El Segundo, CA, August 9, 2016 -- The internet is both colossal and understated. While huge breakthroughs impact the internet like a massive wave, the web's subtle changes dispense ripples throughout the enterprise.
Speed is critical. Information and data gathering processes continue to accelerate via the Internet of Things or "IoT". Intelligent thinkers toil to formulate different ways to understand data. This is where 3D visualization and information processing merge. Make no mistake, inhibitors still obstruct: desktops, old software formats, the legacy culture surrounding hardware systems that belong in a museum-- not to mention the huge value expectation that the internet must be economically viable.
This is where the subtlety of the internet makes such a difference. No matter what the resistance is from the old economy, the new economy never ceases to push forward. You can't fight technology's progression. Look how mobile apps have changed our lives. I was walking through the Manhattan Beach Mall last week and I counted ten out of ten people engaged on their mobile computer; why even call it a cell phone anymore?
CyberCity 3D is catching a wave breaking on a significant convergence of analytics, 3D web software and the internet. 2016 is the year that 3D and analytics are evolving into useful and commercially available products.
What does that mean in CyberCity 3D’s world? The two core components driving us are 3D visualization and analytics for smarter cities. CC3D, a geospatial building creator, offers accurate 3D building "data platforms" to other web platform infrastructure and applications.
I’ll review several of the platforms we’ve integrated with our 3D buildings:
3D Spatial Analytics in Water Networks: Baseform®
Solving Big Problems
The United States depends on a countrywide network of aging underground pipes, many of which are reaching, or have exceeded, the end of their useful life. The number of water main breaks across the country, from Syracuse to Los Angeles, is staggering: 240,000 per year, according to one estimate provided by Deloitte University Press. Surprisingly, our Federal Government spends less and less on maintaining and building our aging water infrastructure. The chart below illustrates the decrease in water utility capital spending.
Baseform is helping solve the problem of our nation's aging water infrastructure. Baseform, in its genesis, set out to help fix this enormous problem with intelligence that monitors and predicts drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater related issues.
Supervisory control and data acquisition ( SCADA) is a system for monitoring and controlling information relayed from water networks. Pipes and other infrastructure water sources generate coded signals delivered over communication channels. Baseform takes this valuable information and charts it. The chart below shows SCADA information being tracked, graphed, and most importantly, predicted and alerted.
Real-Time SCADA Information
What does this network really look like in the real world, and how can people understand it better? 3D city modeling for data visualization is the key:
Downtown Miami Beach, FL: CyberCity 3D + Baseform
Baseform has found a way to deliver Software as a Service (SaaS) to water utilities to help save on the billions of dollars that need to be spent on water infrastructure over the coming years:
CyberCity 3D + Baseform converges intelligence with 3D spatial visualization: the Baseform platform and CyberCity 3D buildings.
Big Data and Building Information: Maalka®
Maalka combines powerful data visualization and analytics with a collaborative user experience. This company redefines how large building portfolios are managed, bringing a greater understanding of the merging of buildings and big data.
Like other big data analytics enterprises, Maalka chose to extend its intelligent platform into 3D, using CC3D buildings, to make management more collaborative and understandable while providing a deeper awareness to the overall experience of the software (SaaS).
To do this, it needed a flexible and open architecture. Our partners at Cesium® provided that winning solution in a very short timeframe. Maalka was able to merge its tools and apps into the Cesium architecture and reveal a truly dynamic and exciting information app to easily comprehend and create actionable policy for buildings and the energy they consume.
Above: Maalka 3D spatial information with energy analytics with the Cesium® and CyberCity 3D® platforms
Economic Development in the Urban Core: Cesium®
Maps are getting smarter in the 3D space, as well. Miami's Downtown Development Authority ("MDDA"), seeking to communicate the vibrancy and vitality of the city’s building skyline, created a geospatial model of this unique tropical urban environment. The evolution of MDDA's map started in the traditional Esri environment. Then MDDA put CyberCity 3D buildings on the Cesium globe and shared this dynamic duo on its website, where it boasted 1,000,000 views in just the first week of promoting this interactive streaming 3D map. The ability to utilize all of its GIS data along with CyberCity 3D buildings on the Cesium globe enabled MDDA to apply a state-of-the-art 3D tile technology and a super efficient building cloud to deliver a next generation solution to share with its current and future citizens.
Above: MDDA's interactive 3D web map delivered by CyberCity 3D® and Cesium®
Rapid Energy Modeling for Energy Analysis: Autodesk®
Software design giant Autodesk is also feeling the convergence. Energy savings is a massive global priority. By automating cost-benefit analysis for sustainable buildings and green infrastructure, Autodesk and Impact Infrastructure have been able to bring together 3D geospatial and energy/sustainable building analytical data, thus enhancing design decisions for stakeholders.
CyberCity 3D provides the 3D buildings for Autodesk Rapid Energy Modeling (REM), significantly cutting the time and cost associated with performing energy analysis in a city, neighborhood, or a single building.
CyberCity 3D Model of Atlanta, GA in InfraWorks 360
So what is next for the smart city?
We at CyberCity 3D see a bright future for the creation of more intelligent 3D spatial applications similar to the ones described in this review, solutions that enhance the way we move through cities, gather to interact, set up our communication networks, and design our urban ecosystems.
To us, the possibilities are limitless!
Written by: Kevin DeVito, CEO, CyberCity 3D, Inc.
