REALITY CAPTURE KNOWLEDGE · POINT CLOUD PROCESSING
I start with three basic questions.
Are the scans correctly aligned?
I check how well neighbouring scan positions fit together and look for registration problems such as duplicated surfaces or ghosting.
Is the point density appropriate?
The dataset needs enough information for the intended purpose, but unnecessary density can make downstream processing more difficult.
Was everything important actually captured?
Occlusion is unavoidable in many environments, but critical missing geometry can become a serious problem if that information is required later.
These checks quickly tell me a great deal about both the quality of the dataset and what may be required during processing.
Before asking how to process the data, understand what is actually in it.
ABOUT THIS KNOWLEDGE SERIES
Reality Capture Knowledge is where I share short, practical answers to questions that come up across reality capture, point cloud processing and geospatial workflows.
The answers are based on more than 15 years of hands-on experience working with spatial data, field acquisition and point cloud processing.
Roland Kriston
Independent Reality Capture & Geospatial Specialist