 million points. The map is accurate to 4 centimetres in x, y and z - by comparison 3D structures in Google Earth are accurate to about 15 metres.

"It's almost what you'd see if you flew around the area," says Hart.

See the full Story via external site: www.newscientist.com



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