3D Geospatial Geneva Showcase

Author: Christine Perey

  • CityGML and the 3D Geospatial Geneva Showcase

    Since we presented about the showcase to the CityGML Standard Working Group, we’ve divided the 2.4GB data archive provided to us by the SITG and prepared individual archives for each domain. These are now hosted on the Showcase portal. After agreeing to the terms of use, each developer must download and examine the files locally and separately. 

    Determining which data set to use and how to merge (mash up) data sets is time consuming and requires analytical skills that most application developers do not have. The Showcase offers an opportunity to explore different strategies to overcome this obstacle. We have been discussing the options with CityGML SWG co-chairs Steve Smyth, Carsten Rönsdorf and others.

    One question is why the data sets exist as separated files. In the city of Geneva, as in almost all city GIS departments, creation and maintenance of different data sets are the responsibilities of different agencies or departments with expertise in each domain. The data's maintenance is a cost center that needs to be attributable to specific budgets and uses drive the selection of formats in which the data are provided. That said, independent data sets have to be coerced into working happily and seamlessly together when developing a multi-disciplinary application.

    Wouldn’t it be valuable for the datasets could be viewed/accessed right from a server in a continuous model and to see where and how they overlap? We had a discussion about the use of CityGML for this purpose. "Determining fitness for purpose and the type and amount of work needed to fit them together is really hard without using actual samples" notes Carsten Rosendorf.

    Carsten suggests that if the data could be conflated into one CityGML model for everybody to use, it would be a great start. It might be possible that the developers would be able or would need to do this (conflate data, not necessarily into a CityGML model) prior to developing their applications.

    The 3DGVA can help the developer and data publisher communities better understand these issues. Now all that is needed is the team to conflate these data sets into a CityGML model of Geneva. Is that your calling? If so, please raise your hand!

  • Special Buildings in 3D

    The SITG has provided a data set of buildings that have been scanned with LiDAR at LOD 3 to 50 cm accuracy. Click on this link to download the full list of buildings. 

    We are particularly excited about the opportunities to scan and create special projects on and in the Hotel de Ville of Geneva. 

    The Hotel de Ville has an inner courtyard and a spiral staircase made of stone wide and long enough for horse and carriage. You can explore this beautiful building and learn about its special features by taking a virtual tour.

  • Quick Guide to Getting Started

    There's getting to be a lot of information on this portal. I've been asked to provide some suggestions for how to begin. Here's the recommend steps: 

     
      – Get familiar with the Showcase zones 
     
      – Get SITG data set details by clicking on the link on the name of the data set or visiting the page where they are all compiled
     
      – If you would like to access the data sets of the SITG, read and accept the terms in the SITG license agreement 
     
      – If you would like to obtain the MeteoSuisse data set, complete this form 
     
      – If you would like to request some data that are not part of our curated offer, please complete this form 
     
      – Check out our guidelines page that has some suggestions of projects you could create
     
      – Get creative with the data sets and the technologies available to you. Concentrate on showing your talents with the data acquisition, data management and visualization. No need to worry about passing Apple's publishing guidelines. We won't be publishing your projects on any public platforms. 
     
      – Save/create your project to run on Android 4.4. Test it with an NVIDIA Tegrat Note 7 or send us a message with instructions on where to download it and we will test it in the Showcase event zones for you as soon as we receive it.
     
      – Describe your project in 300 words. What does it demonstrate? In a separate 300 words, explain why this is innovative and represents an important milestone in the development of 3D Geospatial data. 
     
      – Submit your project by completing this form and we will contact you to download and install the project on our tablets.
     
    The Google Group page where you can join a mailing list is here.

  • NVIDIA and the Tegra Note 7 Tablets

    We are delighted to welcome NVIDIA as a partner of the 3D Geospatial Geneva Showcase. NVIDIA will provide the Tegra Note 7 tablets on which all the Showcase projects will be loaded between June 2 and June 5. 

    NVIDIA's Tegra Note 7 is designed using NVIDIA's reference architecture by its OEM partners. Please consult its specifications when creating your project.

  • Photos of the Event Zones

    On Thursday May 8, we walked in the Showcase Event zone and took photos of buidlings and city features (staircases, murals) along the route we will take on June 11.

    The photos were taken on the NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 that we will use for the showcase event. Click here to download zip file with all 38 un-retouched photos.

    Unfortunately, the GPS tracking was not working while we were taking these photos so we will make an effort to manually add the position to those photos. 

     

  • Geospatial World Forum in Geneva

    Next week the leaders in geospatial technology are meeting in the city of Geneva during the Geospatial World Forum. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about the state of the art in geospatial data capture, analysis and visualization.

    There are stands in an exhibition area and a very full agenda of presentations. Thursday, May 8 is "Swiss Day."

    We will attend to spread the word about our Showcase as well as to conduct a meeting of people interested in the 3D Geospatial Geneva project at 15h00 at the Restaurant Ariana.

  • GEOSS Work Plan Symposium

    On April 28, we were able to attend the Work Plan Symposium of the Group on Earth Observations. During these sessions we learned about current activities to make geospatial information more accessible. The primary target users of the GEOSS (GEO System of Systems) are researchers and policy makers, however, we can imagine how, in the future, the accessibility of data will inspire people who provide services to business and the public at large will also want to use the data. 

    We were particularly impressed with the session on the data sharing principles. The GEOSS Data Sharing Activitiy is developing infrastructure and proposing policy to the data providers and consumers/users. 

    During the session about Science and Technology Commnity, Hans-Peter Plag explained to the audience how he sees the concept of "Human sensor" networks, involving crowd sourced data, leading to data integration at a level never seen before. This visionary speaker called for cross-community activities and warned that there are competitive activities simply due to the fact that certain audiences are unaware of GEOSS work to date. Hans-Peter Plag is an IEEE volunteer working in the International Committee on Earth Observations.

    We also learned about user-driven data GEOSS activities which are highly appropriate to showcases such as 3D Geospatial Geneva. During this session there was a presentation about the EU-fuded CITY-SENSE project that uses mobile sensors to collect data and create a citizen observatory. This seems very complementary to the SmartSantander project.

  • Mobile Developer Outreach Campaign Begins

    There are only 7 weeks until the opening of the OGC Geneva Technical Committee meeting on June 10. That's also the day we are going to load the Showcase projects on Android tablets in preparation for the event on June 12.  

    Today we launched the Showcase outreach campaign with targeted e-mail over 100 developers, to partners and to the providers of technology that could be valuable to developing innovative projects in Geneva. 

    We contacted the organizers of Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Data.ch, Mobile Monday Switzerland and executive director of Alp ICT.

    We are also preparing for the first sponsor and partner teleconference to take place Thursday April 24. 

  • 3D GVA will be introduced to CityGML SWG

    Today we briefed the co-chair of the OGC CityGML Standards Working Group, Steve Smyth, about the 3D Geospatial Geneva Showcase and were invited to present on Tuesday April 29, 2014 to the members of the CityGML Standards Working Group during their weekly meeting.

    The CityGML SWG participants are amongst some of the most active in the world in the use of 3D city models and we look forward to receiving their feedback and suggestions.   

  • Meet the First Showcase Data Providers

    The 3D Geospatial Geneva Showcase is made possible by the contributions and support of organizations that share common vision and can invest their resources towards the successful definition, refinement and acheivement of Showcase goals. 

    The first two organizations from which we requested data sets were immediately responsive and ready to explore how they could help with the Showcase. If you can read French or use a translation service, invite you to learn more about the geospatial information group of the Information Systems of Territory of Geneva (SITG) from their web site.  

    MeteoSuisse (also referred to as MeteoSwiss) is also highly responsive and a full ally in the Showcase success. The Product Management group of MeteoSuisse will soon supply a data set for developers to download and will also be seeking to learn from developers how they need or want the data exposed and prepared. The goals will be further clarified on the MeteoSuisse page on this Web site.

    The UK Met Office is another of the showcase sponsors and seeks to stimulate the discussion around how to deliver data about the conditions of a place in 3D and taking into account the temporal dimension. Learn more about the UK Met Office participation in this project from the Met Office page on this Web site.