12/20/2023 0 Comments Terravision google earth![]() ![]() Axel moved on with Gate5, a company that created navigation maps for the first Nokia phone. Art+Com had the first ever commercial web page in Germany, but it folded in 2000. There was no internet back then, so the system could only run on expensive computers. Image credit: ©Axel Schmidt.īut Terravision was arguably ahead of its time. Users navigated the planet using a large globe, as seen here. The team started to showcase the Terravision project at more than 80 events around the world, including to then US Vice President Al Gore.Īxel Schmidt (middle right) and Pavel Meyer (middle left) showcase the Terravision project at their offices in 1994. The Telekom managers were impressed when Art+Com showed them how you could click on an image of the globe and zoom in to their exact location. “There were no rules: nobody got rich, but we had a lot of fun." “It was such a nice way of working," Axel said. “Nobody got rich, but we had a lot of fun." - Axel Schmidt ![]() At that time, they came in the form of the Onyx Reality Engine from Silicon Graphics, huge machines that cost in the region of half a million Deutschmarks. They used it to buy the huge servers they would need to store all the data Terravision would use for its world maps. The group secured funding from Deutsche Telekom, which was looking to invest in projects of this kind. The character of Juri is based on me and Pavel but in the end, there is a bit of me in Carsten, too." “I have always been something in between an artist and a computer scientist. “I am not your typical, 100% computer nerd," Axel explained. Juri Muller in The Billion Dollar Code is partly based on Axel Schmidt. In The Billion Dollar Code, these real-life characters are depicted as the fictional Juri Mueller and Carsten Schluter, the technical and artistic brains respectively. Together, they merged different disciplines and explored the possibilities of emerging technologies. “You could try and do anything." As the series shows, impromptu techno parties cropped up all over Berlin, as artists mixed with developers to imagine a new future.Īrt+Com was formed by Axel Schmidt and Pavel Meyer, along with Joachim Sauter and Gerd Gruneis. It was a time of unlimited possibilities," Axel said. Then the wall came down, and it was absolutely crazy. ![]() Their patent case against Google about Terravision's source code - which Art+Com ultimately went on to lose - is the subject of Netflix drama The Billion Dollar Code.Īrt+Com was born out of the chaos and energy of Berlin in the 1990s after the wall dividing East and West Germany came down. Axel, now a senior software engineer at HERE Technologies, created Terravision with three colleagues. “We invented this stuff," said Art+Com co-founder Axel Schmidt. ![]() “This case is about flying." These are the words of the lawyer for Art+Com in a memorable court scene from Netflix series The Billion Dollar Code. It used satellite images, aerial shots, and other datasets to recreate the world on a computer screen. In 1994, Google Earth was years away - but a group of idealistic programmers and artists from Berlin had already invented a digital version of the real world called Terravision. It might be hard to imagine now but there was a time when the idea of zooming in to individual streets and buildings from the air was something only Superman did. We spoke to one of the founders - HERE's Axel Schmidt. Art+Com, who took on Google in a legal battle, has recently been immortalized in The Billion Dollar Code. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |