NavVis: Revolutionizing Map Making

For centuries, maps have been made to mark multiple of newly discovered landforms and cities so that others from foreign origins may visit those places to satisfy their crave for adventure. But in those days, maps were made by hand and required exceptional visual memory, and even those maps are not as good as maps right now; they were only two dimensional and were updated every other year or more. With new ultrasonic and mapping technologies, maps now feature three dimensions, and also reveal significantly accurate images of landforms in a two dimensional plane, as well as added visual details such as local buildings, all of which are updated on a much faster pace than centuries ago. The most notable example of this is Google Maps, which controls the majority of this market, but there is a new device that might compete against the many technologies that created Google Maps. Its called NavVis, developed by researchers that the Technical University of Munich, and consists of two laser scanners and two cameras. The devices works with a human operator that moves the device around the desired area where the scanners record the horizontal and lateral positions of the hallway while the cameras take pictures of nearly every detail in the area, much more efficient than Google's method of creating 3D maps which usually involves one camera. Once every detail is recorded, a 3D map is created featuring all the pictures in the appropriate positions. Accompanied with navigation software, users are able to virtually take a tour around the area, seeing every surface in the area with astonishing detail. Furthermore, NavVis's IndoorViewer interface allows the owner to add additional and informative content at various parts of the map, and allows the owner to also augment any data of their generated map to their specifications. To see more about the NavVis, click the following link: http://www.gizmag.com/navvis-interactive-mapping-trolley/34316/