X3D Earth - the Future of 3D on the Web

Building on the success of previous work in bringing the next generation of 3D graphics for the web from concept to ISO approved standard with X3D 3D graphics for the web, the Web3D Consortium supports a number of working groups to pursue specialized domains that meet industry and academia needs. One of these efforts is the X3D Earth Working Group, which grew from the initial Geo-VRML or Geo-Spatial working group prior to the approval of the X3D standard in 2004. As with all Web3D Consortium working groups, the X3D Earth Working Group supports a collaborative environment that is driving to develop, advance, and build on an open standards framework to ultimately make it easier to use and create 3D Spatial data via open architectures.

X3D Earth Working Group

The X3D Earth Working Group Charter was approved by the Web3D Consortium in the spring of 2007. Work had been underway, however, for a number of years prior to this under the guise of the previously approved Geo-Spatial working group focused on work in the VRML standard. The primary difference with X3D, is that since it is XML based, the ability to expose data to use and manipulation via web services and other communications protocols makes the working groups efforts much more scalable that previously attempted.

X3D Earth is making a standards-based 3D visualization infrastructure for viewing all kinds of real-world information in a geospatial construct based on non-commercial standards. This ensures that the work is not contingent on the commercial viability of any one company and that it can remain repeatable and accessible for many years to come in the future. Just think, many computer users really enjoy the features that come with Google Earth. What would happen if Google went bankrupt, and we lost access to the application and all of the great data that drives it! Or, even worse, Google sold the data, but not the software to use it. Without an Open standards based approach, proprietary standards don't help achieve the aim of sustainable technology over the long term. The aim is not to take away profits from industry (if you check the Web3D Consortium's Board of Directors, you will see a lot of industry represented), but to make the technology be the driver of industry to make money through quality of service and applications development.

Goals of X3D Earth

The primary goal of the X3D Earth Working Group is to build a standards-based X3D Earth specification that can be used by industry, scientists, academia, government, and the general public. The X3D Earth Working Group has some specific technical objectives, which include:

1 - Building a backdrop X3D model of planet Earth

2 - Using public and private terrain datasets

3 - Using public and private imagery and cartography

4 - Able to interoperate among spatially aware implementations.

5 - Provide 'linkable' locations for any place

6 - Provide a means for physical models to integrate with the geospatial information

7 - Use open standards, extensions, and process

8 - Produce work that will operate in a platform independent manner

Current X3D Earth Research

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has been working with the Web3D Consortium and industry partners in the development and implementation of X3D Earth. To that end, NPS hosts an X3D working site for X3D Earth work produced under open source license agreements. The site is hosted at: http://x3d-earth.nps.edu/ . The examples of work vary from the 'Earth View' down to the 1m resolution imagery level view of the Earth with research not only focused on how to 'view' the data, but also how to deliver on demand to the end-user and then do something with the information!

Summary

X3D Earth is just another example of another one of the great initiatives that the Web3D Consortium is facilitating to better the experience of 3D on the web for everyone! For more information on the current status of the working group, a good presentation to review is one given by Dr. Don Brutzman of the Naval Postgraduate school in May 2008