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3D environment scan via third party device, then import spatial data to Hololens. Possible?
Hi everyone, I'd like to know if it's possible to make 3D scans of an environment using external, third party devices like the Occipital 3D Structure sensor, Matterport (environmental 3D scanner), or Creaform 3D scanners (industrial-grade portable scanners) and then import the files into the Hololens' system for usage with spatial anchors and interfacing with various applications.
I believe this could be useful for scanning very large areas and also very small areas with a potentially higher degree of accuracy and precision than the Hololens itself can natively produce. Also, I suspect this capability might be useful for quickly sharing Spatial Data with other Hololens users, thus allowing for shared AR experiences as well as shared tracking — all without needing to 3D scan an environment multiple times with multiple Hololens devices. Instead, you would merely have to upload the space to each unit, either wirelessly or via tether.
Is this even possible with the Hololens' current developer kit hardware?
Please note that I'm new to these forums, so I'm not sure what category to post this under. I'm also not sure which file types would be ideal to export in for this kind of data transfer to work, but I am mildly familiar with some formats that are compatible with Unity (.fbx, .dae (Collada), .3ds, .dxf, .obj, and .skp). What file types are used by the Hololens itself to store spatial information from scans?
Thoughts?
Answers
Hey, @PointCloudNine
Unfortunately there is no official way to substitute HoloLens's sensory data to make it "believe" that data is its own. This question was asked in different forms earlier on the forums and there hasn't been any reaction from Microsoft side.
Something like this is implicitly (read unconfirmed by Microsoft) possible when importing a WorldAnchorTransferBatch created on one HoloLens that scanned the space thoroughly onto another HoloLens that didn't scan it so thoroughly yet. The space (Settings/Spaces) grows to exactly the size despite the other HoloLens not having learned of the environment yet. This may arguably lead to a conclusion that WorldAnchorTransferbatch is plus minus an equivalent to a space. But its format is closed and there are no specs on how one would create it with alternative scanners.
https://forums.hololens.com/discussion/9465/space-grows-when-deserializing-worldanchortransferbatch-based-on-a-bigger-space-but#latest
TL;DR: You cannot.
Hope this helps.
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