Accomplishments
- Reconstruction Experimentation
- Automate Encryption
Returning from vacation I began diving into a challenging problem, rethinking the reconstruction service. This is a challenging task, and may be necessary to better produce tours as new requirements are identified. Alongside this I was able to embed encryption directly into the tour export process.
Reconstruction Experimentation
The reconstruction service is the core of what brings posed point clouds into a tangible 3D surface. While reconstructing larger, more complex scenes, I began to notice many challenges. Cameras sometimes saw through walls of rooms, or saw into the infinite void in 3D space. Standing still, these are barely noticeable. However, once the camera moves or transitions it becomes jarring and hard to overlook. It also affects the 3D cursor and challenges a viewer’s ability to navigate the environment. This lead me to think differently about reconstruction, and identify new ways to make the scene watertight to better assist navigation and the user experience.
This came with much research. Rebuilding a pipeline like this is challenging, and each step contributes to each other. So far, keeping each photo projected as a watertight space seems promising; However, it is challenging to identify how to best carve free space and consider how to resolve overlapping points on the same side of walls, or opposite. This research is ongoing. So far I have identified a variety of challenges, and mismatched solutions.
Automate Encryption
In a previous week I had setup encryption for the xml files used in viewing the immersive tour. This week I integrated that feature into the tour editor service. Now once all files are prepared they are downloaded as encrypted files. This can help protect content unique to the tour, as well as general plugins used across tours. I also identified and integrated another step for encrypting javascript files. Now the majority of functional content is able to be encrypted upon output.
Summary:
With automated encryption, output tours are more secure and the functional content is kept more private. As reconstruction research continues, that content will hopefully continue to come alongside an improved user experience. With the new needs identified, the challenge now is to identify how to resolve them.
