{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T10:03:05Z","timestamp":1790071385882,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Imaging"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Modern building infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex, creating a need for intuitive indoor navigation systems that can assist users in unfamiliar environments. Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged as a promising solution by providing spatially contextual guidance directly within the user\u2019s field of view. However, many AR indoor navigation systems rely on manually constructed 3D environments, a development process that is time-consuming and prone to spatial inconsistencies with the real-world environment. This study presents a comparative evaluation of two environment creation workflows for AR indoor navigation development: a traditional manual 3D modeling approach and an automated cloud-based spatial mapping workflow using the Immersal SDK. A counterbalanced within-subject experiment was conducted with 48 participants, each of whom completed equivalent indoor navigation development tasks using both workflows in a real-world campus building environment. The development process was divided into three stages: environment acquisition, environment generation, and system integration. Development efficiency was evaluated using stage-based development time measurements, while perceived workload was assessed using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). Statistical analysis was performed using repeated-measures analysis to compare workflow performance across development stages. Results show that the automated workflow significantly reduced overall development time by approximately 38% compared to the manual modeling approach, with the most substantial time reductions occurring during the environment acquisition and environment generation stages. NASA-TLX results indicate an approximately 31% reduction in overall perceived workload. Descriptively, the automated workflow had lower mental-demand and effort scores but a higher physical-demand score. A separate researcher-conducted spatial validation of one implementation per workflow showed a higher mean three-dimensional positional error for the automated implementation (22.47 cm) than for the manual implementation (19.14 cm), with a mean paired difference of 3.33 cm across 13 anchor locations. These findings indicate that automated spatial mapping can substantially improve development efficiency and reduce overall perceived workload, while introducing trade-offs in physical demand and spatial alignment accuracy relative to manual environment reconstruction.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jimaging12090452","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T08:17:54Z","timestamp":1790065074000},"page":"452","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Comparative Analysis of Automated Cloud-Based Mapping and Manual 3D Modeling for AR-Based Indoor Navigation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9019-9775","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Evianita Dewi","family":"Fajrianti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Human Centric Multimedia Research Laboratory, Department of Informatic and Computer Engineering, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5612-6062","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amma Liesvarastranta","family":"Haz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Human Centric Multimedia Research Laboratory, Department of Informatic and Computer Engineering, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9580-5538","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuita Arum","family":"Sari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Computer Science, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8157-5863","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sritrusta","family":"Sukaridhoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Human Centric Multimedia Research Laboratory, Department of Informatic and Computer Engineering, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Zacky Maulana","family":"Achmad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Human Centric Multimedia Research Laboratory, Department of Informatic and Computer Engineering, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1007-6888","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rizqi Putri Nourma","family":"Budiarti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Business Economics and Digital Technology, Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Surabaya, Surabaya 60237, Indonesia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cosrev.2017.03.002","article-title":"Indoor location based services challenges, requirements and usability of current solutions","volume":"24","author":"Basiri","year":"2017","journal-title":"Comput. Sci. Rev."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tahir, R., and Krogstie, J. (2023). Impact of navigation aid and spatial ability skills on wayfinding performance and workload in indoor-outdoor campus navigation: Challenges and design. Appl. Sci., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/app13179508"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fajrianti, E.D., Funabiki, N., Haz, A.L., and Sukaridhoto, S. (2023). A proposal of OCR-based user positioning method in indoor navigation system using unity and smartphone (INSUS). Proceedings of the 2023 12th International Conference on Networks, Communication and Computing, Osaka, Japan, 15\u201317 December 2023, Association for Computing Machinery.","DOI":"10.1145\/3638837.3638852"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fajrianti, E.D., Haz, A.L., Funabiki, N., and Sukaridhoto, S. (2023). A cross-platform implementation of indoor navigation system using Unity and smartphone INSUS. Proceedings of the 2023 Sixth International Conference on Vocational Education and Electrical Engineering (ICVEE), Surabaya, Indonesia, 14\u201315 October 2023, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICVEE59738.2023.10348217"},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"476","article-title":"Application of augmented intelligence technology with human body tracking for human anatomy education","volume":"12","author":"Fajrianti","year":"2022","journal-title":"IJIET Int. J. Inf. Educ. Technol."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2676","DOI":"10.1080\/10447318.2023.2169524","article-title":"Impact of AR navigation display methods on wayfinding performance and spatial knowledge acquisition","volume":"40","author":"Qiu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum.-Interact."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kang, Z., Yang, J., Yang, Z., and Cheng, S. (2020). A review of techniques for 3d reconstruction of indoor environments. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi9050330"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"999","DOI":"10.18517\/ijaseit.13.3.18375","article-title":"Comparative Study of 3D Assets Optimization of Virtual Reality Application on VR Standalone Device","volume":"13","author":"Sukaridhoto","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Sci. Eng. Inf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fajrianti, E.D., Funabiki, N., Sukaridhoto, S., Panduman, Y.Y.F., Dezheng, K., Shihao, F., and Surya Pradhana, A.A. (2023). INSUS: Indoor navigation system using Unity and smartphone for user ambulation assistance. Information, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/info14070359"},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"103","article-title":"3D modelling of a building oriented to indoor navigation system for users with different mobility conditions","volume":"6","author":"Montilla","year":"2020","journal-title":"ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Suryawati, N., Sukaridhoto, S., Rante, H., Fajrianti, E.D., and Hakim, O.S. (2023). Indoor navigation using augmented reality for PENS postgraduate building. Proceedings of the 2023 International Electronics Symposium (IES), Bali, Indonesia, 8\u201310 August 2023, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/IES59143.2023.10242543"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fajrianti, E.D., Funabiki, N., Panduman, Y.Y.F., Sukaridhoto, S., Al Rasyid, M.U.H., and Budiarti, R.P.N. (2022). Design and implementation of indoor navigation for PENS visitors using augmented intelligence. Proceedings of the 2022 Fifth International Conference on Vocational Education and Electrical Engineering (ICVEE), Surabaya, Indonesia, 10\u201311 September 2022, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICVEE57061.2022.9930364"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106551","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2025.106551","article-title":"Aligning as-built and as-designed: Local point cloud to BIM registration via hybrid visibility map encoding for construction digital twins","volume":"180","author":"Wang","year":"2025","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100222","DOI":"10.1016\/j.array.2022.100222","article-title":"Visual SLAM algorithms and their application for AR, mapping, localization and wayfinding","volume":"15","author":"Theodorou","year":"2022","journal-title":"Array"},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"2366","article-title":"Developing an AR Navigation System: Bridging Indoor and Outdoor Environments","volume":"9","author":"Achmad","year":"2025","journal-title":"JOIV Int. J. Inform. Vis."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Agustia, R.D., Hermanto, L.B., and Maulana, H. (2024). Augmented Reality Based Indoor Navigation System using Point Cloud Localization for Efficient Item Search in Warehouse. Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Informatics Engineering, Science & Technology (INCITEST), Bandung, Indonesia, 24 October 2024, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/INCITEST64888.2024.11121513"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Achmad, Z.M., Sukaridhoto, S., Zainuddin, M.A., Savila, A., Firmansyah, A., and Saputra, S.M. (2024). Augmented reality-based navigation: Bridging indoor and outdoor environments through Immersal integration. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Technology (ISCT), Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, 13\u201316 August 2024, IEEE."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106731","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2025.106731","article-title":"Indoor scan-to-BIM automation: From mobile perception to 3D building modelling","volume":"182","author":"Luo","year":"2026","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cag.2022.03.005","article-title":"Recent Advances in Vision-Based Indoor Navigation: A Systematic Literature Review","volume":"104","author":"Khan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e06277","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2021.e06277","article-title":"A review of augmented reality systems and their effects on mental workload and task performance","volume":"7","author":"Jeffri","year":"2021","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"154","DOI":"10.1007\/s10055-025-01226-w","article-title":"Use of augmented reality in human wayfinding: A systematic review","volume":"29","author":"Qiu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Virtual Real."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arntz, A., Ke\u00dfler, D., Borgert, N., Zengeler, N., Jansen, M., Handmann, U., and Eimler, S.C. (2020). Navigating a heavy industry environment using augmented reality\u2014A comparison of two indoor navigation designs. Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-49698-2_1"},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"2037","article-title":"Comparative study of user experience on mobile pedestrian navigation between digital map interface and location-based augmented reality","volume":"10","author":"Brata","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Electr. Comput. Eng."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gerstweiler, G., Platzer, K., and Kaufmann, H. (2017). DARGS: Dynamic AR guiding system for indoor environments. Computers, 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/computers7010005"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Huang, B.C., Hsu, J., Chu, E.T.H., and Wu, H.M. (2020). Arbin: Augmented reality based indoor navigation system. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20205890"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nendya, M.B., Mahastama, A.W., and Setiadi, B. (2023). Augmented reality indoor navigation using NavMesh. Proceedings of the 2023 1st IEEE International Conference on Smart Technology (ICE-SMARTec), Bandung, Indonesia, 17\u201319 July 2023, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICE-SMARTECH59237.2023.10461972"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"124469","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2024.124469","article-title":"BIM-based augmented reality navigation for indoor emergency evacuation","volume":"255","author":"Ahn","year":"2024","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ye, W., He, N., and Wang, J. (2023). Indoor Navigation with Augmented Reality. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Computer Science and Automation Technology (CSAT), Shanghai, China, 6\u20138 October 2023, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSAT61646.2023.00106"},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Apple Inc. (2026, May 06). RoomPlan: Parametric 3D Room Scanning with ARKit. Available online: https:\/\/machinelearning.apple.com\/research\/roomplan."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6257","DOI":"10.3390\/heritage7110294","article-title":"Scan-to-BIM process and architectural conservation: Towards an effective tool for the thematic mapping of decay and alteration phenomena","volume":"7","author":"Ferro","year":"2024","journal-title":"Heritage"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Google (2026, September 01). Cloud Anchors Allow Different Users to Share AR Experiences. Available online: https:\/\/developers.google.com\/ar\/develop\/cloud-anchors."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Microsoft (2026, September 01). Azure Spatial Anchors\u2014Microsoft Lifecycle. Available online: https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/lifecycle\/products\/azure-spatial-anchors."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Immersal Oy (2026, September 01). Immersal SDK\u2014Spatial Mapping & Visual Positioning Service. Available online: https:\/\/developers.immersal.com\/."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127125","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2023.127125","article-title":"A Critical Analysis of Image-Based Camera Pose Estimation Techniques","volume":"570","author":"Xu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Neurocomputing"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127760","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2024.127760","article-title":"A Comprehensive Overview of Core Modules in Visual SLAM Framework","volume":"590","author":"Cai","year":"2024","journal-title":"Neurocomputing"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mildenhall, B., Srinivasan, P.P., Tancik, M., Barron, J.T., Ramamoorthi, R., and Ng, R. (2020). NeRF: Representing Scenes as Neural Radiance Fields for View Synthesis. Proceedings of the Computer Vision\u2014ECCV 2020, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-58452-8_24"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"139:1","DOI":"10.1145\/3592433","article-title":"3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering","volume":"42","author":"Kerbl","year":"2023","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Graph."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"613","DOI":"10.1007\/s41095-024-0436-y","article-title":"Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splatting","volume":"10","author":"Wu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput. Vis. Media"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127553","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2024.127553","article-title":"Multi-View 3D Reconstruction Based on Deep Learning: A Survey and Comparison of Methods","volume":"582","author":"Wu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Neurocomputing"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114370","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2024.3445301","article-title":"Analysis of the Mental Workload Associated With the Use of Virtual Reality Technology as Support in the Higher Educational Model","volume":"12","author":"Rawas","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brata, K.C., Funabiki, N., Sandi Kyaw, H.H., Riyantoko, P.A., and Mentari, M. (2025). A Comparative Study of Authoring Performances Between In-Situ Mobile and Desktop Tools for Outdoor Location-Based Augmented Reality. Information, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/info16100908"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ashtari, N., and Chilana, P.K. (2024). How new developers approach augmented reality development using simplified creation tools: An observational study. Multimodal Technol. Interact., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/mti8040035"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baig, M.Z., and Kavakli, M. (2018). Analyzing Novice and Expert User\u2019s Cognitive Load in using a Multi-Modal Interface System. Proceedings of the 2018 26th International Conference on Systems Engineering (ICSEng), Sydney, NSW, Australia, 18\u201320 December 2018, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENG.2018.8638206"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.3390\/network4030014","article-title":"A user location reset method through object recognition in indoor navigation system using Unity and a smartphone (INSUS)","volume":"4","author":"Fajrianti","year":"2024","journal-title":"Network"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Taira, H., Okutomi, M., Sattler, T., Cimpoi, M., Pollefeys, M., Sivic, J., Pajdla, T., and Torii, A. (2018). InLoc: Indoor Visual Localization with Dense Matching and View Synthesis. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 18\u201322 June 2018, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2018.00752"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3177853","article-title":"Visual SLAM and Structure from Motion in Dynamic Environments: A Survey","volume":"51","author":"Saputra","year":"2019","journal-title":"ACM Comput. Surv."}],"container-title":["Journal of Imaging"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-433X\/12\/9\/452\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T09:20:31Z","timestamp":1790068831000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-433X\/12\/9\/452"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9]]}},"alternative-id":["jimaging12090452"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/jimaging12090452","relation":{},"ISSN":["2313-433X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2313-433X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]}}}