October 10, 1998
Pittsburgh, PA - A simulation database of the Schenley Park area of Pittsburgh, built by TerraSim using their TerraTools™ database generation product, was a successful component of the DARPA Video Surveillance And Monitoring (VSAM) program demonstration held October 8-9 at Carnegie Mellon University. The database was constructed from City of Pittsburgh ARC/INFO® GIS coverages augmented with detailed 3D models of the CMU campus buildings.
The Schenley Park database was used to predict surveillance camera sightlines for cameras mounted on rooftops, requiring high geometric and geodetic accuracy in terrain and building representation. Verification of database coordinates against mapping photography and GPS readings showed accuracies of less than 1 meter.
The purpose of the VSAM project is to develop computer vision technologies to automatically detect and track vehicles and personnel in complex urban environments. In the demonstration, detected targets were displayed in real time moving through the virtual world database. This was facilitated by the highly-optimized database polygon budget, which allowed efficient display and manipulation.
The Schenley Park database represents the state-of-the art in 3D urban database construction. It touches on all of the key issues of database generation, including the integration of multiple 2D and 3D source data sets (GIS, photogrammetric models from imagery), and the automated generation of 3D buildings and bridges from 2D data. The use of TerraTools eliminated manual editing or corrections to the final delivered database.
To support MODSAF CTDB generation for the VSAM exercise, building bounding volumes were automatically tailored to follow the complex campus building outlines closely, instead of being simple bounding rectangles. This allowed the modeled entities to enter building courtyards and parking lots and conceal their activities close to the building walls. Sidewalks were modeled to permit realistic pedestrian movement along them, as opposed to simply using the existing road network.
For additional coverage, please see our Press Release in the Fall '98 IMAGE Society Newsletter: Images Newsletter(Fall '98 Edition) - The official newsletter of the IMAGE Society serving the Visual Simulation/Virtual Reality community.
About TerraSim
TerraSim is a high-technology company that provides software solutions and services for advanced visual simulation database construction using cartographic data. TerraTools®, their primary product, is available for both Windows NT/2000/XP and SGI IRIX workstations. TerraTools is used in the automated construction of dense urban environments for regional planning as well as simulation databases for military exercises covering hundreds of one degree geocells. TerraSim also provides database construction services and advanced technology development for both civilian and military customers.
TerraSim®, TerraTools®, and TerraTours® are registered trademarks of TerraSim, Inc.
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