Use of Laser-Scanned Point Clouds for the Virtual Reconstruction of Medieval Hungarian Castles

Abstract

In heritage conservation research, the use of spatial scanning is becoming increasingly common; however, there are still untapped possibilities in its application. The topic of this article is an overview of terrestrial and aerial scanning, as well as the introduction of methods that have not yet been applied.At the beginning of the article, I present the principles of true-to-form surveying, which forms the basis of our research. Then I describe the methodology of the surveys and the specific steps required to carry out the analysis. These methods are suitable for producing precise, measurement-ready, geometrically accurate floor plans and for examining masonry fabrics, as well as visualizing them. Furthermore, they make it possible to conduct larger-scale floor-plan analyses that also considers the surrounding geographical features.This article illustrates the methods by using Hungarian castle ruins examined during my PhD research, although they can be applied to other building types as well. In addition, the article discusses further possibilities of the surveying methods and new directions for the research.