DEVELOPING A VR TOOL FOR 3D ARCHITECTURAL MEASUREMENTS

Abstract

Virtual Reality technology has already matured and is capable of offering impressive immersive experiences. AT the same time head mounted devices (HMD) are also offering many possibilities along with the game engine environments. So far, all these impressive technologies have been implemented to increase the popularity of on-line visits and serious games development, as far as their application in the domain of Cultural Heritage is concerned. In this paper we present the development of a set of VR tools, which enable the user to perform accurate measurements within the immersive environment. In this way we believe that these tools will be very helpful and appeal to experts in need of these measurements, as they can perform them in the laboratory instead of visiting the object itself. This toolbox includes measuring the coordinates of single points in 3D space, measuring three-dimensional distances and performing horizontal or vertical cross sections. The first two have been already presented previously (Kontos & Georgopoulos 2020) and this paper focuses on the evaluation of the performance of the toolbox in determining cross sections. The development of the tool is explained in detail and the resulting cross sections of the 3D model of the Holy Aedicule are compared to real measurements performed geodetically. The promising results are discussed and evaluated.