Real-time 3D Reconstruction for Facilitating the Development of Game-based Virtual Laboratories
Zhang, Z., Zhang, M., Chang, Y., Esche, S. K. & Chassapis, C.
Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 85-99, 2016.
Abstract
Game-based virtual laboratories (GBVLs) represent an important implementation of virtual reality and are often considered to be simulations of real or artificial environments.
They are based on 2D/3D graphics and built using a specific game engine.
GBVLs are becoming increasingly popular at various levels of education.
In addition to designing the story plot and game logic, other essential tasks during the creation of GBVLs are to virtualize the real world and to insert all of the virtual representations of the real objects into the GBVLs’ environments.
The traditional method for virtualizing real objects is to design the models of these objects with some CAD software and then to convert these models to the model format of the GBVL.
In creating these models, one needs to not only measure the real objects but also to draw their features.
These processes are tedious and time-consuming, thus considerably limiting the potential application and popularization of GBVLs.
This paper introduces a series of novel procedures for creating virtual representations of real objects based on 3D reconstruction techniques.
During these procedures, one hand-held depth camera is used to scan the real objects.
First, the tracing of the pose of the camera is discussed.
Then, the processing methods for the captured raw data are covered, and based on the processed data, the registration of the shape information of the model is discussed.
Subsequently, a method for recognizing the scanned object is presented.
Finally, the generation of the final model file for GBVLs is described.
In order to validate this method, a prototype GBVL used in an undergraduate engineering course was designed and implemented.
Through a comparison between the traditional methods and the proposed procedures, it was demonstrated that the latter significantly sped up the process of creating virtual laboratory implementations.