Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Creating a 3D Point Cloud of the World

Pixel8 is using crowd-sourced photography to create a 3D map of the world. Using 3D point cloud data captured from mobile phones, combined with imagery from satellites, planes and drones Pixel 8 is able to quickly map any geographical area.

Pixel8 has released a demo 3D map of Boulder which shows what is possible with its mapping approach. To create the map a small group of volunteers used a custom mobile app to capture photography of downtown Boulder. The demo map was created from photographs taken during just one afternoon. The 3D models, which were created from mobile phone captured photos, are then combined with other imagery captured by satellites, planes and drones, to create a detailed map. The Boulder map also uses locally sourced LIDAR data.

By combining crowd-sourced and volunteer photography with existing imagery from other sources Pixel8 is developing a mapping platform that can quickly build 3D models and maps to scale. The Pixel8 explore page includes a number of other mapping projects which you can explore, including point cloud models created in Austin, Texas and Washington D.C..

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