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A friend invented a device to do that. It was a small backpack you (or whoever is making the listing) would wear and walk into each room of the building. After

A friend invented a device to do that. It was a small backpack you (or whoever is making the listing) would wear and walk into each room of the building. After gathering the data, software would turn it into a floorplan. It probably took less time per room than getting good listing photos. Not sure why she never went to market with it but I'm going to guess something similar could be done now with just a modern smartphone and the right software.

andechs 5y ago
Matterport does this and uses it for real estate listings all the time. https://matterport.com/gallery/bclm-tollhouse https://matterport.com/gallery/bclm-tollhouse The "dollhouse" view is really handy for being able to get a sense of the space.
eps 5y ago
There is a plenty of solutions like this already. The earliest I am aware of was a specialized mini "cart" studded with video cameras that one would roll around the place and will get a textured 3D model that can then be walked around, Doom-style. It was made by a Vancouver startup was back in mid '00s. There is also a specialized handheld "scanner" gadget that was marketed towards police use for capturing crime scene details. You'd just wave it around and see the resulting 3D phtogrammetry capture in real-time. Missed a bit - go back a wave a bit more. This was in the early '10s. I'd imagine that this has been ported to smartphones already, because they now have sufficient sensor, storage and processing capacity for that.
- rhacker 5y ago
  > There is a plenty of solutions like this already. I definitely feel like no one has won the market yet. Having something available or somewhat good isn't market dominance.
froh42 5y ago
I wonder how it would compare to the floor plan my vacuum robot creates every time it is working. Or whether my Neato's floor plans are anywhere near realistic. Or what Neato does with all these floor plans on their servers ...

andechs 5y ago

Matterport does this and uses it for real estate listings all the time. https://matterport.com/gallery/bclm-tollhouse https://matterport.com/gallery/bclm-tollhouse The "dollhouse" view is really handy for being able to get a sense of the space.

eps 5y ago

There is a plenty of solutions like this already. The earliest I am aware of was a specialized mini "cart" studded with video cameras that one would roll around the place and will get a textured 3D model that can then be walked around, Doom-style. It was made by a Vancouver startup was back in mid '00s. There is also a specialized handheld "scanner" gadget that was marketed towards police use for capturing crime scene details. You'd just wave it around and see the resulting 3D phtogrammetry capture in real-time. Missed a bit - go back a wave a bit more. This was in the early '10s. I'd imagine that this has been ported to smartphones already, because they now have sufficient sensor, storage and processing capacity for that.

rhacker 5y ago
> There is a plenty of solutions like this already. I definitely feel like no one has won the market yet. Having something available or somewhat good isn't market dominance.

froh42 5y ago

I wonder how it would compare to the floor plan my vacuum robot creates every time it is working. Or whether my Neato's floor plans are anywhere near realistic. Or what Neato does with all these floor plans on their servers ...