Cyclomedia is a Dutch company specialising in the large-scale and systematic visualisation of environments based on 360°

panoramic photographs Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated field of view, fields of view. It is sometimes known as ''wide format photography''. The term has also ...

(Cycloramas). Using specialised technology, large public areas are photographed and stored in an online database. Overlapping panoramic images are captured at 5-meter intervals from public roads at street level, with the camera system mounted on a moving car. This service is not available to the general public.

Applications

The high resolution spherical panoramas are located to an accuracy within 10 cm, allowing the user to perform

photogrammetric Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...

3D measurements and use the imagery for

3D modelling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, ...

and

texture mapping Texture mapping is a method for mapping a texture on a computer-generated graphic. Texture here can be high frequency detail, surface texture, or color. History The original technique was pioneered by Edwin Catmull in 1974. Texture mappi ...

. The panoramic photographs have been used for the construction of

virtual environment A virtual environment is a networked application that allows a user to interact with both the computing environment and the work of other users. Email, chat, and web-based document sharing Document and file collaboration are the tools or systems ...

s, indoors as well as outdoors in the form of 3D city models. The imagery has also been used for the quality control of large-scale maps.

History

1980–1990

The idea of 360° panoramic photography originated at the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

. The first research for a camera prototype, the FRANK system, was carried out in 1980. In 1986 the Frank Data company was established in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

. In 1987 the first prototype of the camera was ready to make black and white recordings. The name CycloMedia was first used as a brand name by Frank Data.

1991–2000

At the end of 1991 the development of a digital film scanner and computer-controlled measuring system started; it came into commercial use a few years later. In 1992 the company moved to

Vught Vught () is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live in the municipality, and the town of Vught was once named "Best place to liv ...

. Cyclomedia was launched on 4 October 1994. In 1995 the municipality of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

became its first customer, commissioning the imaging of the whole city. In 1999 Cyclomedia moved to

Waardenburg Waardenburg is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of West Betuwe, and is located about 13 km west of Tiel. Waardenburg was a separate municipality until 1978, when it was merged with Neerijnen. ...

2001–2004

Digital full colour photography was introduced. A new, digital system, the Digital Cyclorama Recorder (DCR) 2, came into use in 2001. DCR7 vehicle

2005–2009

In July 2005 CycloMedia introduced another new production system, DCR 3, and a portable system making it possible to make recordings at locations that a car cannot reach. In 2006 the company again started to build a photo database of the Netherlands. Further developments were put in hand in the fields of camera technology (DCR 7, to make recordings while driving) and 3D imaging. In 2009 Cyclomedia began automated traffic sign detection using Cyclorama.

2010 onwards

The GlobeSpotter® web based viewer (SaaS) was launched in 2010. The following year the company brought out its 9th generation

digital recording In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storage ...

system (DCR9), including additional

picture-in-picture Picture-in-picture (PiP) is a feature that can be found in television receivers, personal computers and smartphones, consisting of a video stream playing within an inset window, freeing the rest of the screen for other tasks. For televisions, pic ...

cameras for capturing high resolution Cycloramas. Cyclomedia also upgraded its 3D processing technology based on

point cloud Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

and textured mesh processing methods. Cyclorama came into use in the Nordic countries, Germany and other parts of Europe, and the US."Cyclomedia Launches Street Smart Application for ArcGIS on Esri's ArcGIS Marketplace"
Esri, 6 March 2015 In 2013, the company added nationwide oblique imagery (NederlandObliek) with full functional integration in GlobeSpotter®. In May 2013 the company moved to

Zaltbommel Zaltbommel (), also known, historically and colloquially, as Bommel, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. History The city of Zaltbommel The town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as "Bomela" in the year 850. Zaltbommel received ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Cyclomedia

* ttp://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1052295 "Interactive navigation services through value-added Cyclomedia panoramic images" ACM Digital Library, 2004
"Small Company, Big Ambitions"
GIM International, 2007
GeoConnection Article on Cyclomedia: Cyclomedia appoints new CTO and CSO
Information technology companies of the Netherlands Street view services 3D imaging Zaltbommel