Aerial imagery business, Nearmap,
today launched its new 3-D product in a move that will revolutionize the
way industries such as urban planning, architecture, construction,
government and councils view and shape cities across Australia and the
U.S. The company is also previewing its groundbreaking AI technology at
its customer event, Navig8.
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Nearmap 3-D allows customers to stream and export 3-D imagery on-demand at massive scale, through its proprietary MapBrowser web application. Additionally, because the imagery is updated frequently, businesses can work with the most current information to make better informed decisions. (Photo: Business Wire)
In an industry first, Nearmap 3-D allows customers to stream and
export 3-D imagery on-demand at massive scale, through its proprietary MapBrowser
web application. Additionally, because the imagery is updated
frequently, businesses can work with the most current information to
make better informed decisions.
Nearmap has developed new AI technology that is turning millions of
aerial images, captured over a decade, multiple times a year, into
valuable datasets. These datasets can be used to more accurately and
efficiently measure change and quantify attributes, such as solar
panels, pools, roofs or construction sites. Organizations ranging from
small businesses to large companies and cities will be able to take
advantage of AI-driven location intelligence.
“Product innovation is in our DNA. Everything we do has the customer at
the core,” said Tony Agresta, Executive Vice President of Product at
Nearmap. “Our customers’ worlds are evolving every day. We need to keep
innovating to continue to give our customers a competitive advantage
through technology breakthroughs like the ones we are sharing today at
Navig8.
“Nearmap 3-D is the result of a significant investment in R&D, but also
listening to our customers and what they need to transform the way they
work. Accessing 3-D imagery up to now has typically been an arduous,
time-consuming and expensive process – but not anymore. This represents
the single largest, most frequently updated footprint of 3-D accessible
through a browser. The ability to measure in 3-D space, size up an area
and then export Nearmap 3-D for use in other platforms will transform
the aerial imagery market.
“The AI technology that we’re working on will allow organizations to
identify locations with specific attributes and in so doing, reduce site
visits, generate more leads, and eliminate the time involved to inspect
properties manually. Nearmap AI does the heavy lifting so you don’t have
to,” Agresta said.
Instant Access to 3-D through MapBrowser
Nearmap is making 3-D imagery accessible to anyone, in the same way it
has with 2-D. While Nearmap has offered 3-D imagery since 2017, this new
iteration of the technology allows users to instantly stream 3-D content
at massive scale via its MapBrowser web application.
The light-weight platform offers customers a fully immersive 3-D
experience, allowing them to visualize cities in 3-D from any direction,
measure distances, and immediately export a custom area in a variety of
3-D formats at unprecedented speed – the download time is a matter of
minutes for most requirements and only a few hours for very large
footprints.
“It’s like switching from DVDs to streaming services,” said Dr. Tom
Celinski, Executive Vice President of Technology & Engineering at
Nearmap. “Our camera technologies have been capturing 3-D since 2017,
but now our secret sauce is bringing it onto MapBrowser, allowing
users to easily and instantly stream this content with many export
options. Now users can visualize, measure, define a custom area, export
our 3-D and use it in their workflows with other commercial platforms
and tools. We’re helping 3-D experts and novices alike access reality
like never before, and this is an important next step in our Reality as
a Service journey.”
And like the best streaming services, Nearmap 3-D comes with an
extensive library, more than 400,000 km2 covered. It is
updated once a year and covers major urban areas in Australia and the
U.S.
“We live in a 3-D world, we think in 3-D, and so we have to ensure that
our products give the closest representation of reality as possible,”
Celinski said. “That means businesses that rely on visualizing 3-D
content, like architects, for example, can now access up-to-date 3-D
models instantly and export them in just minutes. In a tender process,
for example, that can be the difference between winning a new project or
not. The opportunities for Nearmap 3-D are endless.”
Petabytes of images, and a living data set
Nearmap AI technology is the result of more than two years’ worth of
research and development, and a team of close to 20 data scientists and
machine learning engineers. The team, led by Dr. Michael Bewley, is
using the petabytes of imagery that the business has captured over the
past 10 years and turning it into a living dataset to accurately
identify changes or quantify attributes from the Nearmap library of
aerial imagery.
Nearmap has built highly accurate machine learning models and deployed
them on a massive scale. The automated process, and the constantly
learning engine, means that the AI technology can be applied to any new
geography. Nearmap also applies the models to new surveys, generating
fresh results with current imagery.
To date, Nearmap has performed analysis on over 1 million square
kilometers of imagery across Australia and the U.S. (which constitutes
about 80 million properties) and is performing more analysis every day.
Nearmap is now inviting customers to take part in a beta program to
experiment with various use cases.
“We don’t prescribe how our technologies or content can be used by our
customers,” said Dr. Michael Bewley, Director of AI Systems at Nearmap.
“Our solar customers could use the AI technology to easily identify
where and when solar panels have been installed for maintenance jobs, to
prospect new clients in an area where solar energy’s popularity is on
the rise; or a government entity that previously had the arduous task of
tracking swimming pools or construction in their jurisdictions will be
able to do it automatically.”
“But this is the tip of the iceberg – we’re just getting started. This
technology is going to profoundly change the way that cities are built,”
Bewley said. “Our plans include delivering AI results in many forms,
much the same way we deliver our imagery today.”
Both technologies will be presented at Nearmap’s flagship event, Navig8,
in Perth on June 6, Melbourne on June 11 and Sydney on June 13.
Media kit
You can grab images of Nearmap 3-D and AI tool here.
About Nearmap
Nearmap delivers high resolution aerial imagery as a service to
businesses across the world, powered by industry-leading geospatial
mapping technology. Using its own patented camera systems and processing
software, Nearmap captures wide-scale urban areas in Australia, New
Zealand, and the U.S. multiple times each year, making fresh content
instantly available in the cloud via web app or API integration.
Every day, Nearmap helps thousands of users conduct virtual site visits
for deep, data-driven insights — enabling informed decisions,
streamlined operations, and robust bottom lines. Founded in Australia in
2007, Nearmap is one of the 10 largest aerial survey companies in the
world by annual data collection volume, and is publicly listed in the
ASX 200.
For more information, visit https://go.nearmap.com/.
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