Dev Log 1 – Photogrammetry in AR

Photogrammetry

In this new project with my new teammates, we are working towards an idea using Unity. In the modern world, it is a practice to use real objects and pictures of said object in order to create an easily photo-realistic model, albeit highly complex in polygons. This practice is known as Photogrammetry, and can be easily used to create 3D objects that are much more complex than one could make in the same time via 3D Modeling. We will use a drone to fly around a large building, possibly our school hall, and scan it into a 3D model. We will then import this model into Unity after fixing some of the errors that were made in its development, as Photogrammetry is known to make some small blemishes and errors at times.

Augmented Reality

The second step of our project comes from bringing it from our computers into the physically digital world through the use of Augmented Reality softwares. This will allow us to scan our environment, having it detect surfaces through the use of the camera, allowing a 3D rendition of the building to be displayed on phones as they walk around the area, as if the object was really sitting there on the ground. Using this, we will be able to create our 3D model in the real space and have students who have the app walk around, looking at the student hall at whatever scale we have it, for once being able to look at the higher points of the buildings with your own eyes.

Conclusion

So far, much research has gone into this project, including points of my teammates looking up tutorials on how to implement said technologies. Since we are trying to explore new tech we have never seen before, we are always having to look through websites to learn further details about new software on both the photogrammetry side and the Augmented Reality, or AR, side of the project. We have our work cut out for us, but hopefully we will be able to pull it off quite well.