VIS: The "Virtual Immersive Urban Planning Model"

VIS: The "Virtual Immersive Urban Planning Model" (Image: CAD CAM Center Cologne)

The answer to urbanization as a megatrend of the 21st century are efficient and partially automatable strategies of digitalized urban planning. The research project "Virtual Immersive Urban Planning Model" therefore deals with the development of a methodology for efficient data acquisition and processing as well as the use of virtual reality in real estate management and urban planning. The aim is to create a continuous workflow for the legally compliant planning of urban construction projects, starting with digitalization and visualization up to the virtual building application.

Project content

High-end laser scanners, which are capable of capturing the environment with high accuracy at a scanning rate of more than one million points per second, serve as a database for the creation of the virtually immersive urban planning model. Several such precision scans from different positions can be used to capture individual buildings or even entire city districts. In addition, a photo-based color information is assigned to the determined geometry information. The resulting combined data set is a massive, colored point cloud with up to several hundred million pixels.

Intelligent, specifically developed and automated algorithms are used to condense this data volume into area-returned geometry models. These algorithms turn the unstructured point data into area-based digital building models. The color information enables the models to be textured realistically, so that a picture of the respective city section is created in the virtual world. It is then possible to evaluate different design drafts, measure distances or incorporate new building projects into the urban district's appearance.