The Laboratory for Advanced Visualization and Applications (LAVA) worked with Mid Pacific High School to showcase their students’ LiDAR scans of Kaniakapupu ruins – the summer palace of King Kamehameha III.
The centerpiece of the showcase was a life-sized stereoscopic 3D virtual reality walkthrough of the historical site using LAVA’s 20-foot, 2x4K resolution CyberCANOE (the Cyber-enabled Collaboration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment). The demonstration was created through a collaboration between Mid Pacific students and LAVA Master’s student, Eric Wu.
Students also showed 360-degree images of the site that were taken with a 360-degree GoPro camera system. Viewers were able to see the location in full 360 degree surround using Samsung Gear Virtual Reality headsets.
The LiDAR scanner and 360-degree camera were donated by the CyArk Foundation and GoPro. This work was also partially funded by a National Science Foundation project entitled “Development of the Sensor Environment Imaging (SENSEI) Instrument” to build the SENSEI (SENSor Environment Imaging) instrument that will capture still and motion, 3D full-sphere omnidirectional stereoscopic video and images of real-world scenes, to be viewed in collaboration-enabled, nationally networked, 3D virtual-reality systems. Additional funding for supporting the CyberCANOE was provided by the Academy for Creative Media System at the University of Hawaiʻi.