890 km² of Virtual Berlin: Google Earth now Shows the Entire City
500,000 Buildings of the German Capital Now Online
Two years ago, Berlin was the first city in Germany to make available a photorealistic, three dimensional model on the internet via Google Earth. Gradually, the model was linked to databases reflecting the city as a business metropolis. As a result, the locations of the music industry can now be viewed, for example. Or, because of the real estate database kept by the Business Location Center having been integrated, Google Earth users will now find exposés for those commercial properties that are available for sale or rent in the city.
Presenting geodata in 3-D is a megatrend on the web that this re-launch of the 3-D virtual city model has picked up. And here as well, Berlin is a trailblazer since it is the first city that can be searched and explored on Google Earth in practically all of its aspects. In order to create the model, aerial photographs were taken of approximately 500,000 buildings located on the 890 km2 of the city’s area while their roofs were scanned and measured using laser technology. In addition, around 80 tourist attractions were modeled in detail. Five Berlin landmarks (the Olympic Stadium, Sony Center, the Reichstag Building, DZ-Bank and the Hauptbahnhof train station) can even be explored from the inside.
Senator Harald Wolf: “This technology and the data on which it is based open up many opportunities to companies, service providers and universities alike since they will be able to explore and create new products and processes. While the opportunities the new 3-D city model offers are of great interest to businesses and researchers, they will also enable the city administration to put new processes and technology to use. Urban planning procedures will benefit, as will those matters that require the public to be involved. The model has already been successfully integrated into our efforts at promoting the city’s economic development.”
René Gurka, Managing Director of Berlin Partner GmbH: “Berlin as a 3D model on the internet now opens up entirely new dimensions in marketing the city to investors, trade fairs and conventions, and businesses. The 2.0 version, a fundamentally revised version of the original software, will have its international premiere at the MIPIM real estate trade fair in Cannes, France. However, this project isn’t over yet. By now, the quality of the virtual city model is such that we are convinced we will find cooperation partners from the public and private sectors to join us in developing it further.”
Take a 3D stroll through the grounds of Berlin Technical University and the virtual research campus
The Charlottenburg campus of Berlin’s Technical University (TU) is now available as a 3D model. With a little help from Google Earth the TU site between the River Spree and Zoologischer Garten station can be explored virtually at the following address: www.tu-berlin.de. Many of the TU’s buildings have been rendered complete with their original facades, while other building models have been assigned facades at random. The 3D campus model is the product of cooperation between Berlin Partner GmbH and the TU Press and Information Department, and supported by the university's tubIT service center.
It is part of a larger project, the "official Berlin 3D city model," developed on behalf of the State of Berlin by the Berlin Senate Urban Development Department, the Senate Department for Economics, Technology, and Women’s Affairs, and Berlin Partner GmbH. The 3D model of Berlin on Google Earth shows simple representations of approximately 44,000 buildings in the city center. Of these, about 1,200 particularly significant buildings have had photos of their respective façades superimposed on them. A further 40 outstanding buildings are shown in architectural detail. The project was carried out by ARGE Zerna/3D Geo on the basis of the LandXplorer technology developed by 3D Geo GmbH.
In order to provide secure, efficient, automated access to official data through Google Earth, for example, the interoperability and object semantics of the underlying modeling data must be guaranteed. All the model components for the "official Berlin 3D city model" were therefore saved in CityGML format. The Berlin 3D city model represents the world's first reference project for commercial use of CityGML. It was implemented under the auspices of Professor Kolbe of the Berlin Technical University Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science. Prof. Kolbe is also the spokesman of the CityGML initiative.
Another new feature is Berlin Technical University's "virtual research campus", which currently comprises four of the university’s scientific buildings. The virtual campus can be consulted at www.lndw.tu-berlin.de/forschungscampus. A hyperlinked campus map allows you to enter inside the "Haus der Mathematik", "Haus der Chemie", "Haus der Physik" and "Haus des Bauens" at the click of a mouse. Each of these buildings contains information on current research projects, scientists, study courses, and famous-name researchers from the past within the respective field. Users can watch or listen to short science films, audio clips, and interviews, read research articles or personal portraits, or simply browse through the history of the field. A discussion forum on the pros and cons of nanotechnology and three quizzes invite users to get actively involved in the virtual campus. Extensive information is also available on all the degree courses on offer. This new feature is thus aimed not only at members of the public interested in science and research, but also teachers, schoolchildren, and students.
Online 3D city model now features information about commercial property available in Berlin
Virtual Berlin - A Genuine Innovation in Marketing
Starting today, Berlin’s online 3D city model will offer detailed information on the capital’s real estate sector. Berlin Partner has successfully linked its database of available commercial property with the city model located on the Internet at Google Earth, thus making it possible for potential investors and interested companies to explore over 1,300 available industrial properties and office spaces contained in the city’s 3D city model.
Investors and real estate service providers must first complete a quick and easy registration at the real estate database of Berlin Partner’s Business Location Center (BLC) before being able to access the site. After registering, users can either post available property or search for the ideal location for their business. This innovative service has been online for over a year and is now enhanced by the 3D imaging of all vacant property in the virtual city model of Berlin on the Internet.
René Gurka, Managing Director of Berlin Partner, argues that the new online service provided by the Business Location Center represents an innovative enhancement of current city marketing strategies: “Business development agencies and real estate providers are natural allies. Indeed, our clients are the same people: Companies interested in investing in Berlin need commercial space. For many years, we’ve been providing investors with custom-made services designed to help them find the ideal office location. We’re constantly developing and expanding these services, and we’re very excited to be able to offer our support in the virtual world of the Internet as well. Now investors and entrepreneurs - no matter where they are in the world - can get a realistic, 3D impression of their future offices in Berlin.”
The 3D city model was made possible by the cooperation of the Berlin Senate, the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) at Potsdam University and Berlin Partner. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Döllner, a specialist in computer systems engineering at the HPI, describes the many opportunities opened up by the presentation of Berlin in the virtual world: “The 3D imaging of space-oriented information is much more than just a gimmick. It allows us to illustrate complex relations at a glance in the virtual world. This is a very valuable tool, for example in the evaluation of real estate. Berlin’s virtual city model shows exactly what kinds of applications are possible. At the Hasso Plattner Institute, we’re already performing research on the next generation of city models that will be capable of special analysis and simulation methods.”
ORCO-GSG, a property group with over 850,000 m² available commercial space in Berlin, is one of the leading real estate providers represented in the multimedia environment at the Business Location Center. Managing Director Rainer Bormann notes: “At the moment, we’re featuring commercial space from 30 of our 43 property complexes at the real estate portal of the Business Location Center. Bormann is convinced of the effectiveness of the service provided by the BLC: “Potential tenants can use the 3D model to get an exact idea of the location and neighborhood of each property complex. They can even watch a short film on the property they’re interested in. The virtual Berlin model gives us the chance to show our available commercial property more effectively than ever before.”
Berlin is the first city to offer a realistic 3D replica of itself on the Internet at Google Earth. The model allows online visitors to “fly” to more than 44,000 virtual buildings in the western and eastern parts of the inner city, as well as at the WISTA Business and Technology Park at Adlershof. Internet users can even take an “inside look” at five buildings - the Reichstag parliamentary building, the Hauptbahnhof Train Station, the DZ Bank at Pariser Platz, the Sony Center and the Olympic Stadium.
The city model went online in March 2007 and will be updated and enhanced gradually to include the presentation of individual business sectors. The Business Location Center‘s database of the music industry was the first to make the move online, and now the visualization of available commercial property represents the second step. Other business sectors are scheduled to follow in the coming months.
Berlin Partner GmbH is the first stop for companies interested in establishing business in Berlin. The Business Location Center provides investors and entrepreneurs with comprehensive information on the Berlin business location including facts and figures on the region’s growth industries as well as information on real estate, labor markets and financial subsidies.
Berlin's music industry 3D in Google Earth
SEE THE MUSIC! Berlin is finding new paths in visualizing business-related geodata: At Popkomm 2007, a comprehensive database of Berlin’s music industry integrated in a virtual 3D city model went online. "See the Music" means: 1.300 addresses, profiles and audio-files of music related business corporations, venues and institutions can be researched online in the virtual 3D city-model of Berlin in Google Earth.
From now on everyone from everywhere in the world can get an overview of the music business in the German capital. You can search and find potential partners, clients, services, labels, venues and official institutions. You can go off for a virtual helicopter flight over Berlin at your computer via Google Earth and see the bookmarks of Berlin’s music business in a virtual, near-realistic and three-dimensional cityscape. If you want to learn more about a special entry in the database, you can click on the flag and get a fact sheet with a short profile. Many labels have even uploaded sound-bites of their latest products.
René Gurka, managing director of Berlin’s business development agency Berlin Partner states: "We use the most advanced technological tools for presenting Berlin as a business location. Together with our partners in the science and business community we develop these by ourselves. See the Music is just one example for this: Six moths ago, Berlin was the first city world wide to be shown in a virtual 3D city model in Google Earth. Now we integrate useful economic data into that beautiful model. Geodata in 3D visualization will soon be a state-of-the-art tool of business relocation."
Jürgen Döllner of Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI) at the University of Potsdam, developed the virtual city model of Berlin together with Berlin Partner and 3D Geo GmbH - a spin off of HPI. He comments: "See the Music shows complex economic data in a direct, grabbing and emotional way. The integration of the Berlin music-business-database into the virtual 3D city-model delivers all necessary information to a potential investor at a glance. One more click adds another dimension - audio-files. Thus, Berlin’s music business is recreated virtually and easily accessible on the world wide web."
Last April, billboard magazine spotlighted Berlin as a "Music City" and a global hot spot for the music industry. 1.500 music-related business corporations with 14.000 employees generate an annual turnover of 2 billions USD. Nearly 20.000 musicians live in Berlin. The city sees 150 concerts and music per day. Seven TV and 39 radio stations broadcast from here.
History made visible over the Internet: 3D model on Google Earth shows former path of the Berlin Wall
The three-dimensional city model of Berlin, which has been online and therefore available worldwide via Google Earth for the past half year, shows the precise route taken by the Berlin Wall and adjacent no-man's land formerly separating the West and the East. Although it cannot replace a historical explanation of the Berlin Wall, it is certainly an informative adjunct. Users can, for example, see on their own PC or laptop how large an area was cordoned off around Pariser Platz and Potsdamer Platz, just how brutally the Wall sliced through roads, and even that the new Hauptbahnhof station now straddles the former border. All this is available from every perspective – either as a bird’s eye view or at street level – and is completely freely navigable. What's more, the delineation of the Wall can be toggled on or off at a click of the mouse.
In order to be able to view the three-dimensional model of Berlin on Google Earth, you must first download and save a link from the Web site www.3d-stadtmodell-berlin.de. You are then free to explore approximately 44,000 buildings in the western and eastern parts of central Berlin, as well as the WISTA Adlershof Business and Technology Park, in a virtual flight over Berlin - all from your own PC. More than 1,200 particularly significant buildings in Berlin have been textured using photos of their facades. Five buildings can even be viewed from inside. The remaining buildings are displayed with realistic Berlin facades typical for the relevant year of construction.
Berlin is the first city recreated as a realistic large-scale three-dimensional model that Internet users can explore with the aid of Google Earth. The digital model has proved extremely popular: Nearly half a million online visitors were recorded in the first four weeks alone. The 3D city model pages are currently visited by about 4,000 users a day, more than half of them from abroad (source countries in order of relative frequency: USA, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, Holland, France, Poland, Sweden, Italy, UK, and Japan).
Virtual flights over Berlin. Twice as impressive since June 28, 2007
From today, the virtual model of Berlin available online at www.3d-stadtmodell-berlin.de contains more than 1,200 particularly significant buildings complete with photos and their original façade – in other words, twice as many as previously. The buildings newly rendered with their actual facades include the research establishments and institutes at Adlershof Science and Business Park (Fraunhofer FIRST, German Aerospace Center, etc.), large parts of the Kurfürstendamm, Gendarmenmarkt, Molkemarkt, and the Nikolaiviertel.
The three-dimensional model of the Berlin Congress Center on Alexanderplatz is the first based on an exterior not taken from the official model of the German capital city. As such the virtual model could now grow even further with support from private data providers.
Berlin is the first city recreated as a realistic large-scale three-dimensional model that Internet users can explore with the aid of Google Earth. The model, online since March 8, 2007, depicts more than 44,000 buildings in the western and eastern parts of central Berlin as well as the WISTA science and business park in Adlershof, enabling virtual flights over Berlin from any computer. Five buildings can even be "visited" and viewed from the inside. The digital model has proved extremely popular: Nearly half a million online visitors were recorded in the first four weeks alone. The 3D city model pages are currently viewed by about 4,000 users a day, more than half of them from abroad (source countries in order of relative frequency: USA, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, Holland, France, Poland, Sweden, Italy, UK, and Japan).
In order to give a realistic impression of the cityscape of Berlin, some 800 facades across the city were photographed and the remaining building models textured – that is, given a façade – at random using these photos. The roofs were rendered from aerial photographs. As such, although it is not be a 100% accurate representation of the city of Berlin, the resulting virtual image conveys an amazingly close and realistic impression of the city's streets and even entire quarters. High-tech know-how from Potsdam helped conjure up this virtual Berlin. The model was produced using the LandXplorer technology of 3D Geo GmbH, which developed the software in joint research with the renowned Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Technology at Potsdam University. LandXplorer turns two-dimensional aerial photographs, cadastral maps and photogrammetric data into fascinating worlds to explore or fly over. The 3D Geo Creator tool allows cities to present their three-dimensional city models on Google Earth. The special features of the technology include automatic processing of large-volume city models and data security. Cities retain their basic geodata on their own server, but can use Google Earth as a public platform on which to showcase their own projects in hitherto unparalleled quality.
3D Geo GmbH is a spin-off of the Hass Plattner Institute for Software Systems Technology. The LandXplorer technology has helped the company become an international leader in three-dimensional geo-visualization. 3D Geo develops and sells solutions for the three-dimensional visualization of cities and the management thereof. The LandXplorer technology from 3D Geo GmbH enables real estate firms, architects, and urban planners to present their visions, convince investors, and prepare decisions in a secure and precise manner.
Please note: The 3D city model is not an integral part of Google Earth and therefore not initially visible when this program is launched. It can be accessed from the www.3d-stadtmodell-berlin.de website and then saved as a link in the "Temporary locations" folder on Google Earth.
Virtual Online Flights Over Berlin Now Possible
BERLIN IN THE THIRD DIMENSION Berlin is the first city recreated as a realistic large-scale three-dimensional model that Internet users can explore with the aid of Google Earth. The model depicts more than 44,000 buildings in the western and eastern parts of central Berlin as well as the WISTA science and business park in Adlershof, enabling virtual flights over Berlin from any computer. Five buildings can even be "visited" and viewed from inside. Presenting the model today, Berlin Mayor and Senator for Economics, Technology, and Women's Affairs Harald Wolf said, "Berlin in the third dimension on the World Wide Web opens up a new dimension for us to innovatively market the city and approach investors. After all, it allows any interested person to get a first impression of Berlin from the comfort of his own office."
The model contains some 44,000 buildings in the centre of Berlin shown in rudimentary detail (level of detail 1). Of these, about 550 particularly significant buildings have been assigned photos of their respective facades. A further 50 outstanding buildings or complexes are available as detailed architectural representations (LOD 3) on which, aside from their facades, for example their oriels and pillars have been rendered. In addition - and this is unique worldwide - five particularly prominent buildings can even be "visited" virtually and viewed from the inside (LOD 4). They are the Reichstag Building (the seat of the German Parliament), the Hauptbahnhof station complex, the DZ Bank (formerly DG Bank) building on Pariser Platz, the Sony Center, and the Olympic Stadium.
In order to give a realistic impression of the cityscape of Berlin, some 800 facades across the city were photographed and the remaining building models textured - that is, given a façade - at random using these photos. The roofs were rendered from aerial photographs. As such, it may not be a perfect representation of the city of Berlin, but the resulting virtual image conveys an amazingly close and realistic impression of the city's streets and even entire quarters.
Berlin Partner former Managing Director Roland Engels says, "To be able to show Berlin on the Internet in three dimensions we developed the existing virtual city model further, and made it Internet-friendly. Although not all the buildings have real facades, the model conveys a very realistic impression of a central European urban metropolis with a charming mixture of period and newer buildings, and lots of green areas and water. The new technology not only presents Berlin in a completely unprecedented manner. It was also developed here and is itself a reference project for the IT clusters in the German capital region."
High-tech know-how from Potsdam helped conjure up this virtual Berlin. The model was produced using the LandXplorer technology of 3D Geo GmbH, which developed the software in joint research with the renowned Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Technology at Potsdam University. LandXplorer turns two-dimensional aerial photographs, cadastral maps and photogrammetric data into fascinating worlds to explore or fly over. The 3D Geo Creator tool allows cities to present their three-dimensional city models on Google Earth. The special features of the technology include automatic processing of large-volume city models and data security. Cities retain their basic geodata on their own server, but can use Google Earth as a public platform for their own projects in hitherto unparalleled quality.
3D Geo GmbH is a spin-off of the Hass Plattner Institute for Software Systems Technology. The LandXplorer technology has helped the company become an international leader in three-dimensional geo-visualization. 3D Geo develops and sells solutions for the three-dimensional visualization of cities and the management thereof. The LandXplorer technology from 3D Geo GmbH enables real estate firms, architects, and urban planners to present their visions, convince investors, and prepare decisions in a secure and precise manner.
Please note: The 3D city model is not an integral part of Google Earth and therefore not initially visible when this program is launched. It can be called up via the Web page www.virtual-berlin.de and then saved in the "Temporary Places" folder in Google Earth.
