The power of a map is often understated. An effective map can transform a person's view about the world. A map is the starting base of knowledge; to pursue something, one must know what lies ahead. Whether it's the map of protein-protein interactions that fuel drug discovery or the map of social media that inform companies about their next advertising targets, maps are powering, predicting, and informing your next moves.
As we push the boundaries of interactive media, XR-viable maps are becoming increasingly common. Maps in which we can be immersed can open new routes of storytelling. Imagine tracking COVID statistics as you can walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. Or visualizing most probable traffic jams in the city just by flying on top of the exact road jam? Or creating a 3D-immersive videographic that explains the rise and fall of migration into the city?
This group aims to create the first open-source XR map of Chicago and all of its 77 neighborhoods. The XR map will be basic yet detailed, aiming to have height-accurate building in distinct neighborhoods separated by roads. The hope is that by providing this open-source XR map of Chicago, more local journalists, non-profit firms, and storytellers will utilize this map as a base to tell their stories about Chicago moving forward.
After checking policies, Google Earth, Map, or StreetView products cannot be used to recreate a 3D model. We'll have the best luck using OpenStreetMap's building information.
Three.js with TypeScript will be used to recreate the base layer.
About the group
The power of a map is often understated. An effective map can transform a person's view about the world. A map is the starting base of knowledge; to pursue something, one must know what lies ahead. Whether it's the map of protein-protein interactions that fuel drug discovery or the map of social media that inform companies about their next advertising targets, maps are powering, predicting, and informing your next moves.
As we push the boundaries of interactive media, XR-viable maps are becoming increasingly common. Maps in which we can be immersed can open new routes of storytelling. Imagine tracking COVID statistics as you can walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. Or visualizing most probable traffic jams in the city just by flying on top of the exact road jam? Or creating a 3D-immersive videographic that explains the rise and fall of migration into the city?
This group aims to create the first open-source XR map of Chicago and all of its 77 neighborhoods. The XR map will be basic yet detailed, aiming to have height-accurate building in distinct neighborhoods separated by roads. The hope is that by providing this open-source XR map of Chicago, more local journalists, non-profit firms, and storytellers will utilize this map as a base to tell their stories about Chicago moving forward.
Group leaders
Spencer Hong (@spencer-hong)
Who we're looking for
Data-oriented (mining, cleaning, research, ETL) Visual-oriented (frontend, graphics, visualizations) Software-oriented (fullstack, database management, backend)
Tools
Tentative
After checking policies, Google Earth, Map, or StreetView products cannot be used to recreate a 3D model. We'll have the best luck using OpenStreetMap's building information.
Three.js with TypeScript will be used to recreate the base layer.
Relevant Links
https://osmbuildings.org/?lat=41.87548&lon=-87.62974&zoom=16.0&tilt=30 https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/12/here-debuts-enterprise-xr-and-5g-ready-3d-models-of-75-major-cities/
Where we meet
Find the channel @xr-map-chicago on Slack