19 September 2012 -The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) has completed the 3D Portrayal InteroperabilityExperiment (3DPIE). The 3DPIE was designed to test and demonstrate differentapproaches for service-based 3D visualization using the candidate OGC standardsfor 3D portrayal: the OGC Web 3D Service (W3DS) and Web View Service (WVS)Interface standards.
Results have been published as an OGC Public EngineeringReport (https://portal.ogc.org/files/?artifact_id=49068).This report will provide the basis for further standardization efforts inservice-based 3D portrayal.
The OGC members participating in the 3DPIE worked toidentify, test, and further develop technology standards and workflows for spatialdata infrastructure that supports rapid visualization of very large and complex3D geospatial data sets. The objective of the candidate W3DS and the WVS standardsis to make it as easy to integrate and visualize 3D urban and landscape modelsin web applications as it is easy to integrate 2D maps in web applications. The3DPIE clarified specifics of 3D portrayal services and provided a proof ofconcept as well as best practices and guidelines for the candidate standards' implementation,integration, and use. The experiments demonstrated the feasibility of 3D portrayalservices using massive real-world 3D data, including a complete textured 3Dcity model of Paris.
New image- and vector-based streaming and visualization methodshave been integrated into established software products and researchprototypes. By linking various solutions for serving geospatial 3D assets withweb and mobile applications using the 3D portrayal services, interoperability wassuccessfully demonstrated. Of particular interest is the Extensible 3D (X3D)Graphics International Standard, which is the open standard for real-time 3Dcommunication developed and administered by the non-profit Web3D Consortium (www.web3d.org). Also, the upcoming HTML5 webstandard was addressed by using WebGL and declarative X3DOM technology for directlyembedding 3D spatial data in modern web browsers.
Members of the Web3D Consortium worked to help identify keytechnological issues and develop common integration strategies. Prof. Volker Coors,one of the OGC representatives in the Web3D Consortium, comments: “I was reallyimpressed by the results of the experiment, especially how well OGC servicesand Web3D technologies complement each other.”
The initiators of the 3DPIE were:
— Hasso-Plattner-Institut at the University of Potsdam (HPI)*
— GIScience at the University of Heidelberg*
— Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research(IGD)*
The other OGC members that participated were:
— Bitmanagement Software GmbH
— CACI
— Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science atTechnical University Berlin (IGG)
— Institut Geographique National (IGN)
— Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Information et des Systémes(LSIS)
— Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), representing Web3DConsortium Members as part of the joint partnership agreement between OGC andWeb3D Consortium
— Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT)
The 3DPIE was jointly managed by Benjamin Hagedorn (HPI),Arne Schilling (GIScience), and Volker Coors (Fraunhofer IGD / HFT Stuttgart).
About the Web3D Consortium:
The Web3D Consortium is a member-driven organization involved in many technicalinitiatives across the 4D value chain. The Web3D Consortium is a member-fundedindustry consortium committed to the creation and deployment of open,royalty-free standards that enable the communication of real-time 3D acrossapplications, networks, and XML web services. Web3D works closely with theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) and has active projectswith W3C, OGC, DICOM, IMS, KHRONOS, and MPEG standards-developmentorganizations to maximize market opportunities for its membership. Moreinformation on Web3D Consortium membership is available at http://www.web3d.org.
About the OGC:
The OGC is an international consortium of more than 465companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universitiesparticipating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatialstandards. OGC Standards support interoperable solutions that”geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, andmainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatialinformation and services accessible and useful with any application that needsto be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.
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