Geoscape Australia, a government-owned geospatial data company, has announced it has partnered with an Israeli artificial intelligence start-up to use machine vision and deep learning technology to enhance its 3D digital maps of Australia. The CEO of Geoscape Australia said that the partnership will advance what is known about every address across the country.
Applying the Israeli AI start-up’s patented AI technology to the highest quality aerial imagery will significantly evolve the current digital model of Australia. The company says more accurate digital models of Australia’s urban environment will enable the data-driven foundation of Digital Twin applications that better reflect the real world.
The up-to-date data will also improve the assessment of risk for insurers, allow architects to visualise new developments in the context of their surroundings, help noise modellers better understand what will be impacted by noise, and power modelling of energy use patterns in commercial and residential buildings.
Advanced information about the built environment, on a national scale, can drive efficiency, cost reduction, insight and revenue generation across many sectors of the economy, including insurance, property development, energy and telecommunications. In addition, the visualisations of the data are just “plain impressive” the CEO of Geoscape Australia stated.
The Co-founder and CEO of the Israeli AI start-up said that Geoscape’s creation of digital Australia is one of the most extensive and advanced projects in the world in terms of in-depth mapping of a country’s buildings. The start-up’s machine vision and deep learning technology open a new generation of accuracy and richness of built environment data, providing a leap forward for Geoscape compared to the technologies used so far.
By leveraging the start-up’s tech and Geoscape’s continuous data processing capability, every organisation in Australia could access reliable and advanced property data. Geoscape has mapped all buildings and land cover across Australia using satellite imagery. It also accesses high-resolution aerial imagery from Aerometrex’s image library.
“We’ll re-map more than 10 million buildings using GeoX’s AI tech, which will include most urban buildings in Australia. We’ll also recapture and enhance all remaining buildings across the country,” said the CEO of Geoscape Australia.
Recent research found that the Digital Maps Market was valued at US$9.44 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach US$29.03 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15.38% from 2019 to 2026.
In recent years, geospatial information has experienced growth due to its broad range of applications in various sectors and businesses such as risk and emergency management, marketing, urban planning, infrastructure management, resource management (oil, gas, mining, etc.), business planning, logistics, and many others. This has fuelled the growth of the digital maps market.
With the ongoing digital globalisation, there has been a prolific increase in the number of smartphone and internet users. With the help of internet services, users are able to easily access online mapping and navigational information directly from their smartphones.
At present, many mapping applications have been launched in smartphones. Consumers rely on these applications for locations and directions or for finding places such as restaurants, banks, ATMs, or gas stations. Thus, the growing usage of smartphones and internet users acts as a driver for the market. On the other hand, a rise in the usage of free outsourcing digital maps can act as a potential restraint for the overall market.
