The Technology Stack and System Architecture of the University of Cologne Virtual Campus

Abstract

The here presented Virtual Campus project developed a 3D geodata modelling toolchain, and an open source software based technology stack for creating a Digital geoTwin of the University of Cologne (UoC). We also develop and present a reactjs based web application, a flutter and Unity based mobile app with AR features, as well as an UnrealEngine based VR application to access, browse and visualize the geoTwin data and models in the UoC CAVE 3D environment. The 3D models of the Universities Buildings will include indoor models based on 2D floorplans, which will facilitate indoor positioning in the mobile application of the project through geometry matching and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology. For distribution and streaming the 3D building models, we utilze the OGC Standard 3D Tiles, for which we present a tool to georeference the glTF 3D models and assets accurately on the globe.