Platforma: Spatial Data Project

Main article: Geographic information system

2022: Intention to invest 250 million rubles in spatial data project

Platforma (Big Data Platform, a joint venture between VTB and Rostelecom), as part of the development of financial services, will invest more than 250 million rubles in a spatial data project, which, according to the company's plans, should cover 95% of all settlements in Russia from above and 80% of all residential and commercial premises from the inside by 2025. This was reported to TAdviser by representatives of Platforma on February 3, 2022.

Joint venture Rostelecom and VTB will create digital doubles of all cities and roads of Russia

After creating digital twins of all cities, villages and villages, in the longer term, Platforma plans to digitize roads, agricultural land, forests and create a complete high-quality 3D map of the Russian Federation.

The project provides for photographing territories using high-performance drones, as well as scanning premises inside using smartphones and lidars. It is assumed that as a result, next year Platforma customers will have access to high-resolution maps and detailed data on all images on the map (size and volume of buildings, characteristics of construction material, condition and characteristics of objects). Image accuracy will be 1-3 cm per pixel for territories and more than 50 pixels per 1 cm in rooms. Customers of the service will also have access to enriched data: automobile traffic, the availability and quality of infrastructure. Since flights will be carried out very often, a history of changing territories and premises will be available.

As part of the first stage of the project, in 2022, geoscanning of settlements of the Moscow Region, the Leningrad Region, Greater Sochi, as well as the suburbs of a number of million-plus cities will be carried out. Investments in the first stage can amount to 50 million rubles, the main volume of investments will be used to purchase drones, create a cluster for processing and storage. Since all the data collected are checked by the FSB, some of the maps will be classified (the quality will be like ordinary space images 30-50 cm per pixel).

Potential customers of the service include the real estate market, insurance companies, as well as government services, etc. The collected spatial data will allow you to conduct a primary inspection and verification of real estate before evaluating, monitor the condition of roads, evaluate the landscape for placing outdoor advertising boards, etc.

"The spatial data digitization project will become one of Platforma's flagships, which will help market participants solve fundamentally new problems and optimize current costs. All this will make it possible to transfer to a new level the interaction between companies between themselves, between companies and the state, and, most importantly, give them the opportunity to provide better service to their customers and users - individuals and legal entities, "said Alexey Shamayko, Director of Business Development Programs at Rostelecom PJSC.

For example, the service, first of all, will allow insurance companies to receive better data, as well as reduce the likelihood of obtaining inaccurate information. The project will also help insurers to more quickly and accurately assess the damage caused by natural disasters and man-made disasters - having high-quality pictures of an apartment or house on hand before the insured event, companies will be able to calculate the amount of compensation almost automatically using various neural networks.

According to representatives of Platforma, the spatial data project can give a significant impetus to real estate insurance, since it will allow you to significantly scale the ability to assess property and offer customers an already ready-made assessment using algorithm-artificial intelligence based on digital twins, formed by shooting drones outside and special cameras inside, bypassing the logistics of field inspections, The ability of the project to quickly assess property damage will allow any insurer to respond more quickly to the onset of risk and more accurately assess damage.

In the real estate market, the project provides additional opportunities for both business and the end user. Real estate search services will be able to use the results of geoscanning to improve customer experience, as well as to provide additional functionality to professional users, according to Platforma.

Outdoor advertising operators will be able to use the Platforma service to help select optimal locations for placing advertising structures taking into account the landscape, road condition, etc. In addition, for the gaming industry, the Platforma digital cartography service means the ability to bring the RTS (real-time strategy) and RPG (role-playing game) hemplay games closer to maximum realism.

According to IThub Games Product Director Denis Pozdnyakov, this platform has at least three main development paths in the direction of gamification: cartographic service of high detail, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Digital maps with online access would allow not only to get close to the surface of the earth, but also to actually enter any room anywhere in the Russian Federation.

"Game developers thereby get the opportunity to" relocate "game mechanics to a photo and georealistic environment. In turn, the use of augmented reality functionality will provide the geometry of real premises with contextual information when viewed through mobile applications, as is implemented in existing guide applications in many museums of the world or AR games, such as Pokemon Go and Witcher: Monster Hunter. Using the Platforma service, the degree of immersion in video games will increase many times. As for VR, in the context of the latest ads related to Metaverse (Meta, formerly Facebook), just universal prospects are seen. In general, if the platform provides developers with efficient and flexible APIs, we can find a huge number of ways to apply it. "

According to Platforma, a large data customer may be the Spatial Data Fund, created under Rosreestr. The government set the goal of creating a digital twin of Russia by 2030. Platforma intends to participate in such work, help with equipment and technologies.

"Creating a high-quality 3D map of the country and developing a property assessment project is an ambitious task. We see great potential in this project for a variety of areas. For example, the creation of digital twins of settlements allows in the future to increase the level of automation when evaluating real estate by banks or insurance companies. And the expansion of the Platforma partner pool is part of the company's strategy and our investment in this project will attract completely new players to the open ecosystem: from marketplaces to game studios. It is very important that in the development of this project we do not focus our attention on already occupied niches, but we are also actively working on new areas and areas in which the company's technological developments can be used, "said Vadim Kulik, Deputy President-Chairman of the VTB Board.