Mosaic REALMAP: Explore Prague in detail with 1.26M images

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

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

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

Ray Holmberg ruined the idea of Prague for me

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

Prague is the capital of Czech Republic and has over 1.3 million inhabitants, so I'd say it qualifies as a "major city"

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.

Holy shit!

Especially without link in the article

Do you think that it doesn’t happen in other cities?

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

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzq8sorvR4

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?

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.

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

That sounds pretty similar to mapillary

Did he also ruin North Dakota for you? Or the whole US/American continent.

Maybe they got some special permission?

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!

There is zero mention of privacy in the post so probably not.

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.

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.

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.

We obeyed all laws when capturing this data. As you might notice, old town square does allow vehicles under special circumstances (delivery vehicles, mostly)

We are, obviously, adhering to all GDPR laws in the release of this dataset.

Thank you :-)

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.

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

For Czechs or Central Europeans in general, it is a major city, but not in worldwide context.

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.

Have you every heard about Google Street View?

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.

Yeah, we have our own self-serving reasons for sharing this dataset as you might guess, and I hope that we see some nice outcomes from having shared it.

What specifically would you like to use for wikimedia commons? You don't need all 1.25 million panoramas for that, do you?

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

Thanks for making the dataset available. As I recorded several city walks with multiple cameras simultaneously (usually 3-6 Osmo Pocket in 4K60) I'd like to create Gaussian splatting datasets from many such walks. What costs and hardware requirements can be expected for city-wide GS datasets like the one of Prague?

I'm wondering if I can create them myself or should donate the many TB of multicam recordings.

Hard to trust a map which places "Bali, Indonesia" where "Paris, France" should be.

North Dakota, yes.

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.

A subset is a good idea. I will write you later.