9 ms·

Mosaic REALMAP: Explore Prague in detail with 1.26M images

157 points by programd 2y ago

guwop 2y ago
crazy! wont be too long until this is here for major cities as well.
- airstrike 2y ago
  Prague is the capital of Czech Republic and has over 1.3 million inhabitants, so I'd say it qualifies as a "major city"
  - inglor_cz 2y ago
    I love Prague and I spent a quarter of century living there, but its status as a major city depends on context. In the list of world cities by population, it ranks 403rd. https://infocartography.com/world-top1000-pop https://infocartography.com/world-top1000-pop For Czechs or Central Europeans in general, it is a major city, but not in worldwide context.
    - thrww120956 2y ago
      On the other hand, Prague would be much higher if the official population number was accurate at all - since this official statistic in Czechia relies purely on the number of registered people and does no further analysis. There's over a million people more than the official number says - that's well known even to the government. Analysis of mobile device traffic and other stuff like that suggests multiple millions. I'd definitely say it's a major EU city. Maybe even a major The West city. I agree that it's hard to compare it to places in Asia, though.
    - airstrike 2y ago
      Hard to trust a map which places "Bali, Indonesia" where "Paris, France" should be.
andrewshadura 2y ago
Wow, driving in the pedestrian zone around Staromák is bad enough already, but they also happily post pictures. Not okay.
- jesprenj 2y ago
  Maybe they got some special permission?
  - notachatbot123 2y ago
    There is zero mention of privacy in the post so probably not.
    - thrww120956 2y ago
      Permission to drive in the pedestrian zone. It's legal to take pictures in public places in the Czech Republic, no need to ask permission for that.
    - mosaic360 2y ago
      We are, obviously, adhering to all GDPR laws in the release of this dataset.
- mosaic360 2y ago
  We obeyed all laws when capturing this data. As you might notice, old town square does allow vehicles under special circumstances (delivery vehicles, mostly)
- clovemolecule 2y ago
  Have you every heard about Google Street View?
karel-3d 2y ago
Hate that I can't put this on wiki commons because of the non-commercial license.
- rvnx 2y ago
  Especially without link in the article
  - mosaic360 2y ago
    There is a link to a signup, and we will share the data with you. We would like to know who wants the data and why. Because that's interesting, and we hope to make new relationships out of this. Throwing the data into the void is a bit too scary as the first step. Maybe next time? :) thanks! Jeffrey and the Mosaic team
    - rvnx 2y ago
      I understand, I just wanted to see the quality of some of the pictures to see how it compares to Google Maps or Apple Maps. This way it can help to understand for which uses Mosaic X could be potentially useful (and this could bring creativity, e.g. to develop a game). Satellite imagery providers often give a couple of sample pictures in the public as well.
- mosaic360 2y ago
  Hi, sorry but that is not the purpose of this data. We are releasing it for research and education purposes. You might redirect your critique to the other ~1000 companies in the world who have such data and don't release anything at all under any terms.
  - karel-3d 2y ago
    Sorry it's just a mild complaint. I am still happy that this dataset exists! Just my first thought was "ah I will put it on Wikimedia Commoms", and then... I realize I can't.
zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
Ray Holmberg ruined the idea of Prague for me
- TomK32 2y ago
  He probably ruined the idea of a lot more places before his first trip to Prague in 2011. Politicians really ought to retire from politics far earlier than before their 45th year in any sort of assembly.
- adamnemecek 2y ago
  Do you think that it doesn’t happen in other cities?
- yread 2y ago
  Did he also ruin North Dakota for you? Or the whole US/American continent.
  - zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
    North Dakota, yes.
dt3ft 2y ago
So how do we explore? Is there a link somewhere in the article?
- dangsux 2y ago
  [dead]
- programd 2y ago
  After I posted the item I realized that there was no link and it's one of those "email us for access to the data" deals. Which I think is a mistake on their part. Nevertheless this is a great project and I wish there was more of this kind of work out there. Maybe it's time to start an open source effort to do something similar in some corner of the world? You'd need access to the mapping camera hardware, obviously. Who would be willing to fund it?
  - kfarr 2y ago
    That sounds pretty similar to mapillary
- mosaic360 2y ago
  author here. Hello! This dataset is the result of many, many hours of actual driving, with our own camera hardware (mosaic X, designed and built right here in the czech republic) and dual RTK + GNSS/INS/VSLAM system to allow extremely precise positioning. I would like to encourage adhering to the CC-BY-NC-SA license as much as possible. I would like to at least have a quick dialog which each person who grabs this dataset to explain this as clearly as possible. This data is not public domain. It was created through tremendous effort and sunk cost, and I would like people to use it for research / learning purposes and to share their results with the world. Releasing all the data with a public link is honestly a bit too scary for me at this point. Hence the signup form :-)\ After you sign up, you'll get a link to the dataset. First a link to a very small dataset, which is all we have managed to anonymize so far (we have to obscure faces and license plates in order to adhere to GDPR legislation). We will make the entire dataset available in a few weeks.
mannyv 2y ago
Holy shit!
- mosaic360 2y ago
  Thank you :-)
dansky 2y ago
There are many YouTube channels walking through cities as the movement and sound add more to the atmosphere than street-view like experiences. I also happen to cover Prague many times like [1] in 2020 without many tourists. One thing I started a few years is multicam walks. This means that I carry some 4-6 Osmo Pockets to actually film in several directions simultaneaously - example: Dresden [2]. The editing process is taking multiple hours so I have hundreds of unreleased recordings. If someone has a hint on AI assisted multicam editing, where to start (like better gaze prediction etc. from VR) I'd be interested - especially feeding all camera streams and let a NN decide the best camera angle and cuts to be between 4-11s? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HIfklyF9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HIfklyF9w [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzq8sorvR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzq8sorvR4
- aeontech 2y ago
  Is it possible to stitch your footage into a 360 projection? If so, you could definitely upload it as either 180 or 360 degree video, which would allow for VR use cases as well.
  - dansky 2y ago
    I guess 180 would work. There is 360/VR content on YouTube yet it seems not mainstream yet. I also have a 360° cam that I rarely use. BTW, half of all my viewers watch this type of content on TV according to the stats. I guess subtitles, HDR and decent editing are more important for now so I'm looking for AI help in the editing part. Subtitles are already supported by GPTs
- bloated5048 2y ago
  Walking videos at evening in HDR look great on HDR TV! I love them! Especially comfy in a cold season. Thanks for making them, will definitely watch some!
- hellomrsparrow 2y ago
  Hey I have been working on some ideas in the same vein for a bit. Taking input as videos and extracting the most interesting parts out of it. I can try testing it out on your footage. If it works, you can incorporate it in your pipeline as well :) Drop me a mail if you're interested (luzenmictlan (at) gmail)
mosaic360 2y ago
Hi everybody, wow we are on the front page of HN! What a dream come true! So far we have had a few hundred signups for the data. I ran the applications through chatGPT to get an idea of what people want to do with the data: Research and Academic Purposes: A significant number of respondents plan to use the dataset for research in areas like computer vision, 3D reconstruction, Gaussian splatting, neural rendering fields (NeRF), and autonomous driving. Many aim to publish papers, conduct experiments, or work on academic projects such as theses. Learning and Educational Use: Many individuals expressed interest in using the dataset for learning purposes, personal education, or as a teaching aid. This includes students working on class projects, hobbyists looking to enhance their skills, and educators seeking material for lectures and demonstrations. Personal Projects and Hobbyist Exploration: A considerable portion of respondents wish to explore the dataset for personal enjoyment or hobby projects. This includes experimenting with new technologies, exploring the city virtually, or simply satisfying personal curiosity. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Applications: Numerous users intend to integrate the dataset into VR/AR environments using platforms like Unreal Engine and Unity. Applications range from creating immersive experiences and simulations to developing VR walkthroughs and gaming environments. Video Creation, Animation, and Visual Effects (VFX): Several respondents plan to use the dataset for filmmaking, creating animations, or experimenting with visual effects. This includes producing content for personal portfolios, social media, and non-commercial projects. Experimentation and Testing: A number of users are interested in testing new technologies, workflows, or software capabilities using the dataset. This includes experimenting with rendering techniques, 3D modeling, and spatial data handling. Gaussian Splatting and Advanced Rendering Techniques: Many respondents specifically mentioned Gaussian splatting as an area of interest. They plan to use the dataset to test, implement, or improve techniques related to point-based rendering and large-scale scene visualization. Game Development: Some users aim to incorporate the dataset into game development projects. This includes creating realistic environments, developing game mods, or using the data as reference material for designing game levels. Artistic and Creative Projects: A subset of respondents expressed intentions to use the dataset for artistic endeavors, such as digital art installations, motion graphics, and experimental visualizations. Virtual Tourism and City Exploration: A few individuals plan to use the dataset to virtually explore the city, create virtual walking tours, or develop tools that allow others to experience Prague remotely. Key Takeaways: High Interest in Research and Education: The dataset is highly valued for its potential to contribute to academic research and educational purposes. Strong Enthusiasm for VR/AR and Advanced Visualization: There's a notable enthusiasm for using the dataset in VR/AR applications and exploring advanced rendering techniques like Gaussian splatting. Diverse Range of Uses: Respondents show a wide range of interests, from personal exploration and hobby projects to professional development and creative arts.

157 points by programd 2y ago

guwop 2y ago

crazy! wont be too long until this is here for major cities as well.

airstrike 2y ago
Prague is the capital of Czech Republic and has over 1.3 million inhabitants, so I'd say it qualifies as a "major city"
- inglor_cz 2y ago
  I love Prague and I spent a quarter of century living there, but its status as a major city depends on context. In the list of world cities by population, it ranks 403rd. https://infocartography.com/world-top1000-pop https://infocartography.com/world-top1000-pop For Czechs or Central Europeans in general, it is a major city, but not in worldwide context.
  - thrww120956 2y ago
    On the other hand, Prague would be much higher if the official population number was accurate at all - since this official statistic in Czechia relies purely on the number of registered people and does no further analysis. There's over a million people more than the official number says - that's well known even to the government. Analysis of mobile device traffic and other stuff like that suggests multiple millions. I'd definitely say it's a major EU city. Maybe even a major The West city. I agree that it's hard to compare it to places in Asia, though.
  - airstrike 2y ago
    Hard to trust a map which places "Bali, Indonesia" where "Paris, France" should be.

andrewshadura 2y ago

Wow, driving in the pedestrian zone around Staromák is bad enough already, but they also happily post pictures. Not okay.

jesprenj 2y ago
Maybe they got some special permission?
- notachatbot123 2y ago
  There is zero mention of privacy in the post so probably not.
  - thrww120956 2y ago
    Permission to drive in the pedestrian zone. It's legal to take pictures in public places in the Czech Republic, no need to ask permission for that.
  - mosaic360 2y ago
    We are, obviously, adhering to all GDPR laws in the release of this dataset.
mosaic360 2y ago
We obeyed all laws when capturing this data. As you might notice, old town square does allow vehicles under special circumstances (delivery vehicles, mostly)
clovemolecule 2y ago
Have you every heard about Google Street View?

karel-3d 2y ago

Hate that I can't put this on wiki commons because of the non-commercial license.

rvnx 2y ago
Especially without link in the article
- mosaic360 2y ago
  There is a link to a signup, and we will share the data with you. We would like to know who wants the data and why. Because that's interesting, and we hope to make new relationships out of this. Throwing the data into the void is a bit too scary as the first step. Maybe next time? :) thanks! Jeffrey and the Mosaic team
  - rvnx 2y ago
    I understand, I just wanted to see the quality of some of the pictures to see how it compares to Google Maps or Apple Maps. This way it can help to understand for which uses Mosaic X could be potentially useful (and this could bring creativity, e.g. to develop a game). Satellite imagery providers often give a couple of sample pictures in the public as well.
mosaic360 2y ago
Hi, sorry but that is not the purpose of this data. We are releasing it for research and education purposes. You might redirect your critique to the other ~1000 companies in the world who have such data and don't release anything at all under any terms.
- karel-3d 2y ago
  Sorry it's just a mild complaint. I am still happy that this dataset exists! Just my first thought was "ah I will put it on Wikimedia Commoms", and then... I realize I can't.

zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago

Ray Holmberg ruined the idea of Prague for me

TomK32 2y ago
He probably ruined the idea of a lot more places before his first trip to Prague in 2011. Politicians really ought to retire from politics far earlier than before their 45th year in any sort of assembly.
adamnemecek 2y ago
Do you think that it doesn’t happen in other cities?
yread 2y ago
Did he also ruin North Dakota for you? Or the whole US/American continent.
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
  North Dakota, yes.

dt3ft 2y ago

So how do we explore? Is there a link somewhere in the article?

dangsux 2y ago
[dead]
programd 2y ago
After I posted the item I realized that there was no link and it's one of those "email us for access to the data" deals. Which I think is a mistake on their part. Nevertheless this is a great project and I wish there was more of this kind of work out there. Maybe it's time to start an open source effort to do something similar in some corner of the world? You'd need access to the mapping camera hardware, obviously. Who would be willing to fund it?
- kfarr 2y ago
  That sounds pretty similar to mapillary
mosaic360 2y ago
author here. Hello! This dataset is the result of many, many hours of actual driving, with our own camera hardware (mosaic X, designed and built right here in the czech republic) and dual RTK + GNSS/INS/VSLAM system to allow extremely precise positioning. I would like to encourage adhering to the CC-BY-NC-SA license as much as possible. I would like to at least have a quick dialog which each person who grabs this dataset to explain this as clearly as possible. This data is not public domain. It was created through tremendous effort and sunk cost, and I would like people to use it for research / learning purposes and to share their results with the world. Releasing all the data with a public link is honestly a bit too scary for me at this point. Hence the signup form :-)\ After you sign up, you'll get a link to the dataset. First a link to a very small dataset, which is all we have managed to anonymize so far (we have to obscure faces and license plates in order to adhere to GDPR legislation). We will make the entire dataset available in a few weeks.

mannyv 2y ago

Holy shit!

mosaic360 2y ago
Thank you :-)

dansky 2y ago

There are many YouTube channels walking through cities as the movement and sound add more to the atmosphere than street-view like experiences. I also happen to cover Prague many times like [1] in 2020 without many tourists. One thing I started a few years is multicam walks. This means that I carry some 4-6 Osmo Pockets to actually film in several directions simultaneaously - example: Dresden [2]. The editing process is taking multiple hours so I have hundreds of unreleased recordings. If someone has a hint on AI assisted multicam editing, where to start (like better gaze prediction etc. from VR) I'd be interested - especially feeding all camera streams and let a NN decide the best camera angle and cuts to be between 4-11s? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HIfklyF9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HIfklyF9w [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzq8sorvR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzq8sorvR4

aeontech 2y ago
Is it possible to stitch your footage into a 360 projection? If so, you could definitely upload it as either 180 or 360 degree video, which would allow for VR use cases as well.
- dansky 2y ago
  I guess 180 would work. There is 360/VR content on YouTube yet it seems not mainstream yet. I also have a 360° cam that I rarely use. BTW, half of all my viewers watch this type of content on TV according to the stats. I guess subtitles, HDR and decent editing are more important for now so I'm looking for AI help in the editing part. Subtitles are already supported by GPTs
bloated5048 2y ago
Walking videos at evening in HDR look great on HDR TV! I love them! Especially comfy in a cold season. Thanks for making them, will definitely watch some!
hellomrsparrow 2y ago
Hey I have been working on some ideas in the same vein for a bit. Taking input as videos and extracting the most interesting parts out of it. I can try testing it out on your footage. If it works, you can incorporate it in your pipeline as well :) Drop me a mail if you're interested (luzenmictlan (at) gmail)

mosaic360 2y ago

Hi everybody, wow we are on the front page of HN! What a dream come true! So far we have had a few hundred signups for the data. I ran the applications through chatGPT to get an idea of what people want to do with the data: Research and Academic Purposes: A significant number of respondents plan to use the dataset for research in areas like computer vision, 3D reconstruction, Gaussian splatting, neural rendering fields (NeRF), and autonomous driving. Many aim to publish papers, conduct experiments, or work on academic projects such as theses. Learning and Educational Use: Many individuals expressed interest in using the dataset for learning purposes, personal education, or as a teaching aid. This includes students working on class projects, hobbyists looking to enhance their skills, and educators seeking material for lectures and demonstrations. Personal Projects and Hobbyist Exploration: A considerable portion of respondents wish to explore the dataset for personal enjoyment or hobby projects. This includes experimenting with new technologies, exploring the city virtually, or simply satisfying personal curiosity. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Applications: Numerous users intend to integrate the dataset into VR/AR environments using platforms like Unreal Engine and Unity. Applications range from creating immersive experiences and simulations to developing VR walkthroughs and gaming environments. Video Creation, Animation, and Visual Effects (VFX): Several respondents plan to use the dataset for filmmaking, creating animations, or experimenting with visual effects. This includes producing content for personal portfolios, social media, and non-commercial projects. Experimentation and Testing: A number of users are interested in testing new technologies, workflows, or software capabilities using the dataset. This includes experimenting with rendering techniques, 3D modeling, and spatial data handling. Gaussian Splatting and Advanced Rendering Techniques: Many respondents specifically mentioned Gaussian splatting as an area of interest. They plan to use the dataset to test, implement, or improve techniques related to point-based rendering and large-scale scene visualization. Game Development: Some users aim to incorporate the dataset into game development projects. This includes creating realistic environments, developing game mods, or using the data as reference material for designing game levels. Artistic and Creative Projects: A subset of respondents expressed intentions to use the dataset for artistic endeavors, such as digital art installations, motion graphics, and experimental visualizations. Virtual Tourism and City Exploration: A few individuals plan to use the dataset to virtually explore the city, create virtual walking tours, or develop tools that allow others to experience Prague remotely. Key Takeaways: High Interest in Research and Education: The dataset is highly valued for its potential to contribute to academic research and educational purposes. Strong Enthusiasm for VR/AR and Advanced Visualization: There's a notable enthusiasm for using the dataset in VR/AR applications and exploring advanced rendering techniques like Gaussian splatting. Diverse Range of Uses: Respondents show a wide range of interests, from personal exploration and hobby projects to professional development and creative arts.