Nov 4, 2016 | By Benedict
WhiteClouds, a 3D printing cloud provider, is launching 3DyourMAP, a service for full-scale color 3D printed models produced from drone data. The service will be available through DroneDeploy’s App Market, the first app store for the drone industry.
By now, most people in metropolitan areas have probably spotted a Google Street View car, equipped with multiple cameras on its roof, passing by to collect visual map data. Some might even have found a blurred-out image of themselves afterwards on the web giant’s sprawling online roadmap. This mobile image-sourcing method, used by Google, Microsoft, and others, has dramatically increased the amount of publicly available map data online, but the images are—as Google’s name for the service suggests—limited to a view from the street.
3D printing cloud provider Whiteclouds, a company that enables businesses to create 3D experiences and turn them into full-color 3D printed products through the Cloud, is today launching a new service that takes map data collection above the streets and into the clouds. The company’s new 3DyourMAP service will invite participants to use drones to collect imagery of topography and terrain, upon which Whiteclouds will turn the collected visual data into custom 3D printed maps for customers in a range of industries.
“Transmitting drone data and creating customized, physical models of that data gives companies an edge and bridges the gap between digital and physical, driving more communication,” said Braden Ellis, CRO of WhiteClouds. “It has always been part of our mission to help our business partners push the limits and achieve more through 3D printing.”
According to professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the emerging global market for businesses using drones is expected to top $127 billion by 2020, with the potential for commercial drones in industry growing exponentially. This prediction is good news for WhiteClouds and Drone Deploy, whose new venture seeks to capitalize on the growth of both drone technology and 3D printing. With the new 3DyourMAP service, customers using DroneDeploy, the leading cloud software platform for commercial drones, will be able to send drone imagery of topography and terrain to WhiteClouds, whose staff will then turn the data into customized 3D printed map models available in a variety of materials.
“Businesses are just beginning to see the benefits of integrating drone-captured imagery into planning and implementing new solutions,” said Nicholas Pilkington, DroneDeploy's CTO and co-founder, “Partnering with WhiteClouds will enable companies to take full advantage of the technology seamlessly, quickly, and affordably.”
At present, WhiteClouds believes that the 3DyourMAP service would be highly beneficial to customers in agriculture, engineering, construction, and mining, though the service could be utilized for near-unlimited applications. Ellis added that the service can be used to “deploy 3D printing to scale, allowing on-demand products using captured data from lidar, photogrammetry, sonar, and any future 3D content capture on the horizon.”
San Francisco-based Drone Deploy enables professional-grade imagery and analysis, 3D modeling, and more from any drone on any device. Its users have already mapped and analyzed over 8 million acres in over 135 countries, making aerial data more accessible to everyone. WhiteClouds, headquartered in Ogden, Utah, offers 3D printing services in the medical, architecture, and entertainment industries.
Posted in 3D Technology
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