Search

Due to their low cost and portability, using entertainment devices for indoor mapping applications has become a hot research topic. However, the impact of user behavior on indoor mapping evaluation with entertainment devices is often overlooked in previous studies. This article aims to assess the indoor mapping performance of entertainment devices under different mapping strategies. We chose two entertainment devices, the HoloLens 2 and iPhone 14 Pro, for our evaluation work. Based on our previous mapping experience and user habits, we defined four simplified indoor mapping strategies: straight-forward mapping (SFM), left-right alternating mapping (LRAM), round-trip straight-forward mapping (RT-SFM), and round-trip left-right alternating mapping (RT-LRAM). First, we acquired triangle mesh data under each strategy with the HoloLens 2 and iPhone 14 Pro. Then, we compared the changes in data completeness and accuracy between the different devices and indoor mapping applications. Our findings show that compared to the iPhone 14 Pro, the triangle mesh accuracy acquired by the HoloLens 2 has more stable performance under different strategies. Notably, the triangle mesh data acquired by the HoloLens 2 under the RT-LRAM strategy can effectively compensate for missing wall and floor surfaces, mainly caused by furniture occlusion and the low frame rate of the depth-sensing camera. However, the iPhone 14 Pro is more efficient in terms of mapping completeness and can acquire a complete triangle mesh more quickly than the HoloLens 2. In summary, choosing an entertainment device for indoor mapping requires a combination of specific needs and scenes. If accuracy and stability are important, the HoloLens 2 is more suitable; if efficiency and completeness are important, the iPhone 14 Pro is better.

In this paper, we present our novel approach for the crowdsourced dynamic vertical mapping of buildings. For achieving this, we use the barometric sensor of smartphones to estimate altitude differences and the moment of the outdoor to indoor transition to extract reference pressure. We have identified the outdoor-indoor transition (OITransition) via the fusion of four different sensors. Our approach has been evaluated extensively over a period of 6 months in different humidity, temperature, and cloud-coverage situations, as well as over different hours of the day, and it is found that it can always predict the correct number of floors, while it can approximate the altitude with an average error of 0.5 m., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.