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I'm the first author of this, happy to answer any questions. It's great to see this on HN. PS. I'll be graduating this July with my masters.

tarsiel 5y ago
Congratulations! Always great to see SFU students in the wild :)
- madhawav 5y ago
  Thank you!
beatthatflight 5y ago
Congrats! As far as I can tell it's not directly related to yours - but are you aware of any software that uses say, Android OS and a camera or pre-existing photos of the inside of a house/office/building to create a 3d map? Matterport seems like it might but their Android app is not going so well.
- madhawav 5y ago
  Did a bit of googling and this came up: https://canvas.io/ https://canvas.io/. But, it's not for Android.
  - bradknowles 5y ago
    Ahh, yes — they used to support the Structure.io scanner that you could strap to an iPad or iPhone. I bought one of those. I could never get it to work. Edit: the Canvas.io software really wants the latest iPhone or iPad devices with LIDAR scanners built-in. It will supposedly run on lesser hardware, but with greater error in the constructed 3D map. Fine for a sample to get an idea of whether or not it might work for you, but not really enough to actually use for anything useful.
    - bradknowles 5y ago
      Note that the Canvas.io software really wants the latest iPhone or iPad devices with LIDAR scanners built-in. It will supposedly run on lesser hardware, but with greater error in the constructed 3D map. Fine for a sample to get an idea of whether or not it might work for you, but not really enough to actually use for anything useful.
      - bradknowles 5y ago
        I was reminded about a program called MagicPlan. See https://youtu.be/gEUk7YzfTcc https://youtu.be/gEUk7YzfTcc for a video demo of using it to scan an apartment, using an iPhone 12 Pro with the LIDAR sensor. But IMO, this still isn’t good enough. It’s a huge improvement over the corner mode, which is what you have to use if you aren’t using a device with a LIDAR sensor, but it’s still not enough. I’m still looking.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  Ben Claremont has done a lot of reviews of 3D virtual tour software, see https://youtu.be/uKkQQ0aHRSc https://youtu.be/uKkQQ0aHRSc Ben’s reviews are the best I’ve seen, but he is far from the only reviewer in this space. Unfortunately, most of the software in this space does not actually generate a floor plan, even if they do create a 3D model of the space (like Matterport). There is one program he highlighted which is bundled with a service from the company that you can use to process your pictures and generate a floor plan among other things, but some of that work is still done by human beings. I’m still looking for a good consumer grade program that can do photogrammetry of a space and turn that into a floor plan. I’ve seen attempts to do this with phones and cameras, and the LIDAR scanner that Apple has recently introduced has improved the situation, but IMO it is still not there yet. But please correct me if I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong.

tarsiel 5y ago

Congratulations! Always great to see SFU students in the wild :)

madhawav 5y ago
Thank you!

beatthatflight 5y ago

Congrats! As far as I can tell it's not directly related to yours - but are you aware of any software that uses say, Android OS and a camera or pre-existing photos of the inside of a house/office/building to create a 3d map? Matterport seems like it might but their Android app is not going so well.

madhawav 5y ago
Did a bit of googling and this came up: https://canvas.io/ https://canvas.io/. But, it's not for Android.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  Ahh, yes — they used to support the Structure.io scanner that you could strap to an iPad or iPhone. I bought one of those. I could never get it to work. Edit: the Canvas.io software really wants the latest iPhone or iPad devices with LIDAR scanners built-in. It will supposedly run on lesser hardware, but with greater error in the constructed 3D map. Fine for a sample to get an idea of whether or not it might work for you, but not really enough to actually use for anything useful.
  - bradknowles 5y ago
    Note that the Canvas.io software really wants the latest iPhone or iPad devices with LIDAR scanners built-in. It will supposedly run on lesser hardware, but with greater error in the constructed 3D map. Fine for a sample to get an idea of whether or not it might work for you, but not really enough to actually use for anything useful.
    - bradknowles 5y ago
      I was reminded about a program called MagicPlan. See https://youtu.be/gEUk7YzfTcc https://youtu.be/gEUk7YzfTcc for a video demo of using it to scan an apartment, using an iPhone 12 Pro with the LIDAR sensor. But IMO, this still isn’t good enough. It’s a huge improvement over the corner mode, which is what you have to use if you aren’t using a device with a LIDAR sensor, but it’s still not enough. I’m still looking.
bradknowles 5y ago
Ben Claremont has done a lot of reviews of 3D virtual tour software, see https://youtu.be/uKkQQ0aHRSc https://youtu.be/uKkQQ0aHRSc Ben’s reviews are the best I’ve seen, but he is far from the only reviewer in this space. Unfortunately, most of the software in this space does not actually generate a floor plan, even if they do create a 3D model of the space (like Matterport). There is one program he highlighted which is bundled with a service from the company that you can use to process your pictures and generate a floor plan among other things, but some of that work is still done by human beings. I’m still looking for a good consumer grade program that can do photogrammetry of a space and turn that into a floor plan. I’ve seen attempts to do this with phones and cameras, and the LIDAR scanner that Apple has recently introduced has improved the situation, but IMO it is still not there yet. But please correct me if I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong.