<nettime> greetings from e-berlin

["sebastian.luetgert" <sebastian@rolux.org>]

        [ e-berlin <http://www.e-berlin.de> is struggling to become the
        vrml-equivalent of the new german capital, especially designed
        for shopping tours and sightseeing. at the moment, it all looks
        like "sorry, under construction", but of course that fits the
        actual location. in the future, you will be able to rent stores
        and offices there - that is, only if you own them in real-berlin
        as well. sounds very ugly, but rents are still fairly low in the
        center of the city, so why not rent some empty stores to be
        present there? if i look out of my window i can see four in a
        row, each one of them available for something like twice my
        monthly phone bill. and remember: i woudn't have to renovate.
        wasn't this city so desperately looking for a silicon alley?
        well, here you are! -- still, there's one big problem with
        e-berlin: they haven't revealed any of their guidelines yet.
        possibilities are unlimited, and there are a couple of critical
        applications i'd really love to invest in, but if you take a
        look at the very first object i've seen on my very first visit
        <http://www.nettime.org/~rolux/archive/e-berlin.gif>, you will
        have to admit: that's not very encouraging... ]



        e : c i t y - a real eCommerce community in 3D

        e : c i t y is a 3D information system for the Internet,
        broadband and beyond. Once the 3D version of a city is built,
        the product provides consumers from around the world with
        instant access to a virtual city seamlessly integrated with a
        wide variety of tele-services such as tele-shopping, reservation
        and eCommerce in 3D spaces. e : c i t y connects 2D and 3D
        information systems via telecommunications infrastructure into a
        single, navigable 3D world that links all the virtual spaces
        such as offices, restaurants and shopping areas that are
        represented in the simultation with all the enabling information
        and tele-services the user requires in order to explore, make
        purchase, inquire, and otherwise interact and enjoy the
        real-time city model. The product is of significant benefit to
        ISPs; companies, businesses and institutions trying to reach and
        serve these consumers as customers; and advertisers.

        e : c i t y - as a combination of real and virtual business

        In contrast to many other online communities which are contrived
        and can be disorienting, e c h t z e i ts  e : c i t y offers 3D
        photo-realistic environments of actual real cities businesses
        that consumers are already familiar with or wish to visit. In
        this way it combines real virtual business in a manner which
        benefits not only consumers, but also both virtual and actual
        vendors who chose to represent their business online.

        e : b a s e - the underlying platform

        The software of  e : c i t y  and all e c h t z e i t products
        is e : b a s e: a client/server platform, that provides a
        full-range of tools for integrating 3D worlds (VRML, HTML/XML),
        text graphics, sounds and digital video, chat functionality as
        well as authoring tools over Internet and Broadband networks.

        <http://www.echtzeit.de/products/ecity.html>



        CyberCity Berlin - a virtual navigation anvironment

        CyberCity Berlin is a three-dimensional city model, which can be
        entered into and navigated through using Virtual Reality
        technology. Once in the city the visitor discovers a realistic,
        urban infrastructure and using multimedia he or she can
        intuitively locate interactive teleservices and information from
        integrated databases.

        The mnemonic use of the city metaphor is particularly successful
        in creating an efficient orientation and navigation environment
        being based on our everyday perception and socialisation.
        CyberCity Berlin is a virtual analogy of the real centre of
        Berlin and in it we have linked information with places,
        buildings and districts in such a way that the information can
        be found where one would expect to find it. In the virtual
        Galerie Lafayette for example, it is possible to call up
        information about the products available, this information is
        linked to the stock database and goods can be ordered.

        CyberCity Berlin comprises many famous and historical buildings
        such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Concert Hall on the
        Gendarmenmarkt, the Adlon Hotel and Galerie Lafayette which are
        very easily recognisable.

        e c h t z e i t  has based the plans for CyberCity on the
        official digital map of Berlin. Geometric shapes have been
        placed onto these two-dimensional plans to create the third
        dimension and then photo-realistic textures have been mapped
        onto the facades of the buildings, roads, pavements etc to
        complete the very realistic picture. It is possible to move
        through CyberCity in real-time, i.e. 24 frames per second.

        We have livened up our virtual city by integrating dynamic
        simulation scenarios, for example "Crowd" and "Traffic". By
        network linking computers it is also possible for users to 'meet
        up' in CyberCity they then see each other as Avatars, or
        "virtual representatives". The next step that we are in the
        process of working on is to map live-video textures onto these
        Avatars and to give them the appearance of the users themselves.
        The aim is to make it possible to integrate virtual copies of
        real people into CyberCity, so that they can meet each other,
        communicate and 'walk' around the city.

        CyberCity Berlin is a high-end city information system which was
        commissioned by the DeutscheTelekom Berkom GmbH. e:city is a
        three-dimensional city information system for the WorldWideWeb.

        <http://www.echtzeit.de/products/CyberC.html>



        e:crowd

        e:crowd is a real-time crowd generation software which has been
        developed by echtzeit for a realistic and three-dimensional
        portrayal of crowds of people moving through Cyberspace. The
        movement of the figures can either be controlled or they can
        move about at random, the figures move towards tourist
        attractions, away from fire for example, and interact with
        e:traffic.

        This programme can be used to bring virtual environments (e.g.
        CyberCity) to life, by illustrating the different daily
        routines (rush hour in the town for example) and also as part of
        the town planning process, for the design and volume of public
        buildings and the distribution of town offices and
        infrastructure etc.

        <http://www.echtzeit.de/products/crowd.html>



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