UKC

Point cloud matterhorn.

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 d_b 17 Jun 2016

For work stuff I have been reading papers about 3D point cloud data and 3D scanners.

Anyway I came across this in my travels (needs webgl capable browser):

http://potree.org/demo/potree_2014.12.30/examples/matterhorn.html

These days you can make serviceable point clouds from video data on a decent laptop so it has me thinking about wandering up and down some of my local crags...
Post edited at 10:35
 jon 17 Jun 2016
In reply to davidbeynon:

Whoa... that just drove my laptop crazy! Can you just explain what it is (in short words)?
OP d_b 17 Jun 2016
In reply to jon:

In short words. You find a load of points on the surface of an object, and store their positions and colour.

Then you can view the object by drawing little coloured blobs at the positions of all the points.

You get the points either by using a laser scanner or taking lots of pictures from different positions and using software to match points in the images and figure out where they are from the relative parallax.

It has advantages and disadvantages relative to storing the 3D model as triangles, which is the usual approach.

Main advantage is that if you start with a load of points from a scanner you don't have to go to loads of effort to figure out what is connected to what and stitch them together. It also takes less memory.

The main disadvantage is that it is more expensive to draw and things look blobby when you zoom right in.
 jon 17 Jun 2016
In reply to davidbeynon:

Thanks. So it doesn't involve photos, then?
OP d_b 17 Jun 2016
In reply to jon:

It can do. It used to be the domain of laser scanners but these days you can use video or lots of photos.

This tutorial explains the basic process:

youtube.com/watch?v=SHa_LBIzDac&
 john arran 17 Jun 2016
In reply to davidbeynon:

Wow, that's brilliant. But who would have thought the Matterhorn was hollow?
 jon 17 Jun 2016
In reply to john arran:

Where do you think the Zermattois keep all their money?
OP d_b 17 Jun 2016
In reply to john arran:

All mountains are made of moulded fiberglass. Didn't you know?

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...