The Urban Reality System is a turnkey mapping
and imaging solution for capturing, processing,
visualizing, and analyzing a city in full 3D. The
system includes a sensor package that can be mounted
on the top of virtually any vehicle with roof racks
and an in-vehicle power and control rack module.
Automated data processing software synthesizes data
from laser ranging sensors, digital image cameras,
and an inertial navigation system to create a highly
accurate 3D urban database. 3D databases can be
analyzed directly with custom 3D visualization
software or exported into numerous formats for use
in existing legacy visualization and analysis
systems.
Urban Reality
hardware consists of an integrated system composed
of two parts:
(a) the Urban Reality Sensor Pod (SP), which
mounts on top of the vehicle, contains four (4)
lidar sensors, two (2) digital cameras, inertial
measurement unit, GPS antenna, and sensor
synchronization hardware and (b) the Urban Reality Data Acquisition System
(DAS), installed inside the vehicle, contains
the power bus unit; multi-core CPU, removable
disk-based data storage, and LCD display.
The data collection
system is managed by the Urban Reality Data
Acquisition Software supporting sensor control and
synchronization, data capture from all devices, and
vehicle/route navigation support. This component
software runs on the computer within the DAS. All
data in a mission is automatically collected and
stored to disk upon mission startup. Sensor
diagnostics are continuously fed to the computer
display showing the health status of all sensor and
system components. The computer also displays an
interactive electronic map with the vehicle’s route
overlaid.
After data collection,
the system includes a sophisticated Urban Reality
Data Processing Software application. The workflow
manages all trajectory-, lidar-, and imagery-data
processing; data registration; lidar/imagery data
fusion; and export to industry standard data
formats. The software can be hosted on a single CPU
or on a multi-CPU parallel processor if more
efficient throughput is desired.
Finally, the Urban
Reality data products can be visualized, analyzed,
and exploited using the Urban Reality 3D
Visualization Software. This provides seamless
city-wide database exploration and analysis of
viewpoint and route save/replay; coordinate display;
virtual annotation. Fly-through of the data leverage
the X-Box controller (or a mouse and keyboard
combination based on general gaming practices). A
synchronized 2D overhead view uses an integrated
Google <aps application.
Engineering analysis
tools are available for measurement and interactive
editing of hundreds of 3D models with integrated
level-of-detail control and model caching;
line-of-sight, viewshed and profile analysis, and
user interface profile saving. Import and Export
tools are also available for file conversion to/from
standard industry data formats.
