One of the most convenient ways to create 3D photogrammetry scans is by using the Polycam smartphone app. Its community-driven Explore page also provides access to a wide range of highly detailed 3D scan models. Most of these models can be exported in OBJ/MTL or glTF formats and viewed using HoloGold. Note that Polycam requires a monthly or annual subscription once the free trial period ends.
For a free alternative, open-source desktop applications such as Meshroom can be used to generate 3D scans. However, Meshroom typically requires a reasonably powerful GPU to run efficiently.
Sketchfab, Free3D, and TurboSquid provide large collections of 3D models. Since OBJ/MTL exports may have inconsistencies requiring manual fixes, GLTF/GLB formats are recommended for greater consistency.
If you need to purchase a webcam, we recommend choosing a model that supports 60 FPS (frames per second) and features a wide-angle lens to maximize the capture area. For example, the NexiGo N980P 1080P 60FPS is an affordable option that delivers solid performance.
If you are running HoloGold on a laptop with a built-in webcam, an external webcam is not required. However, using an external webcam can still provide improved eye-tracking performance.
HoloGold does not store or transmit any webcam-captured frames to remote servers. All frames are processed locally for facial landmark estimation and are immediately discarded on a per-frame basis by the webcam server application running on your computer.
The server application uses two libraries: OpenCV and Google’s MediaPipe. According to Google’s MediaPipe terms of service, all processing is performed locally, and no data is sent to external servers.
Make sure that the display profile and the webcam position are configured correctly. Then, re-run calibration (tilt, depth and offset).
For tilt calibration, it'll be helpful to use a small box-shaped object horizontally leveled with the center of the lens to adjust the angle of the webcam.
For depth calibration, make sure that your head is not tilted sideways.
For offset calibration, it'll be again helpful to use a small box-shaped object aligned with the center reference line. Before running the offset calibration, make sure that the webcam position parameters are set appropriately. For example, if the lens of the webcam is 3cm above the top center of the screen, the Y position parameter should be set to 3cm before running the offset calibration.
Once the webcam is properly calibrated, you can skip most of the webcam calibration procedure after changing the display device.
After mounting the webcam at the top center of the new display device, redo the tilt calibration only.
Try lowering the display resolution of the monitor. In most cases, this will have the biggest impact on improving the frame rate (especially true for 4K+ monitors).
Keeping CPU/RAM hungry applications (e.g., web browsers like Chrome) open in the background will also slow down the FPS.
If possible, try to keep the polygon count to less than half a million for improved responsiveness by reducing the polygon count via re-meshing the model or removing background polygons.
The displayed frames could seem a bit shaky if you're using large monitors or TVs. To mitigate the shakiness, try increasing the Smoothing parameter on the HoloGold Eyetracker Server application. Smoothing will stabilize the shaky frames, but there will be a trade-off between frame stability and eye-tracking responsiveness.
HoloGold does not use GPU for rendering. All rendering is CPU-based so upgrading the GPU will probably not affect the performance.
Turn on the Show Axis (Hotkey: X) and Retain on State options before displaying the 3D hologram model.
Once the hologram is projected on the screen, use the following keys to control the camera while viewing the hologram:
The blue XY reference plane (enabled by Show Axis or with the hot key "X" during display) is the "screen window" that will always remain stationary. The part of the model will in front of the XY plane screen (towards the viewer) will "pop out" of the screen.
The origin of the reference axes (the point where the three red/green/blue planes intersect) positioned near the spot for the viewer to focus on.
After setting the camera position and angle, exit the hologram view mode, and save the retained state (Retain on State must be enabled) inside the OBJ folder for auto-loading the camera configuration next time the model is loaded.
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