Nearmap announced on July 10th the launch of a national survey program to provide high-resolution 3-D models and imagery to engineering, construction, mapping, and government industries. The group already surveyed images of New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Austin, and Omaha, with plans to survey the other largest urban areas in the U.S. by the end of 2017.
Nearmap focuses on providing up-to-date 2-D location content through its HyperCamera2 aerial imagery delivered through the MapBrowser interface for better accuracy than satellite images. With the camera system providing a lot of overlap from several angles, Nearmap can use the images to reconstruct the landscape in a 3-D mesh.
Rob Newman, managing director and CEO at Nearmap, talked about the new 3-D mapping in a press release, saying, “This new service will help industries plan, design, estimate, communicate and execute their plans — everything from major construction projects to solar installations on homes and businesses.”
The models are made up of three orthomosaic captures and one oblique capture, and are refreshed up to three times annually in major metropolitan areas of America. The 3-D models enable the user to see different elevations and lines of sight, improving design activity and analyses in areas like airport and utility planning, solar panel design, property valuation, smart cities, and others.
