Abstract
Photogrammetry is a promising set of methods for generating photorealistic 3D models of physical objects and structures. Such methods may rely solely on camera-captured photographs or include additional sensor data. Digital twins are digital replicas of physical objects and structures. Photogrammetry is an opportune approach for generating 3D models for the purpose of preparing digital twins. At a sufficiently high level of quality, digital twins provide effective archival representations of physical objects and structures and become effective substitutes for engineering inspections and surveying. While photogrammetric techniques are well-established, insights about effective methods for interacting with such models in virtual reality remain underexplored. We report the results of a qualitative engineering case study in which we asked six domain experts to carry out engineering measurement tasks in an immersive environment using bimanual gestural input coupled with gaze-tracking. The qualitative case study revealed that gaze-supported bimanual interaction of photogrammetric 3D models is a promising modality for domain experts. It allows the experts to efficiently manipulate and measure elements of the 3D model. To better allow designers to support this modality, we report design implications distilled from the feedback from the domain experts.
Highlights
A major obstacle to the mass adaptation of Virtual Reality (VR) is a lack of high-quality content
We report on an engineering case study with six domain experts to better understand how novel gaze-supported bimanual interaction techniques would satisfy domain experts’ needs and wants in the task of surveying complex 3D structures, such as buildings
The system used a mixture of interaction techniques. It combined the hand-tracking facilitated by the Leap Motion Sensor (LMS) mounted in front of the head-mounted display (HMD) with gesture-recognition capabilities afforded by the LMS Software Development Kit (SDK)
Summary
A major obstacle to the mass adaptation of Virtual Reality (VR) is a lack of high-quality content. In order to generate increasingly realistic models that resemble real-life objects and structures, there is a need to apply high-quality textures to the models. This is important if there is a desire to enhance the immersiveness experienced by the users [29]. One of the most promising approaches to semi-automatic generation of such high-quality 3D models is photogrammetry [27] This approach uses 2D information, such as object’s photographs, that can be combined with additional data gathered by a wide array of various sensors, such as GPS location data, to reconstruct digital photo-realistic 3D models of reallife objects [2] (Fig. 1)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
