Geospatial Data Fusion Visualization in Geoweb3d
Geoweb3d, 2016
Geoweb3d
Geoweb3d is a small business in Binghamton NY that is dedicated to modernizing 3D GIS. We come from the GIS and flight simulation industries and have decades of experience developing the high end computer graphics that pilots see out the window in a simulator.
Why did we create Geoweb3d?
To bring high end geospatial visualization to the commercial marketplace and to make it easy to use. Today?s high end 3D visualization solutions are mostly for the military and cost millions of dollars. They often need a room full of 3D modeling experts, need to preprocess the data into proprietary formats, don?t retain GIS attribution, and break all accuracy to the original data due to thinning of the content for performance. These solutions are a non-starter for commercial users.
How is it different?
By leveraging today?s video card technology, there is no longer any need to preprocess or restructure the GIS data prior to use. Here was the opportunity, for the first time, to bring high-end 3D to all users. Users have watched for years what games have been able to do with today?s low cost video cards, but no one made an application for GIS users that can do the same thing with their data. That is what we did.
We developed our technology for 3D geospatial users. We did not begin as a virtual globe for real-estate, a game engine that was designed for another purpose, or any of the other rebranded products that GIS users are struggling to use their data with. Our software was developed after the gaming technology was mainstream and we built it ground up leveraging the latest in computer graphics technology.
3D visualization is all about the most effective communication of data. It is by far the quickest method to get to the ?I see? reaction as a descriptive medium. We know that for meaningful visualization and analysis, you need more than just a pretty picture.
What is the product?
Geoweb3d makes 3D easy. Users do not need to know anything about 3D modeling. The user interface is simple, contextual, and what people with smart phones or a tablet now expect. Besides the 3D capabilities, it has built-in a full web browser and ArcGIS. For ESRI users that have a license on their machine, Geoweb3d will provide support for their formats, containers, and server. If there is no ESRI license, those capabilities are not exposed. It is not required.
The built-in web browser allows for smooth interoperability with cloud and mapping applications such as google maps, google earth, ArcGIS online, and so on. If it runs in chrome, it will run in Geoweb3d.
The application is setup like a web browser where the user can have any number of tabs and each can be a 3D view, a web page, or ArcGIS. It allows users to drop in their native data, select how they want to look at the data, perform analysis, and save for quick recall and sharing with others.
What does Geoweb3d mean?
Our goal is bring together high end 3D GIS with the web. The Geoweb is the fusion of geospatial and the web and we want this to seamlessly include 3D. We want you to discover data easily for your area of interest. We want you to have access to your data in the cloud and to complement the momentum of web GIS to meet the needs of various disciplines that require visualization of very large amounts of data.
The image provided is a fusion of GIS, LIDAR, Aerial and Satellite Ortho and Oblique Imagery, and Textured and Non-Textured 3D Building Models of New York City, New York USA.
Other examples are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/geoweb3d
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3D building models courtesy of PLW Modelworks and Trimble 3D Warehouse