The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is launching a 3D Portrayal Interoperability Experiment (IE) on 26 May 2011 to advance best practice for implementing standards for publishing and streaming 3D geospatial assets related to urban planning and landscape visualization.

The 3D Portrayal IE will focus on the use of recently developed draft 3D portrayal service interface specifications within the context of the OGC standards baselines. These are the Web 3D Service (W3DS), which streams geospatial 3D models using interactive web formats, and the Web View Service (WVS), which generates images of projective views on massive, complex 3D worlds.

Objectives for the 3D Portrayal IE are to test and further develop these services and workflows that support rapid visualization of extremely large and complex 3D geodata. Such services and workflows are anticipated to be major building blocks of spatial data infrastructures. The IE will include digital landscape models, city models, and interior models, e.g., in the CityGML data format, as well as different client configurations such as thin clients and web portals. The IE will clarify the specifics of 3D portrayal services; provide best practices and guidelines for their implementation, integration, and usage; and directly support current standardization efforts.

The 3D Portrayal IE is initiated by OGC members Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam, GIScience Group at the University of Heidelberg, and Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research.

A summary of the activity plan, requirements for participation, schedule, and kick-off meeting details are available at  http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/3dpie.

Expressions of interest in participating are due by 22 May 2011.

Contact Benjamin Hagedorn (Benjamin.Hagedorn@hpi.uni-potsdam.de) for further details or to register as a participant.

OGC testbeds, pilot projects and interoperability experiments are part of the OGC's Interoperability Program, a global, hands-on collaborative prototyping program designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into the OGC's Standards Program, where they are formalized for public release.

An OGC Interoperability Experiment is a rapid, low-overhead, formally structured OGC-facilitated activity, where members achieve specific technical objectives that further the OGC Technical Baseline. A key outcome of this activity will be an OGC Engineering Report.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 415 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact/.