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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday April 22 2015, @09:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the creating-a-virtual-world-from-the-real-world dept.

Two architecture school graduates have taken LIDAR to the next level with a project meant to precisely reproduce London:

Today, they’re at the forefront of large-scale 3-D laser scanning, specializing in striking, ghostly reproductions of castles, museums, ice floes and more, conjured from billions of millimeter-precise dots.

Their latest undertaking is a sprawling scan of Mail Rail, a network of abandoned tunnels once used to transport mail beneath London. Like much of the group’s work, it sits at the intersection of utility and beauty, commerce and art. On one level, it’s an unprecedentedly detailed document of a historically significant site—a laudable bit of high-tech preservation.

15 years ago a buddy of mine in the 101st Airborne told me the military had done this with American cities to facilitate low-level chopper flying to put down civil insurrection, so it would be cool and useful to have archives like this available to civilians. Especially since I've really been looking forward to living in the Matrix.

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  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday April 22 2015, @09:11PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @09:11PM (#174115) Homepage Journal

    We already have LIDAR for vehicles. Combine that with the Google Mapping cars you can take street view to a new level.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Wednesday April 22 2015, @10:20PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @10:20PM (#174139) Journal

      The DOOM level? Not everyday you could do the madman thing and not have any consequences ;)

      Though some people from those dessert countries could abuse this data.

      • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:09AM

        by vux984 (5045) on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:09AM (#174168)

        The DOOM level? Not everyday you could do the madman thing and not have any consequences ;)

        But don't think there are no consequences these days if a kid makes a level out his school he's expelled and the cops are called and its a terrorist plot.
        What else is the kid going to do? Its a building he knows, that's large enough and interesting enough, and usually has multiple routes to any given point, etc... and as a bonus his friends recognize it and fun is had by all.

        I made a Doom level out of my university. All those skyways, malls, arcades, parking lots, loading areas, biohazard, radiation, and laser warnings in the various science wings, green houses, hot and cold water pipes for the boiler system running through utility corridors... it practically begged to be made into an FPS level.

        dessert countries

        What's a dessert country? France maybe? :)

        In all seriousness; though who cares if terrorists have access to the data. Its not like good targets are hard to find without it if they are so inclined.
        I'm actually FAR more worried about the previous poster saying that it was created for helicoptors to put down civil unreset... for some reason that conjured this old movie scene...

        Richards :Above release point echo bravo one.
        Dispatch: Move in and check it out.
        Richards: Roger. Moving in.
        Richards: Food riot in progress.
        Richards: Approximately|1500 civilians.
        Richards: No weapons evident.
        Dispatch: Proceed with plan alpha.
        Dispatch: Eliminate anything moving.
        ...

        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 23 2015, @01:11AM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday April 23 2015, @01:11AM (#174175) Journal

          I'm actually FAR more worried about the previous poster saying that it was created for helicoptors to put down civil unreset...

          I left out the other bit my friend told me in that story because I didn't want to skew the summary too much. But when my buddy was talking to that colonel who told him about the LIDAR mapping for helicopter deployment, and why they were mapping it, my buddy was aghast. Now, my buddy is a pretty right-wing guy, and he loved talking to all the bad-ass guys he came into contact with in the 101st. And he was really into this colonel who was in charge of the project, because flying helicopters fast and low through buildings is pretty bad-ass, right? That is, he was into it up until the moment the colonel told him it was for civil unrest. Then he kind of stammered and said, "You mean, if you were given the order to open fire on American citizens, would you obey it?" The colonel said, dead serious, "I would obey my orders."

          He told me that story in the late 90's, and at the time I said, nah, that couldn't really happen here. Now in 2015 I feel like I've woken up in another country, one that resembles others we opposed in the Cold War or fought in WWII, and I feel like it absolutely could happen here and fear it could happen soon. I'm not a "molon labe" kind of guy and don't even own a single firearm, but I am very glad that millions of Americans do own a lot of guns. I am also very glad that there are a lot of veterans walking around here who feel the same way I do. I also consider that as strong as the American military is, they have always had the advantage of a secure base of supply and manufacturing and foreign adversaries whom they don't care all that much if they're hostile or innocent civilians when they kill them; none of those advantages apply here, because the people they're going to be shooting at will be the ones torching their fuel depots, raiding their armories, assassinating collaborators, and then melting back into crowds of civilians containing the friends and families of the soldiers meant to fire back. It would make Fallujah look like a Sunday school picnic.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 23 2015, @10:05PM

            by kaszz (4211) on Thursday April 23 2015, @10:05PM (#174453) Journal

            Do you think these people really has the ability to find like minded in situation without telecommunications. And have the ability to fend of advanced technology like heat signature surveillance, drones, gunships etc.

            • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday April 24 2015, @12:39PM

              by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday April 24 2015, @12:39PM (#174616) Journal

              Those technologies are great and all when you don't mind wiping out 500 innocent people to get the 3 you want. When each of those 500 innocents has (on average) 250 people they're related to, friends with, go to church with, etc, and you still want all those people to keep showing up to their factory jobs to make parts for your fighter jets and grow crops to feed your troops and generally do all the things necessary to maintain your empire, then indiscriminate killing of your countrymen starts to get pretty problematic. Also, ask yourself the question, does the government black out all communication forever in order to keep rebels from talking to each other? Because then the children of your super elite who like to party on daddy's money will start to grouse that they can't message their friends to meet them at the club anymore, and that having to send (ugh) mail to each other to communicate is such. A. Drag. Not to mention, blacking out all communications at this stage in history would bring all of our modern society to a screeching halt.

              As for the rest, the US military wasn't able to pacify a stone-age culture (Afghanistan) with trillions of dollars spent, all the drone strikes in the world, and zero compunction about slaughtering thousands to get a few "terrorists." Do you really think Americans, far more educated and well-armed than those people, would fare less well? Even discarding the reality that it's hard to get your soldiers to fire on crowds containing their own loved-ones, Americans are still made of tougher stuff than a lot of people give them credit for. And, thanks to 40 years of impoverishing every single American not in the .01% super-elite, the super-elite are vastly, vastly outnumbered. I also maintain that now that technology is in the hands of the average person, people could get pretty creative about how to kill the super-elite once they set their minds to it.

              --
              Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by sigma on Thursday April 23 2015, @02:58AM

        by sigma (1225) on Thursday April 23 2015, @02:58AM (#174185)

        Though some people from those dessert countries could abuse this data.

        You mean like Austria geoblocking strudel, or Italy claiming patent fees from gelato stores?

        • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 23 2015, @10:07PM

          by kaszz (4211) on Thursday April 23 2015, @10:07PM (#174455) Journal

          Some places where there's a lot of sun baked sand and too much crazy ideas from narrow minded people.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2015, @08:52AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2015, @08:52AM (#174583)

            Texas?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:32PM (#174264)