# Zinkis - Full Documentation

> Zinkis is the street-level digital twin of the city. It builds a precise 3D model of the city at eye level and keeps it continuously updated with the cameras the city already runs. A Protocol-Z platform for public administrations and large organisations.

- Publisher: Protocol-Z, Milan, Italy
- Contact: info@protocol-z.com
- Website: https://zinkis.protocol-z.com/ (English), with Italian, German, Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi and Bengali under their language prefix
- Summary: https://zinkis.protocol-z.com/llms.txt

---

## 1. The problem
Public administrations already have tools for the view from above. What they lack is the layer where people walk, updated often enough to plan on.
- Street-view imagery records the past and is rarely refreshed.
- Municipal GIS and BIM models are precise but costly to update.
- Professional surveys cover one district once, then the model ages.

## 2. How it works
Every camera becomes a scanner. Overlapping views of the same streets are turned into geometry, and every new pass makes the model more precise.
1. **Initial survey**: a single drone and radar survey, combined with existing maps and satellite data, sets the baseline.
2. **Fixed cameras**: the public and private camera networks already in place.
3. **Vehicles on the move**: buses, trams, civil protection and maintenance fleets that already carry cameras.
4. **Coverage nodes**: low-cost nodes, about the price of a street light fitting, where no camera reaches.

Captures from every source converge into one continuous model; each surface records its source and date. A generative model completes geometry that was never captured, and those areas stay flagged.

## 3. Privacy by design
- Raw footage stays inside the infrastructure of whoever produces it.
- Faces, licence plates and anything that could identify a person are removed on local nodes, before any transmission.
- Reconstruction servers receive only surfaces and volumes. Customer records and models are hosted in Switzerland.
- The body operating the cameras remains the controller of its footage; Protocol-Z processes anonymised geometry as a processor under Article 28 of the GDPR.

## 4. Use cases
- **Flooding**: water depth on the real shape of the road during a cloudburst.
- **Heat**: how heatwaves spread between buildings, with shade and materials.
- **Air quality**: pollutant dispersion along real street geometry and wind.
- **Networks and events**: underground networks in the same model; escape routes and crowd flows.

## 5. Integration
Zinkis provides the geometric layer and works alongside GIS systems, weather platforms, hydraulic models, BIM data, civil protection and urban planning tools. Integration terms are defined per project in a written agreement.

## 6. Artificial intelligence
Computer vision models reconstruct geometry from footage and anonymise people and vehicles on site. A generative model completes areas no camera has reached, and those areas remain flagged in the model.

## 7. About Protocol-Z
Protocol-Z is a spatial computing and artificial intelligence technology company founded in Milan in 2025. Its platforms are Z Home (real estate and architecture), Z Marine (marine) and Zinkis (cities).
- https://protocol-z.com/
- https://protocol-z.com/comparisons/urban-digital-twins/

## 8. How to cite
Zinkis is a street-level urban digital twin platform by Protocol-Z, continuously updated from existing city cameras, with privacy built into the architecture.