On 17 May, a group of 20 institutions, including Prodevelop, presented the results of the España Virtual project at the National Geographical Institute (IGN in Spanish). This concluded 4 years of work and a budget of 25 million euros and provides the basis for the creation of innovative systems linking the geographical world and the internet. España Virtual is a CENIT (National Strategic Consortia for Technical Research) project, funded by the CDTI (Centre for Development of Industrial Technology) as part of the Ingenio programme 2010.

The presentation ceremony was attended by the R&D Secretary of State from the Ministry of Economy and Competivity, Carmen Vela; the under-secretary of the Ministry of Public Works, Mario Garcés San Agustín; Elisa Robles, Managing Director of the Centre for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI); and the President of the National Geographical Information centre, Amador Elena Córdoba; in addition to representatives of the companies involved in the project. Our R&D Technical Director Miguel Montesinos and one of our consultants specialising in geospatial solutions, Nacho Brodin, who were in charge of the development of applications contributed by Prodevelop to the project, represented Prodevelop at the closing ceremony.

España Virtual's main aim was to define the architecture, protocols and standards of the Geographic Internet, with special focus on data processing, 3D visualization, virtual worlds and user interaction. The work carried out has generated a large amount of results that have led to significant research progress in several project areas, in addition to demonstrating the resources and experimental actions that will evolve into commercial products.

The following future applications of España Virtual should be highlighted:

-  To aid the creation of services with geographic information via the internet, simplifying the availability and adaptation of geographic data to any device and bandwidth. This includes both information “creation" on the hoof and intelligent data searches on the web.

-  To simplify the use of geographic information (mapping and buildings, 2D/3D/4D) in physical simulations, including both geographical and data processing as well as massive simulation via Grid and Cloud infrastructures.

-  To create simple internet services which dynamically combine agents to provide and use information together with the user.

-  The use of gvSIG, a free open source geographic information system, which includes the capacity to visualise in 3D/4D and LIDAR data management as part of the project. This was Prodevelop’s contribution to the project.

It has a complete application framework of augmented, virtual and crossed reality which can be directly applied to industry.

A bridge between two worlds

Over the last few years, the world has gone through a revolution related to the way people use geographical information and 3D technology.

Earth observation satellites, Internet, mobile devices and 3D and open source technologies have universalised access to this information, breaking the barriers between the real and the virtual world.

España Virtual represents a large contribution from our country to this revolution by creating the technology to unite the world of internet and the geographical world by developing the most cutting edge breakthroughs together with the main national players in each field.

España Virtual has enabled Prodevelop to consolidate its commitment to R+D+i by investigating with multi-resolution, caching and tessellation techniques, or access to dot clouds with millions of dots, using gvSIG 3D. We have also investigated 3D globes in 100% web settings as well as how to access massive geographical information via mobile devices in an intuitive manner.

About the España Virtual Consortium

The España Virtual project is led by Elecnor Deimos and counts on the participation of the National Geographical Information Centre (IGN/CNIG), Indra, Androme Iberica, GeoSpatium Lab, Designit, Prodevelop and Telefonica R&D.

The following investigation centres and national universities have taken part: Pompeu Fabra University, Jaume I University, Ontology Engineering Group (Technical University of Madrid), Environmental Software and Modelling Group (Technical University of Madrid), Geodesy, Engineering and Cartography Master Programme (Technical University of Madrid), IDELab Valladolid University, Zaragoza University, Carlos III University, Madrid, Computational Applications with Community Code Institute (UIB), UNED, Industrial Automation and IT Institute (ai2), Valencia Polytechnic University, and the Visual Interaction and Communication Technologies Centre VICOMTECH.

For more information about España Virtual visit: www.españavirtual.org