3D Atlas, Fall 2005

NEWS: UPDATE ON THE 3D ATLAS OF ANN ARBOR
Sandra Lach Arlinghaus

The 3D Atlas of Ann Arbor is an ongoing project begun five years ago. The early development centered on the creation of base maps/surfaces formed from buildings, terrain, streets, photographic textures, and so forth. There is abundant reference to this development in Solstice (an article in Volume XVI, Number 1; in Volume XV, Number 1 in two articles on this topic, one by Beier and one by Arlinghaus, Beal and Kelbaugh--the latter contains links to all previous references on this topic). As the base surfaces emerged, so too did applications. Most of these centered on one form of planning or another. Now, thanks to direct efforts, and indirect input, from*

The principal investigator: Sandra Lach Arlinghaus;
Students, teaching staff, and faculty in Engineering 477, Virtual Reality, College of Engineering, The University of Michigan

Students:

2003: Taejung Kwon, Adrien Lazzaro, Paul Oppenheim, Aaron Rosenblum
2004: Nikolai Nolan, Rasika Ramesh, Itzhak Shani
2005: Alyssa J. Domzal, Ui Sang Hwang, Kris J. Walters

Teaching Staff, Graduate Student Instructors:

2003: Thana Chirapiwat, Jamie Cope
2004: Thana Chirapiwat, Jamie Cope, Bonnie Bao
2005: Jamie Cope, Brian Walsh

Faculty: Professor Klaus-Peter Beier.

Other faculty and external advisors:

2003: Matthew Naud, Environmental Coordinator, City of Ann Arbor; John D. Nystuen, Prof. Emeritus, University of Michigan
2004: Matthew Naud, Environmental Coordinator, City of Ann Arbor;
2005: Matthew Naud, Environmental Coordinator, City of Ann Arbor; Paul Lippens, Intern, City of Ann Arbor; Braxton Blake, Composer and Conductor of Music, Edmond Nadler, Adjunct Prof. of Mathematics.

Staff in the 3D Laboratory, Duderstadt Center, The University of Michigan: Professor Klaus-Peter Beier, Director of the 3D Laboratory; Scott Hamm; Steffen Heise; Brett Lyons; Eric Maslowski; Lars Schumann
City of Ann Arbor staff: Matthew Naud, Paul Lippens, Wendy Rampson, Chandra Hurd Gochanour, Merle Johnson, Jim Clare
Members of the Downtown Residential Taskforce, Downtown Development Authority, City of Ann Arbor: Susan Pollay, Executive Director DDA; Fred J. Beal, Jean Carlberg, Robert Gillett, Karen Hart, Douglas Kelbaugh, William D. Kinley, Steve Thorp, Frances Todoro, Wendy Woods. Substantial citizen input also from Brian Barrick, Ray Detter, and Peter Pollack.
The University of Michigan: Donald T. Uchman, Coordinator of Space Graphics, Space Information and Planning, Plant Extension--AEC

there are thousands of files present to create a variety of images for use in application. Specifically,

there are extruded buildings, textures, streets, terrain, hydro, for the entire Downtown Development Authority
there are extruded buildings representing residences and businesses throughout the entire city (about 35,000 in all)
there are extruded buildings for the entire University of Michigan
there are modeled buildings for selected locations in the Downtown Development Authority.

New files from the City this past fall, for extruded structures for the entire city and for contours at a 1 foot contour interval, opened the door to consider preliminary environmental management applications involving floods. The two links below show views of such ideas; the first was developed to be implemented in a public policy context and the second as an analysis linked to that context developed by students in the university setting.

Sandra Lach Arlinghaus
Archimedes in Ann Arbor?
An illustration of an application in the public policy arena using 3d mapping and virtual reality files. Fire hydrants, lamp posts, and street signs of Domzal were also incorporated into this work, as were streets, blocks, lamp posts, and benches from Kwon, et al. Link to newspaper article (November 27, 2005) related to the files linked to this work.

Animated sequence of screen shots taken from three linked virtual reality models, above. To get the full experience, enter the scene and drive around!

Alyssa J. Domzal, Ui Sang Hwang, and Kris J. Walters, Jr.
Virtual Flood in the Allen Creek Floodplain and Floodway
The virtual reality model above, December 13, 2005, requires the use of Cosmo Player or Cortona plug-in for your browser. The demonstration of that day also included a presentation of the files in the CAVE and a discussion involving strategy for file development for use in the immersion CAVE.

Animated sequence of screen shots taken from three linked virtual reality models, above. To get the full experience, enter the scene and drive around!

*All of the individuals mentioned here are known to the P.I.; there may be other secondary contact not noted here. Apologies for any omissions.

Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics.
Volume XVI, Number 2, 2005.
Institute of Mathematical Geography (IMaGe).
All rights reserved worldwide, by IMaGe and by the authors.
Please contact an appropriate party concerning citation of this article: sarhaus@umich.edu
http://www.imagenet.org