Integrating Gaming Technologies into Heritage Reality Capture Processes

Abstract

This case study will illustrate how the joint venture professional services team (CENTRUS) for the Centre Block Rehabilitation project is leveraging and developing innovative reality capture technologies to record multiple states of conservation and construction throughout the decade’s long duration of the project. The team is developing a time-based reality capture platform, driven by gaming technology, to allow stakeholders to trace building component composition, services distribution, and spatial visualization. Point clouds, photogrammetry, and high-resolution orthographic imagery are used to generate mesh topologies that capture everything from the component-based layers of construction (finish, service, structure, etc.) to the progress of mass site excavation. Our project infuses XR technologies to simultaneously visualize and combine reality capture data with the models that capture the design intent for various disciplines on the project (architectural, electrical, mechanical, structural, sustainability, etc.). We are using state of the art hardware that allows us to mix the physical and virtual realms and provide a field of view of up to 115 degrees at a resolution of over 70 PPD (2880x2720px /eye) – some hardware constraints and limitations have prevented us from achieving complete mixed parity, we are currently developing some workarounds in coordination with the team developing the headset. The guiding intent of the project is to ensure that the state of heritage assets is accurately visualized and that the data that defines the state of any given asset follows it throughout its existence on the project; whether it is to be refurbished or removed. Assets are tracked via a variety of databases, methods, and systems. Our Streamable Assets Platform (SAP) collects data from each endpoint and combines them into a single harmonized method of distribution, accessible via a web browser. Asset data structures are an integral aspect to the entire system and allow us to structure the platform such that it may be used to incorporate future data sources, such as facilities and operations related data streams. The case study will illustrate reality capture driven development methods we are using to ingest/leverage terrestrial/drone laser scans, photogrammetry, and orthographic photos to overlay asset-design data throughout the progress of a renovation to one of Canada’s most notable architectural icons.