The Dutch geodata specialist Cyclomedia has finished digitizing the whole of Belgium in 360° ‘street view’ high-definition images. It enables one to visit any street in the country virtually and measure distances and building dimensions without physically going there – an asset they sell to public instances and private companies.

Using a fleet of nine scan cars, Cyclomedia covered some 100 000 km of Belgian streets and roads, taking 16 million 360° panoramic pictures. The images enhanced with 3D laser technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) make it possible to make measurements for infrastructure works, mobility solutions, or building projects.

To measure is to know

“To measure is to know,” says Bart Verbeeck, Sales Director of Cyclomedia. “For example, construction companies can immediately view the surroundings of their project, telecom, and utilities get a full view of their assets, and local authorities regularly examine the road infrastructure in the context of mobility, safety, and maintenance.”

“The artificial intelligence that is incorporated offers, as it were, a digital playground in which additional elements, such as charging stations, cycle paths, traffic signs, or public lighting, can be removed or added. This allows the user to test and analyze what works in a particular environment digitally,” explains Bart Verbeeck.

Open web application

Overlapping panoramic images are captured at five-meter intervals from street-level public roads, with the camera system mounted on a moving Lidar-equipped scan car. The images can be viewed in an open web application or a dedicated smartphone app called ‘Street Smart‘ in a way like Google Street View uses but with even more detailed pictures.

Digital tools are available to measure distances, heights, surfaces, or orthogonal information. Measuring options are mostly based on the LiDAR point cloud or its derived data but can be carried out based on the image as well, the company says. Overlays can be created on top of the map, providing specific data layers for analysis.

The detailed street maps even give the house numbers, so you can easily find the residence of the Belgian Prime Minister at Rue de Loi 16 in Brussels, for instance. Free trial is available for a limited period, although a quick first test showed searching on Belgian street names fails, proposing similar streets in the Netherlands…

Updated yearly?

Cyclomedia intends to update the images proactively every year and promises images no older than two years. Still, pictures of Brussels landmarks happened to be taken in August 2013, as we could find out ourselves.

Looking up our house, that picture is dated 2021, as promised. The number plates of parked cars are blurred for privacy. Still, one can question whether offering this kind of detailed images of private property couldn’t be a safety risk when they fall into the wrong hands.

Pioneer in 360° panoramic imagery

Cyclomedia, as a Dutch company, goes back to the eighties. The idea of 360° panoramic photography originated at the Delft University of Technology. The Frank Data company, established in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1986, came out of that research.

CycloMedia appeared first as a brand name of Frank Data, becoming an official company in 1994, with Rotterdam as its first big client to digitize the whole city. Today, Cyclomedia is headquartered in Zaltbommel, with offices in the US and Germany, employing some 250 people.

According to its website, on an annual basis, Cyclomedia currently captures and processes approximately 400 000 kilometers of 360° panoramic street-level images and LiDAR data worldwide. That represents over 30 million recordings per year. In total, the database contains over 600 million panoramic pictures today and growing.