Fast, Automated, Scalable Generation of Textured 3D Models of Indoor Environments

3D modeling of building architecture from mobile scanning is a rapidly advancing field. These models are used in virtual reality, gaming, navigation, and simulation applications. State-of-the-art scanning produces accurate point-clouds of building interiors containing hundreds of millions of points. This paper presents several scalable surface reconstruction techniques to generate watertight meshes that preserve sharp features in the geometry common to buildings. Our techniques can automatically produce high-resolution meshes that preserve the fine detail of the environment by performing a ray-carving volumetric approach to surface reconstruction. We present methods to automatically generate 2D floor plans of scanned building environments by detecting walls and room separations. These floor plans can be used to generate simplified 3D meshes that remove furniture and other temporary objects. We propose a method to texture-map these models from captured camera imagery to produce photo-realistic models. We apply these techniques to several data sets of building interiors, including multi-story datasets.