Transparent Collision Visualization of Point Clouds Acquired by Laser Scanning

• Published in: ISPRS international journal of geo-information Vol. 8; no. 9; p. 425
• Main Authors: Li, Weite, Shigeta, Kenya, Hasegawa, Kyoko, Li, Liang, Yano, Keiji, Adachi, Motoaki, Tanaka, Satoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 19.09.2019
• Subjects: Algorithms; Billboards; collision visualization; Computer simulation; Cultural heritage; Drifters; Engineering; Festivals; Floats; Laser applications; laser-scanned point cloud; Lasers; plant simulation; Residential areas; Scanning; Software; stochastic collision search; Visualization; Japan
• ISSN: 2220-9964; 2220-9964
• DOI: 10.3390/ijgi8090425

In this paper, we propose a method to visualize large-scale colliding point clouds by highlighting their collision areas, and apply the method to visualization of collision simulation. Our method uses our recent work that achieved precise three-dimensional see-through imaging, i.e., transparent visualization, of large-scale point clouds that were acquired via laser scanning of three-dimensional objects. We apply the proposed collision visualization method to two applications: (1) The revival of the festival float procession of the Gion Festival, Kyoto city, Japan. The city government plans to revive the original procession route, which is narrow and not used at present. For the revival, it is important to know whether the festival floats would collide with houses, billboards, electric wires, or other objects along the original route. (2) Plant simulations based on laser-scanned datasets of existing and new facilities. The advantageous features of our method are the following: (1) A transparent visualization with a correct depth feel that is helpful to robustly determine the collision areas; (2) the ability to visualize high collision risk areas and real collision areas; and (3) the ability to highlight target visualized areas by increasing the corresponding point densities.