HoloLens 2 performance analysis for indoor/outdoor 3D mapping

The integration of advanced miniaturized sensors—including high-resolution cameras and LiDAR—into mobile devices has revolutionized 3D data collection. However, as these non-conventional laser scanners have not been designed for this purpose, the suppliers do not indicate the most relevant technical characteristics for this goal, so their usefulness is unclear in many areas. This work focuses on the evaluation of HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality (MR) Head Mounted Display (HMD) for scanning indoor and outdoor environments and subsequent generation of 3D models for Building Information Modelling (BIM). In this work, several case studies are presented to evaluate HoloLens 2 performance in relation with geometry identification, precision of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) and environmental limitations. The results show that HoloLens 2 presents errors up to 4 cm in scans of continuous trajectories up to 100 m. In addition, structural elements are identifiable from generated 3D point clouds with robustness to darkness and light rain conditions and can be used in BIM generation. Comparison with conventional sensors like Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and Handheld Mobile Laser Scanning (HMLS) suggests that HoloLens 2 offers a cost-effective alternative. • Assessment of the limitations of HoloLens 2 to be used as a low-cost 3D scanning tool. • Quality analysis of the 3D data acquired by HoloLens 2 in a BIM context. • Comparisons in real case studies against conventional TLS and HMLS devices.