Lidar Sensor for the Enhancement of the Architectural Heritage

During the last decade, digital survey methodologies and techniques have reached a considerable level of precision, remaining restricted to a professional and not very economical context. At the same time, similar technologies characterized by high portability and much more accessible costs are emerging. Apple, in collaboration with Lumentum, has equipped its new devices (iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPad Pro) with a Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor capable of performing 3D scans of the surrounding space, similar to laser scans at time of flight, fast and progressive in real time, improving the RGB-D technology once developed for Kinect (which uses depth Maps) thanks to the new sensors provided. The aim of the research coincides with the experimentation of this kind of technology in the field of cultural Heritage valorization through such low cost expeditive procedures. The proposed case studies concern the survey of an aedicule to the left of the main altar of the church of Santa Maria ad Cryptas in Fossa (AQ) in Abruzzo, an artefact which has also been the subject of a recent laser scanning survey by means of BLK 360 by LEICA GEOSYSTEM, and the survey of the Alviani Tunnel, a permanent work of contemporary art housed in the EX-Aurum in Pescara. The integrated survey operations are linked to subsequent cognitive investigations on methods and precision of low-cost survey, by means of comparisons and methodological insights and then proceed to the export workflow of the point cloud and to the optimization of the mesh in function of a transfer on exploratory virtual platforms.