Inside - Outside Model Viewing: A Low-cost Hybrid Approach to Visualization and Demonstration of 3D Models

Visualization of large scale 3D models has become an important part of the development cycle in many fields like building design, machine design, construction and many more. Whether for design communication or demonstration, it is necessary for the viewers to fully understand the different components of the model, their proportions compared to each other and the overall design. A variety of augmented reality(AR) applications have been created for overall visualization of large scale models. For tours inside 3D renderings of models many immersive virtual reality (VR) applications exist. Both types of applications have their limitation, omitting either important details in the AR case or the full picture in the case of VR. This paper presents a low-cost way to demonstrate models using a hybrid virtual environment system (HVE), combining virtual reality and augmented reality visualization. The solution is built using a fully occlusive head mounted display(HMD), together with off-the-shelf web cameras and a game controller for interaction. A proof of concept is created using a commercial game engine, which is used in a subsequent case study. Based on this study, we demonstrate the validity of our proposed system.