The Research:
This project includes the basic HTML5/WebGL framework, including scripts and shaders, to display point cloud data, as well as a C++ tool to create hierarchical octree data from an initial point cloud. We were researching how to better utilize the preexisting HTML5 framework/WebGL to fundamentally be able to programmatically show an incredible amount of 3D data (using LiDar and photogrammetry point clouds) using as little computing power as possible and having the ability to use this webviewer on pretty much any device/browser natively. Our initial major goal was to use this webviewer in the current electronic health record. LiDAR data is already part of extensions to the DICOM standard. It should not be too far off that we can could, for example, scan a patient's home to tailor discharge planning towards his particular environment. However, this is still work in progress and the research has progressed significantly into new exciting ways to utilize what we have developed .
For example, our research/initial webviewer prototypes has given researchers and scientists a way that they can virtually preserve and showcase 3D data of historical places, things, and even people in a way that does not endanger the subject itself and can be enjoyed for the rest of history.
My role:
My main focus in our research was to investigate how we could use photogrammetry data/point clouds in conjunction with LiDar data and how to produce the most scientifically replicatable photogrammetry data for the other researchers to use. Here is the first round of photogrammetry data we collected and published for the rest of the scientific community to use and test themselves.
Below is our Github Repository as well as a more thorough and scientific explanation of how we created this innovative webviewer to share 3D data:
Press and Scientific Journal Excerpts
about our research:
Demos of the Webviewer:
We built (and still are building) an online database of point cloud data which can be explored through a web browser (Chrome and Firefox work the best).
This link takes you right to the demos you see below. The two demos are of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Taliesen estate and the reconstruction of the Martian terrain outside of Nasa Curiosity’s Rover.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen 3D point cloud is shown above. I was the lucky researcher who got to fly a drone around this historic house for hours to collect this exterior data :)
The point cloud depicting the reconstruction of Martian terrain around NASA's curiosity rover is shown below:
