Gallery: Stunning 3-D Maps Form a Digital Copy of New Orleans

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    NOLA-HERE-Presp3

    Cyark is a non-profit that records, in extreme detail, heritage sites worldwide.
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    NOLA-HERE-Presp1

    One criteria considered when selecting sites is the likelihood of their destruction, so New Orleans—which sits below sea level and is surrounded by levees—was a natural choice.
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    NOLA-HERE-Plan4

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    The mapping data was produced by HERE, whose scouting cars use light detection and ranging (LIDaR) tools to scan their surroundings and create detailed 3-D maps.
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    The resulting maps and fly-through visualizations give the impression of navigating a video game world, one accurate to within roughly five inches. You can practically see the beads flying.
  • The company expects those maps to help guide autonomous cars but donated the info on New Orleans to Cyark to help on a...
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    Plan-view-north-aligned

    The company expects those maps to help guide autonomous cars, but donated the info on New Orleans to Cyark to help on a different mission.
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    French

    Cyark has so far spent about 150 man hours digesting 15 billion data points, gathered in September 2014, into a 3-D digital representation of the city’s core as it looks today.
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