At the 2024 Beijing International Urban Design Forum held in November, Chinese tech company SenseTime presented real scenes of historical and cultural sites and ancient buildings in 3D through the use of SenseSpace, a 3D scene generation platform.

By leveraging AI models and techniques like 3DGS (Gaussian Splatting) and NeRF (Neural Radiance Fields), SenseSpace efficiently recreates actual scenes of China's ancient past, enabling the digital utilization of cultural heritage assets, aiding in their preservation and inheritance, while also offering visitors an online immersive tour experience.

SenseSpace has several prominent functions. For example, by simulating the propagation and interaction of light, it can produce authentic lighting, reflection, and shadow effects, making the presentation more closely resemble the appearance and performance of actual objects or scenes. It provides an interactive visualization experience, allowing users to freely browse and explore the models from different angles, which helps users to better understand and analyze real-world objects or scenes.

The SenseSpace has also been applied to urban 3D generation and reconstruction, supporting the construction and management of urban cities. For example, urban water authorities may need to manage data on underground pipelines to advance pipeline construction and management. Traditional methods require workers to take photos of each section of the pipeline to analyze and confirm whether the construction and planning are accurate.

However, manual operations are inefficient and carry certain risks. With a 360-degree panoramic camera, SenseSpace can efficiently collect data, making fractures of tunnels and pipelines clearly visible. Additionally, it can serve as an assistant for daily inspections, providing 3D models for problems such as cracks, seepage and deformation.