The Cube Globe platform, a world-first interactive, cinematic display of spatial data, will be unveiled during the G20 Leaders Summit held in Brisbane, Qld on November 15-16 2014.

Developed in a partnership between the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Queensland State Government, the Cube Globe handles massive quantities of geospatial data in diverse formats and sources, and visualises it using state-of-the-art immersive animation, visualisation, animation, and multimedia design on a scale that the developers claim has not been realised anywhere else globally.

Technically, the Cube Globe is a WebGL and HTML5 application that combines a 3D geobrowser with 2D HTML. The user interface displays HD video, interactive 3D models, and dynamic charts, as well as traditional multimedia. An in-house GeoServer is used to publish government and third party datasets with speed.

The Cube Globe will be delivered first at the 2014 G20 Summit then used to meet future needs of government, industry, schools, and the public.

Dr Tim Foresman, SIBA Chair of Spatial Information at QUT, said “the Cube Globe is a model for sharing and displaying information for national governance and citizenship.” However, he emphasised that the Cube Globe was not simply a tool for the use of large organisations, government and research groups; citizen participation and data submission is vital to it.

The spatial data sets used in the Cube Globe are published by the Queensland State Government under its Queensland Globe program and Open Data initiatives, and are drawn from agriculture, construction, culture, education, tourism, resource, and science sectors.

For more information on the Cube Globe, visit the CRCSI.