TRIDENT

Today, people are used to visuality in the media. Fast internet connections as well as new, more efficient home computers also attract more and more users to visual, three-dimensional contents and 3D user interfaces. New Web3D services, based on city models, were developed and tested within the scope of the TRIDENT Project.

The TRIDENT Project was aimed at improving the effectiveness of local administration, the citizens' acquisition of information and to increase the citizens' involvement in decision-making. The Project was part of the EU Information Society Technologies developing programme.

Partners:

The TRIDENT Project was launched in 2000 to reconstruct three European cities (Helsinki, Madrid and Rome) into three-dimensional virtual cities by deploying the VRML97 format. A specially all-round application was made of Virtuaali-Vikki. The TRIDENT Project was completed in June 2002.

Web3D based services aimed at city administrations and citizens are created in these virtual cities. The pilot projects are Urban Planning (Madrid), Urban Monitoring (Rome) and Telecommunications Services (Helsinki).

The Finnish part of the Project consisted of telecommunications services that were based on the virtual telephone directory of Helsinki, prepared by Elisa Research Centre. The objective was to create a service that could support the numerous existing products of data communications enterprises, such as directories for instance. While traditional information search systems give way to new channels based on digital systems, the three-dimensional directory application can be a competitive alternative.

Further information:

TRIDENT - http://www.trident3d.net
- the official international pages.

IST (Information Society Technologies) - http://www.cordis.lu/ist/
- the pages of the EU IST development programme.

The TRIDENT Presentation Video is an excellent way of getting info of the Project and of virtual city models in general (RealPlayer needed).