Instead of heavy textbooks, your school backpack could one day carry equipment that instantly maps out your environment in 3D. The Air Force recently announced that a portable laser backpack for 3D mapping has been developed by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.
While bulky, the prototype backpack has already been used to map out two stories of Cory Hall, an electrical engineering building on the UC Berkeley campus. It rapidly gathers data while the user walks around inside a building. The information can be put together into a detailed, photo-realistic 3D map.
The researchers include Avideh Zakhor, who has done work on rapid generation of 3D models of city environments, as well as Google Earth's Cities in 3D Program. An obvious application would be integrating 3D models of interiors into Google Maps and Street View for virtual visits.
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