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From the latest skyscraper in a Chinese megalopolis to a sixfoottall yurt in Inner Mongolia, researchers at the Technical University of Munich claim they have created a map of all buildings worldwide: 2.75 billion building models set in highresolution 3D with a level of precision never before recorded. Made from years of satellite data analysis by machinelearning algorithms, the model reflects a sustained effort to capture the built world in three dimensions. The result now provides a crucial basis for climate research and for tracking progress toward global sustainable development goals, according to the scientists behind it. Professor Xiaoxiang Zhu, who leads the project and is the chair of data science in Earth observation at TUM, says the real achievement is that the new map is a threedimensional picture of how much space people actually inhabit. 3D building information provides a much more accurate picture of urbanization and poverty than traditional 2D maps, she explains. With 3D models we see not only the footprint but also the volume of each building. [Screenshot: FC] At the heart of this work is the GlobalBuildingAtlas, an open dataset that describes individual buildings across the planet both as 2D outlines and as simple 3D objects. In total, it contains 2.75 billion building footprintspolygons tracing the edges of each structurecovering every building the satellites could detect in satellite imagery from 2019. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] At first glance, there are some interesting takeaways from the map, like the distribution of building volume clusters around major metropolitan regionswith particularly dense concentrations in East Asia, Europe, and North America. Meanwhile, many parts of the Global South show vast numbers of buildings that are small and lowrise, especially in Africa, which has more buildings than Europe and North America, but far less total built area and volume. [Screenshot: FC] The ability to map building height and volume reveals disparities that conventional 2D maps tend to hide: A dense informal settlement and a carefully planned neighborhood of multistory buildings can look similar in a flat, areabased statistic. But if you have accurate 3D buildings, experts can understand that they offer radically different housing conditions and require different infrastructure. Their proposed metric of building volume per capita turns the GlobalBuildingAtlas into a lens for spotting where housing and infrastructure lag behind population and, therefore, where urban policy and investment should concentrate. [Screenshot: FC] How they made it The scientists used machine learning algorithms to identify one billion more buildings than any previous global database, creating simplified 3D “shoebox” models for 97% of them. That’s 2.68 billion 3D buildings, compared to Google Open Buildings, which has 1.8 billion building outlines. The team started with daily satellite images from the PlanetScope constellation, which photographs the Earth at roughly 9.8 feet per pixel. Then they stitched together about 800,000 cloud-free scenes from 2019 into a seamless global mosaic, and taught a neural network to recognize buildings by training it on known building outlines from OpenStreetMap and other sources. To add height to these flat building outlines, the team used laser measurements (LiDAR) from airborne surveys in developed countries to train an AI that can estimate how tall a building is just by looking at a single satellite photosimilar to how a person can judge a skyscraper’s height from its appearance and shadow. This height-prediction model scans the entire global image and assigns a height value to every pixel, even calculating its own margin of error.
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E-Commerce
Imagine the scene: Your plane just landed late. Youve barely got enough time to catch your connection, but first youve got to convince the other passengers to let you off before them. Good luck. Recently, though, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant flipped the script, according to Kathrin Peters. Peters, co-founder of consulting firm Withiii Leadership, says a recent flight taught her one of the best real-life lessons shes ever seen in generating instant connectivity. After confirming the planes late arrival, the flight attendant asked passengers to raise their hand if they were ending their journey in Salt Lake City, the flights destination. After most of the hands in the cabin went up, he continued. Now, everyone who has their hands up: Imagine the anxiety youd feel if you had to catch another flight tonight and werent sure youd make it. Put your hands down. And now, those connecting to San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Denver, raise yours! Everyone, look around, the flight attendant requested. These are the people wholl be sprinting off the plane tonight as soon as we land. Look at them, and imagine this was you. The flight attendant then implored everyone in the cabin who didnt have a connecting flight to stay seated and give the other passengers space to get out as quickly as possible. If we all play our part, they can make it, the flight attendant said. Thank you so much for your consideration and help. Every one of those guys appreciates you for it. Peters said the energy in the cabin completely shifted. Everyone suddenly shared the same mission, Peters wrote in a LinkedIn post. We all knew who the people were that needed to hustle now. And we were all in it with them, feeling their adrenaline in our veins. When the plane landed, says Peters, only connecting passengers stood up. Others helped them with their bags. Afterward, the remaining passengers patiently got up, grabbed their things, and exited calmly. The whole plane was rooting for them, Peters said. What this flight attendant did was brilliant, namely, motivating others to resist the urge to act in their own self-interest, and help instead. Its a case study in emotional intelligence, which includes the ability to empathize with others and build connection. Why did the flight attendants technique work so well? And how can you use this lesson to help you become a better leader? To answer those questions, lets take a closer look at the quality of empathy. (Sign up here for my free email course on emotional intelligence.) The three types of empathy Empathy is the ability to understand and share the thoughts and feelings of others. But according to psychologists Daniel Goleman and Paul Ekman, there are actually three types of empathy: Cognitive empathy: the ability to understand another persons thoughts and feelings Emotional empathy: the ability to actually share or relate to those feelings Compassionate empathy (or empathic concern): the ability to take action in an attempt to demonstrate empathy Interestingly, while we all want others to show empathy to us, we often fail to show it to others. There are several reasons for this, but it basically boils down to the fact that showing empathy is hard. The first two types, cognitive and emotional, take mental energy. And the third type, compassionate empathy, takes physical energy, too. But the flight attendant was able to inspire passengers to exercise all three types of empathy, by gently guiding everyone through the process, each one building upon the other. After identifying who was in a position to help, he helped them exercise cognitive empathy by prompting them to imagine the anxiety theyd feel if they were the ones trying to catch another flight. Then, he helped them build connection with emotional empathy, by pointing out who on the plane was in that exact situation and asking them to imagine they were the ones in it. Finally, he motivated them to take action, by encouraging positive peer pressure and inspiring the group to work together. This was no longer a disconnected group of people, they were a team with a single mission: Get those passengers to their connecting flights. How can you use these lessons in your workplace? If youre a leader, look for ways to help your people exercise all three types of empathy. Identify whos in a position to help, and who needs help. Then, use questions and phrases similar to that flight attendants. For example: How would you feel if . . .? Imagine this were you . . . How can you help? If we all play our part . . . Thank you for your help. Also, remember to gently guide everyone through the process, step-by-step. Because empathy takes time and effort, and thats a challenging journey to ask of others. But if you use principles of emotional intelligence like that flight attendant, youll inspire people not just to feel empathy, but to act on it. Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you’ll never miss a post. Justin Bariso This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
If youre order number 67 at In-N-Out, dont expect to hear your number called. The fast food chain has reportedly removed the number from its system, after viral videos show teens responding with wild celebrations after waiting around just to hear the number called. Imagine explaining this to someone in the future, one commenter wrote. Employees confirmed the number hasn’t been used for orders for about a month, according to a report from People magazine. After order number 66, the next order jumps straight to number 68. The chain has also removed the number 69, for good measure. The two digits, pronounced six, seven, not sixty-seven, have also been wreaking havoc in classrooms over the past couple months. Vice President JD Vance even took to social media and called for the numbers to be banned. He wrote on X, Yesterday at church the Bible readings started on page 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old went absolutely nuts repeating six seven like 10 times. He continued, I think we need to make this narrow exception to the First Amendment and ban these numbers forever. Others have adopted an “if you cant beat em, join em” approach. In November, both Wendys and Pizza Hut added a 67-cent Frosty deal and 67-cent wings” to their respective menus, paying homage to the meme in the hope of enticing teens. Domino’s also launched its own promo deal, offering customers one large pizza with one topping for $6.70. The trend has, somewhat unbelievably, reached the house floor. Utah Republican U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, while reporting the ayes and nos for a vote on a joint resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives last month, joked the results were about 6-7 while doing the juggling hand gesture. “6-7” officially cemented its status as the choice for Dictionary.com‘s word of the year. “Perhaps the most defining feature of 67 is that its impossible to define, wrote Dictionary.com. Its meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical.” For those still lost, the numbers can be traced back to a song called Doot Doot, released by hip-hop artist Skrilla in late 2024, in which he raps, 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip). From there, a video of a boy yelling 6-7 into the camera at a basketball game went viral. Since then, its taken on a life of its own.
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E-Commerce
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