How do I create a GeoCV 3D Tour? How does the process look like?

Short answer

• We ship you a GeoCV Scanner Kit. It includes GeoCV Scanner, which includes a smartphone with pre-installed GeoCV Scanner App. Place your GeoCV Scanner on a tripod.
• Place the tripod consequently in multiple spots in the space. At each spot a 3D scan and a 360° panorama will be automatically captured and stitched into a preliminary 3D model in real-time, so you can make sure you captured all the rooms. Capturing takes 25-45 minutes per 1,000 sqft depending on the layout and whether the space is furnished or empty.
• Upload data to GeoCV Cloud with a single tap in the Scanner App. Processing is done automatically. Your GeoCV 3D Tour will be ready in several hours. Your floor plan will be ready in 24 hours after the 3D tour.
• Use GeoCV Tour Editor to edit your GeoCV 3D Tours: add description and contact info, add pins and highlights, customize GeoCV Viewer and white label. Optionally download floor plans with dimensions, still photos, 3D model and 360° panoramas.

More details

After you sign the contract and pay the invoice, we ship you a GeoCV Scanner Kit with all the accessories in a carrying case. The smartphone is already included, and we do not support your own phone yet. You will need only a regular tripod extra. GeoCV Scanner App comes pre-installed on the smartphone and can be automatically updated.

Place your GeoCV Scanner on a tripod, turn it on, launch GeoCV Scanner App. Create a new Scene (project) just by typing in its name. Put a tripod with GeoCV Scanner at any place in the space, e.g. near the entrance. Press “Capture” button in GeoCV Scanner App. GeoCV Scanner will automatically make a 360° spin and capture a 3D scan - a 360° panorama with associated depth (geometrical data). It only takes 39 seconds. You see a top-down view of a 3D model (looks similar to floor plan), so you can understand what has been captured from this spot. One scan covers an area of up to 15 feet (5 meters) radius.

Move the tripod to another spot, usually up to 10 feet (3 meters) away from the previous one. Press “Capture” button again. A new 3D scan will be automatically captured from this spot. It will be automatically aligned to the previous one. You will see a merged 3D model. Repeat this process of moving a tripod to a new spot, pressing “Capture” button and reviewing the result, until the whole space is covered.

Understanding where to move the tripod next is easy. Preserve direct line of sight between consequent spots, so users can navigate between them in GeoCV Viewer. You might need to do some extra spots to avoid large unscanned areas, e.g. occluded by furniture. Leaving smaller holes is fine since they will be filled in automatically during processing in GeoCV Cloud.

If there are mirrors in the space they should be marked up with a simple line tool in GeoCV Scanner App during capturing. You can also markup windows and cut unnecessary parts of 3D model to make it look better.

It takes 25-45 minutes to capture 1,000 sqft. Thus capturing a regular 2,500 sqft home could take 1-2 hours. Capturing time depends on the layout (spacious layouts are faster to capture), whether the space is empty or furnished (empty spaces are faster to capture) and how densely you scan (denser scanning results in higher quality 3D scan but is optional).

When you finish capturing, press “Upload” button in GeoCV Scanner App, and the data will be compressed and sent to GeoCV Cloud for processing. Processing of 3D tour is done fully automatically. You will get an email notification when it is ready. Turnaround time depends on the number of spots, and is several hours on average. Floor plan extraction from 3D tour is done in semi-automated fashion and adds up to 24 hours on top of 3D tour turnaround time. 3D tour is available for editing and sharing first, then the floor plan is added to it.

You can login to GeoCV Tour Editor to view, edit and share your GeoCV 3D Tours:

• Download the floor plan, the 3D model, 360° panoramas.
• Extract still photos from 360° panoramas and download them.
• Add space description, listing information, contact information, customer branding.
• Add Pins, i.e. annotations including text, images and videos and custom HTML.
• Add Highlights, i.e. particular views in the tour as well Viewpoints (standalone 360° panoramas such as for amenities).
• Hide some panoramas, hide some GeoCV Viewer controls and navigation modes, set starting position.
• Setup white labeled or branded version.