Experience Kassel in 3D - even the old Kassel

"The virtual representation of cities and landscapes is a highly exciting, current topic. We are showing three different approaches at our open day - three times a virtual Kassel that visitors can experience," explains Prof. Dr. Dieter Wloka, head of the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Kassel. "At the same time, we will present our field and our CAVE, our projection environment, in which our guests can immerse themselves in an artificial world with the help of 3D glasses."

The event will open on October 18 at 2 p.m. in the rooms of the Department of Computer Engineering. Location: Wilhelmshöher Allee 73, 34121 Kassel, Room 0641/New Building.

The city of Kassel will present a 3D model of the city. In recent years, a new three-dimensional representation of the entire city area has been created from the two-dimensional digital geodata available to the city. Already during the application process for the Bergpark to become a Unesco World Heritage Site, this virtual world was able to create a vivid impression of the topographical location of the Bergpark above the city area. Visitors can experience the 23 districts of Kassel in an overflight or take a walk through the streets of Kassel. The demonstration shows the current status of work on the 3D city model, which will be further developed in the future.

At the same time, visitors can once again experience the virtual representation of old Kassel before its destruction, which architecture student Pierre M. Pelz had presented at this year's Hessentag and which met with enormous interest. In four years of work, Pelz, a doctoral student in the Department of Design in Existing Contexts/Historic Preservation under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alexander Eichenlaub, had created a model of the old town as it looked before the bombings of the Second World War on the basis of around 2,000 historical photographs. The department is now showing this work again. The digital model of the old town is still under construction, but visitors can already take a stroll through the lost streets on the screen.

Finally, the computer scientists from Wloka's department are showing their own 3D programming of today's entire city area in the CAVE. For many neighborhoods, the representation is limited to cubatures of the buildings; some areas, such as Friedrichsplatz, Königsstraße and Bergpark, are represented in detail. One of Wloka's specialties is programming virtual environments in order to better train fire and rescue service personnel. To enable them to practice virtually in their familiar environments, the researchers are working on ways to make cities and landscapes tangible on the computer.

You can get an impression of the project of the Department of Computer Engineering, namely a video of the virtual park Wilhelmshöhe, at http://youtu.be/uyeIw_UcmCA.

Image of the mountain park from the 3D project of the Department of Computer Engineering (screenshot) at: www.uni-kassel.de/uni/fileadmin/datas/uni/presse/anhaenge/2013/Bergpark3d.jpg

Image: University of Kassel

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dieter Wloka
University of Kassel
Department of Computer Engineering
Tel.: 0561 804-6355
E-mail: wloka[at]inf.e-technik.uni-kassel[dot]de

City of Kassel
Surveying and Geoinformation
Geodata Customer Center
Tel.: 0561 787-2091
E-mail: kundenzentrum62[at]kassel[dot]de