Virtual Spelunking

These are the Piusa Caverns. They’re located in south-eastern Estonia and were formed from nearly 50 years’ worth of glass-sand mining. Formerly a popular tourist attraction, the caverns are now closed to the public for safety reasons, as well as to protect the bats that nest in the caves.

The Estonian government turned to 3D Technologies R&D (3dtech-rd.com) to recreate the attraction virtually. To do it, 3D Technologies began by using a Leica (leica-geosystems.com) HDS 3000 laser scanner to precisely scan about 1/4th of the cavern’s 27,000-ft interior.
 

 After scanning, 3D Technologies cleaned, simplified and triangulated the point cloud data for use in Luxology Modo (luxology.com) modeling software. Modo also enabled the team to add wall texture and other details from the caves as they virtually recreated them.

Today the caverns are presented in an interactive, real-time 3D model in the Piusa Visitor Center. Guests navigate the caves at touch-screen kiosks and can observe even the most minor details, such as inscriptions in the sand walls and the various color schemes throughout the caverns. There are no bats, however.