Waching daily May 31 2017

ETH Zurich has presented a technology

able to reconstruct the urban space in three-dimensional maps composing pictures

and images which are available online. It is an application that has also been

tested below the Alps. Daniele Papacella describes it to us.

This is not a cartoon but the historical centre of Zurich reconstructed

in 3D.

The software developed within VarCity recognises the size and shape of

buildings and streets and also understands the pulse of the city.

It has taken five years of work to develop the algorithms that allow

the model to grow autonomously.

It's like teaching to a child: we showed it

many examples of buildings, doors, windows and streets and from these, the computer

has developed and can now recreate models.

Initially the pictures

were only pixels but example after example, the machine is now able to

distinguish objects like a human eye.

The digital eye on the city has an immediate use for example

to find a parking spot in the city centre through a smartphone.

The application was developed by a spinoff of the project.

The first deployment was in the streets of Locarno.

This can suggest how to move within a city.

For instance, if I already know that all the parking spots in the centre are busy, I won't even

go there to look for parking.

The images come from webcams

which are available on the market. The computer does not read the license plates but recognises the available parking spots

and the movements and transforms the image in real-time into useful information.

On one side the driver can certainly save a lot of time

and also a lot of frustration

in looking for an available parking spot when he's driving around in the city centre,

on the other side there is also information that is very useful for the city

to plan urban mobility.

The system is able to analyse traffic flow and help urban planners.

The digital mapping can be also used to build cities, for example

by simulating the increase of building sizes, or by measuring the degree of

sun exposure and therefore energy needs.

The algorithm from Zurich is now ready to be replicated everywhere.