The assets of the Phases One and Two include:

• a global 3d mapping system – needed to keep track of flying, autonomous vehicles
• access to data from drones and Things
• access to video from drones and Things

Combined with on-the-ground data capture, similar to the cars used for Google Street View, a virtual recreation of the entire planet is possible.

It would start with major cities, with 3D representations being created, similar in look to the first person shooter games of today.

Once the 3D recreations are in place, all sorts of wonderful applications arise:

• virtual meetings
• virtual travel
• augmented reality
• virtual attendance of sports events and concerts
• enhanced public transport
• government monitoring and data gathering (don’t underestimate the size of this)
• virtual billboard advertising

Suddenly people will be able to travel the world without leaving their home, by using an avatar and equipment becoming available in 2016. Anyone using augmented reality glasses will be able to see real people and virtual people intermingling.

Technical Aspects

Recreating the entire world in 3D is not possible at present, as the amount of data required is extraordinary. So initially it will be restricted to places that provide the most bang-per-buck. That would be major cities and tourist destinations.

And again, bandwidth could be an issue. Right now the global Internet infrastructure is coping well with streaming video, but a 3D virtual world could be exponentially higher in data transfer. If resolution is scaled down, it might lose appeal.

 

From humble beginnings (monitoring drones), the biggest network since the Internet itself can arise.