Future of 3D mapping and modeling.

[sargnickfury]

In the Cascade Foundery Topic I kinda got off topic as far as discussing the future of 3D and how building realistic routes may become MUCH easier and even more and more done by computers. I also mentioned being able to take 3D pictures....perhaps not the right word for what I meant. What I am really talking about is 3d scanning. This is already used on a large scale in the movie and videogaming industry. Someone sculpts and object or just chooses an object for in game or in the movie, you scan it in 3d and quickly have a model rady to be textured and used. A small object is easy. However when the object bomes the outside world, it quickly becomes more difficult...but we are already getting really good at this. I think due to the press and hoopla about the Google maps trucks evryone understands the concept of a vehicles photographing routes, but we are already beggining to scan them as well, see here:

Mobile Lidar GIS solution.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MDLLasers?v=FGRvAWe0Yr0

Shows how far it has come for buildings, but this was with a static camera, not a drive by, and was positioned all around the building...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZT0EWiOINg

And if you haven't seen this before, your jaw should widen just a bit...at about 1:50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnmSHPeB ... bRLYin9VRA

The best large scale example I know is TomTom's experiments in New Jersey, it hasn't quite reached the level for them of getting details on buildings without stopping to focus on that building, but topography is already very, very, very exact.... and as the first video shows they're starting to use it for mapping areas of objects as well. I'm not sure how long it will be before they get to the point of being able to model buildings by simply driving down the street, but it is coming. Also it is very likely that many of you will own the technology, as this is the same technology that is being used to develop smart cars. Currently in this purpose it's pretty basic just sensing an object and it's speed and direction etc... but like every technology as it becomes easier to make and computers and robots do more of the difficult work, bringing costs down, it's very easy to forsee how people might not just take snap shots of a vacation, they might build a 3d simulation without ever so much as touching a modeling program themselves. Just snap on the Lidar scanner to the roof, the 360 phtography camera on the back part and drive, get home and let your computer attach photographs to model, if your car computer hasn't already done so.... and replay the virtual experience at home It will also be very hard to lie to the police or insurance company about just how that accident happened if this becomes a manditory safety device, then again thanks to this it may never happen at all. I find this sort of thing interesting to read about, but I'm sure there's alot of other technologies I dont know about, that I would love to hear about, and how their changing the way we create virtual simulations.

Honestly the above technology may already be realistic to help Railworks/Train Simulator series and others create routes right now. You could easily attach that to a train and get very realistic mapping of a train route. Simply attach it to trains that run the route and the more passes it gest the better the model. For the topography it's already here, and much more accurate that satalite images.

There's a scary side obviously...even in the Orwellian future you could dodge cameras....

[sargnickfury]

Scratch what I said on what is possible yet, I had no idea how far it had come now...just wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ4247Yutvg