Towards A 4D Digital Smart City

Towards a 4D Digital City

David BurdenDaden Limited

© 2013 www.daden.co.uk

Who are Daden?

Immersive 3D visualisation and training specialists Founded 2004, but experience since late 1990s

Times Higher Education Winner 2009

US Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge winner 2010

Nearly 50 projects in immersive environments


The Proposition

Can we ensure that this happens in a managed way?

Can we accelerate the process and reduce the cost by exploiting synergies?

How do we manage the ethical considerations?

In the next 10 – 20 years we will see whole city interactive digital models, with users represented by avatars, used by a variety of stakeholders, whether we do anything now or not

The questions are:


Three Built Environment Models

The Architect's Model

- Overall Use- Aesthetics

The Builder's Model

- Structural Integrity- Bill of Parts- E&M Services- BIM

The User's (Social) Model

- Practical Use by Real Users

Why is this one always missed out?

Read “Planners Model” for a whole city, with GIS not

CAD


Digital Birmingham Workshop

The move to digital was patchy, but accelerating at the front end

Whilst a lot of information was digital, it was often in a raster or unstructured format

Even when data was digital and to common standards it wasn't always trusted by the next link in the chain and often re-done

BIM was very much in its infancy and more a concept than a standard

The real end-user (rather than the client) featured little in the process

In 2010 we hosted a workshop for Digital Birmingham of those involved in the built environment pipeline. The key findings were:


Digital Birmingham Model

One of our first forays into 4D cities was the model of Birmingham we created for the City Council in Second Life. This was based around an interactive version of Google Maps, which provided a floor-map you could walk over, and then a simple 3D build on top to reflect the major built up areas. Real-time data could be brought in and plotted, ranging from social media such as Twitter and Flickr, to a feed of live bus times onto individually modelled bus stops.

On a similar system we have even brought in live aircraft positioning data from a US Federal Aviation Administration radar onto a map of Southern California.


Security & Public Safety

City Planning, Operations

and Investors

Visitors (physical)

Visitors (virtual)

Residents

Businesses

Audiences for a Digital City Model


Security and Public Safety

What If's

Security Planning

Emergency Planning

Task Training

Operations Management

Post-Event Reviews

Daden's 3D Security Demonstrator incorporating 3D model, 2D information overlays, live in-world CCTV feeds, and GPS tracked operational staff and assets

Recreation of Op Shield Emergency Planning Exercise deployment reproduced in 3 hours after the exercise


City Planning, Ops & Investment

What Ifs

Planning

Impact Assessment

Marketing

Consultation

Ops & Incident Management

TrainingDaden's immersive model of the new Library of Birmingham, used by Council staff since 2010 to plan for the buildings opening in 2013


Visitors, Residents & Businesses

Wayfinding

Marketing

Virtual Events/ Conferences

Learning

Socialising

CommerceDaden's immersive model of Millennium Point, used both as a learning venue by Birmingham City University and a virtual venue to support the British Science Fair, and used by overseas academic visitors to familiarise themselves before physical visits


Library of Birmingham

The Library of Birmingham is an example of the third, social model of a building. Built to be used by the librarians and library users themselves, the model has been used since late 2010 to plan for the opening of the building in 2013. We trained the library staff in how to place furniture and shelving from a central warehouse, and even how to create their own objects. The Library also includes a virtual post-it note system to gather comments from users during consultation sessions, as well as voting booths and spaces with variable configuration.

As the building of the physical library has progressed staff have even found that contractors bidding for and working on the main project are using the virtual build to get a better idea of how the Library will look and work, and where their parts of the structure and infrastructure will fit.

And as the opening date in 2013 grows closer, the staff are using the model to support the “soft landing”, ensuring that when the physical doors open the public will have already familiarised themselves with the layout and operation of the new Library.


Technology for a Digital City Model

So what technologies are there than can help in the building of a digital city?


Architectural Visualisation

Moving into 3D

3D focus traditionally on high-spec, non-real-time flythrough videos

Growing use of more interactive tools like SketchUp


CAD/Building Modelling

Moving into 3D

AutoCAD → Revit

Impact of Building Information Model (BIM) encouraging common standards and digital data sharing

CityGML Standard – but uptake?


GIS

Moving into 3D

Respository of vs viewer of data

Emerging Open Standards, eg OpenGIS

Terrain and building data

Georeferenced accuracy

Growth of WebGIS and links to Google Earth/Maps etc


Mirror Worlds

Objective view of large geographic areas, in 2D and 3D

Can have real-time data feeds

Single user, no avatar

Good for wide-spread distribution and free-form use

Mainly externals

Google Maps/Earth/Streetview

Berlin in 3D in Google Earth


Virtual Worlds/Game Engines

Immersive 3D experience

Interiors and exteriors

Multi-user, avatar based

Can have real-time data feeds

Good for whole-task training, esp spatial/collaborative

Good for subjective experience

Berlin whole-city model in 3D in Twinity (now closed)


Model Capture

Increasing number of technologies for automated capture of city models

Streetview of linear streets (but 2D)

Aerial/Satellite photogrammetry for whole city 3D model (but typically break down at street level)

Primarily exteriors and miss covered walkways


Resilience Training in NYC

Our project for New York City's Office of Emergency Management shows how 3D models of real spaces can be used to support city emergency and resilience training.

With New York now in the hurricane zone, the city needed to train its emergency managers on how to open, operate and close a hurricane shelter, and how to deal with all the problems that the shelterees would have.

Whilst they had tried traditional eLearning approaches, they lacked the visceral sense of what operating in a shelter would feel like. A virtual model allowed them to better appreciate some of the spatial decisions they needed to make, and gave them a more visceral sense of a disaster environment.

In 2012, two years after we delivered the simulation New York was struck by Superstorm Sandy, and many of those trained using the simulator were involved in doing the tasks for real. After the Superstorm NYC used the simulation again to help drive out the lesons learned, hopefully for inclusion in a next generation trainer.


Real WorldLiveReal

WorldExercises

Virtual Worlds

Mirror Worlds

GIS/CAD/BIMTaken together these could provide a range of increasingly real environments in which to design environments, plan operations and buildings, train staff, manage operations, encourage and orientate visitors, market the city, and improve citizen involvement

Working Together


Physical WorldLive

Physical WorldExercises

Virtual Worlds

Mirror Worlds

GIS/CAD/BIM

Policing, Security, Emergency Services &

Public Safety

Utilities & Transport

Visitors(physical)

Visitors (virtual)

Residents& Businesses

Planners, City

Managers&

InvestorsWhat Ifs

Ops & IncidentManagement

Training

WayfindingSocialisingCommerceLearning

MarketingVirtual Events/Conferences

WayfindingMarketing

What IfsPlanningImpact

AssessmentMarketing

Consultation

Task TrainingPlanning

Ops ManagementReviews

A Strategy for the 4D Digital City


The Vision Our vision is for every major city to have a “live”, up to date 4D digital model available

to all the stake-holders who wish to use it.

Different stakeholder groups have “private” copies of the city model for their own uses, and which they can augment with their own data.

A “subjective” model, not an “objective” one. An immersive and mutli-user experience, allowing users to walk the virtual streets, understanding how the city looks and works from any point on its streets, or from, or even in, any of its buildings.

A city to be used, not looked at.

A training and planning environment – from the routine of city planning to the rehearsal of emergency exercises

A vast and powerful sandbox in which to play “what-ifs” with the city.

A city management enviornment – live feeds from CCTV and GPS, traffic and transport information systems, allowing (selected) users to view the city almost as it is in real-time.

A city “populated”, using “pattern of life” software to drive animations of the typical city population: workers, pedestrians, visitors and traffic, this is more than just the buildings.


What This is Not

A single user, non-avatar based visualisation- we need to avatars and multi-user modes to gain the real benefits for most stake-holders

Marketing driven – it's a nice-to-have but can't justify the investment (cf many “marketing/retail” model cities)

Consumer driven – Twinity has tried and failed


The Do Nothing Approach

There is growing interest in large development and city models from a variety of stakeholders, these WILL lead to part-city and whole city models being built

Many other stake-holders cannot justify the cost of a model for themselves, but could justify shared access to a common (but cloned/sharded) model

Doing nothing is likely to result in:

High costs to UKplc due to duplication

Lack of standards and common references (crucial for cross-stakeholder co-operation)

Longer time-frames, reducing net benefit and increasing risk of mistakes

Poor management of moral and ethical issues


Datascape

Datascape is our immersive 3D data visualisation application built on the same Unity3D platform as our training simulations.

Using a 2D map or a 3D city mesh model as a basis you can bring in a variety of data feeds and plot them over the city, from GPS tracks of bus locations, throuhg static assets like cell towers to dynamic social media data

The vertical axis can be used to display time – so you can see the rhythms of life of the city, or any other parameter of interest

As well as standard solid shapes you can also bring in 3D icons for people, vehicle types, activities etc


The Prize A co-ordinated (but not necessarily centralised) programme to

develop multi-use, multi-user immersive 3D city models, mixed with historical and real-time data, to serve a wide variety of stakeholders, and possibly evolving into a whole-country model

Think G-Cloud for 3D modelling and city data

The benefits would be:

Better public safety

Better environments in which to live and work

Better day-to-day city management

Better training

Increased inward investment

Reduced costs and time-scale, common standards, shared visualisation

Better management of moral and ethical issues


Smart City vs Virtual City

Smart Cities are all about enabling, through technological and non-technological means, a city to make best use of its resources to deliver wealth, sustainability, cultural richness and a good standard of health and living to its citizens and other stake-holders.

A virtual city model, fully populated with city data, and exposed to all stake-holders is not only an esential tool in the creation and management of a smart city, but possibly a pre-requisite for its successful long term development.


VANZI

VANZI is the proposed new (2013) “federated, fully integrated, 'photo-realistic' secure 3D Data Set, that enables users to model the Natural and Built Environment across Australia and New Zealand - using any software and portal of their choice.

'Federated' simply means VANZ is made up of separate data sets each under the control of different owners and government organisations.

Under the proposal, VANZ would become the single 'Authorised Data Set' for all property-related activities - enabling the real world to be represented, and scenarios, plans and designs modelled through any 3D software across time, to show: historical, current and planned future states.

The '10 Foundation Data Sets' nominated by the Australian and New Zealand Land Information Council are critical to the development of VANZ, and represent a key first step in its creation.

In time, VANZ may prove to be the most important piece of 'infrastructure' created in the 21st Century - through which all other infrastructure and development takes place.”

http://www.vanzi.com.au/


The Challenges

Choosing Standards and Technologies

Capturing Data

Aerial vs Ground

Textures

Interiors

Legal/IP/Licensing issues (which sunk Twinity)

The role of Ordnance Survey?

Keeping it up to date

Managing Ethical and Moral issues (big-brother/panopticon)


A Possible Solution

Make this Planning Law based

Develop in Mirror World and Virtual World simultaneously – over time the technologies may converge

Use aerial techniques to create a low-rez,exteriors only model of the city

Use ground-based techniques to detail key parts of the city, drawing on existing models/resources where possible

Change Planning Law/Regulations so that every new build/major change MUST be submitted as a 3D model to the set standard, and all Planning Decisions must be supported by seeing the model in-situ in the city model – EMBED THE MODEL IN THE SYSTEM


Possible Next Steps

A survey of interest and opinions

An audit of current activity in this area

A Conference/Workshop along VANZI lines

A sharing of existing resources

A pilot/demonstrator

Who's up for it?


White Paper

The full white-paper is available for download:

http://www.daden.co.uk/daden-releases-white-paper-the-4d-digital-city-a-discussion/

Web: www.daden.co.ukEmail: [email protected]: www.youtube.com/dadenmediaTwitter: @dadenlimited

http://www.daden.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/dadenmedia

Towards A 4D Digital Smart City

Technology

d model

digital city model

model of birmingham

digital birmingham model

planners model

library users

library staff

physical library