Technology originally used for targeting missiles has been adapted to provide incredibly detailed 3D models of cities. Saab’s spin-off company C3 Technologies is gathering up a library of 20 city models suitable for licensing for mapping applications. We’re hoping they’ll make this data available for 3D printing, too.
While we’re always watching for new sources of great 3D models for printing, we suspect this data set will not be made available for printing, likely due to piracy concerns. Probably these incredible city models will only appear on big-time mapping websites.
The maps and models offer an amazing resolution of a mere 15cm, which is pretty good considering we’re talking about buildings. Imagine a 3D model of a city where you could swoop around and select a building – and print out a perfect replica.