Digital twin creators Nomoko will in September launch an algorithms library, enabling anyone to create their own high resolution applications based on 3D data.
The technology aims to elevate the quality of 3D applications and broaden access.
“When navigating 3D applications on the web, today’s user experiences are like travelling back to the 1990s,” Nomoko head of sales and marketing Nikoleta Guetcheva said, adding: “We are trying to solve that so that you can get the sharpness of the data that exists properly displayed online.”
The 3D digital twin experts were founded in 2015 in Luxembourg and Switzerland with the goal of digitising the built world. Today they are a household name in Europe with clients including German rail operators Deutsche Bahn, for whom Nomoko will render all train stations in 3D for maintenance purposes. Closer to home, the firm has digitised the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology campus to simulate different scenarios, created a 3D digital twin of Lorentzweiler and was recently commissioned to digitise Vianden castle. It has also participated in a number of real estate projects.
“When navigating 3D applications on the web, today’s user experiences are like travelling back to the 1990s.”
Nomoko head of sales and marketing Nikoleta Guetcheva
“The most common applications are the architecture, engineering and construction services sector, because the data is customisable to their projects […], everything that is related to AR/VR gaming, because 3D is what they need to build their applications […], also infrastructure is a big application,” explains Guetcheva.
Drones And Photogrammetry
The firm, which currently counts 30 FTEs, uses photogrammetry, capturing aerial imagery using drone imagery which translates into 3D data. It leverages its in-house team and global network of drone pilots to acquire data anywhere in the world and transform it into 3D models. “This has been done in the past and is still done today with airplanes but the difference between an airplane and and drone is how easy it is to set up and operate a drone, how fast you can acquire the data, how cheap and the high quality of data you can get,” says Guetcheva.
Guetcheva reckons that 3D is becoming the “new normal for infrastructure management”. “A few years back, we had to convince them they needed 3D. Now they are public tenders for 3D projects. It’s a structural change,” she explains.
What is still missing, however, is an accurate 3D map of the world. Because Nomoko is recording this kind of data, it aims to develop a catalogue enabling anyone to order up-to-date, simplified 3D data they need “at an affordable price”.
“The idea is that the data will not be only in the hands of big tech companies, and that we can also have input from a community of all kinds of other data providers,” says the marketing expert.
Digital Twin Of Europe
Nomoko, which has 3D coverage of all Swiss cities, hopes to lead the charge on developing a digital twin of Europe within the next five years, regulation permitting.
“We have the technology to store the data, we have the technology to display it online. And we already have a platform that handles that 3D data and the management. So I’d say we’re very conveniently positioned to be the initiator and orchestrator of that effort,” says Guetcheva.
The firm, which has been funded by private investors and has raised 15m Swiss francs from business angels and family offices, hopes to close a 20m Swiss francs funding round with VCs by early 2024. It plans to double the team scize within the next three years, reinforcing its tech, operations and commercial teams to speed up its processes and monetise its data.
