Indoor mapping eyewear: Geometric evaluation of spatial mapping capability of hololens

Existing indoor mapping systems have limitations in terms of time efficiency and flexibility in complex environments. While backpack and handheld systems are more flexible and can be used for mapping multi-storey buildings, in some application scenarios, e.g. emergency response, a light-weight indoor mapping eyewear or head-mounted system has practical advantages. In this paper, we investigate the spatial mapping capability of Microsoft Hololens mixed reality eyewear for 3D mapping of large indoor environments. We provide a geometric evaluation of 3D mesh data captured by the Hololens in terms of local precision, coverage, and global correctness in comparison with terrestrial laser scanner data and a reference 3D model. The results indicate the high efficiency and flexibility of Hololens for rapid mapping of relatively large indoor environments with high completeness and centimetre level accuracy.