Can Smartphone LiDAR Be Used for Cultural Heritage Surveys? Explaining Its Accuracy and 6 Ways to Use It

Table of Contents

• Why Smartphone LiDAR Is Gaining Attention in Cultural Heritage Surveys

• Considerations for the Accuracy of Smartphone LiDAR in Cultural Heritage Surveys

• 6 Ways to Use Smartphone LiDAR for Cultural Heritage Surveys

• Situations Where Smartphone LiDAR Is Suitable and Not Suitable

• Practical points to check before introduction in cultural property surveys

• Summary

Why Smartphone LiDAR Is Attracting Attention in Cultural Heritage Surveys

In the field of cultural heritage surveys, there is a growing year-by-year demand to accurately record shapes, to document current conditions in a short time, and to make information easier to share among stakeholders. In conventional cultural heritage surveys, it has been common to keep records by combining photography, manual measurements, sketches, and drafting. These remain important basic methods, but when the subject’s form is complex or when there are many points that need to be rechecked later, information that cannot be captured on-site can become a problem.

One area drawing attention is the use of smartphone LiDAR. By using the LiDAR function built into smartphones, you can obtain distance information to a subject while relatively easily recording the shape of a space in three dimensions. In the field of cultural heritage, there are possibilities for use in a variety of situations such as stone structures, stone walls, parts of ruins, wall surfaces, interior spaces, exhibition environments, and checking the condition before and after repairs.

A major reason smartphone LiDAR is attracting attention is its ease of adoption and mobility. Because it makes it easy to enter sites without bringing bulky equipment and to begin recording work in a short time, it is well suited to preliminary surveys, primary documentation, and comparative records. In cultural heritage surveys, there are often constraints such as the preservation state of the subject, the surrounding environment, available working time, and access conditions. Under such constraints, a method that can be started immediately and can flexibly record the necessary areas is well suited to field practice.

Also, smartphone LiDAR is effective as an auxiliary tool for reducing oversights in cultural heritage surveys. For example, by preserving as three-dimensional data features that are hard to capture in planar photographs—such as surface irregularities and inclinations, the continuity of planes, and positional relationships with the surroundings—it becomes easier to review them after leaving the site. Of course, this alone cannot replace formal records or high-precision preservation surveying, but it is sufficiently valuable as a supplementary means to enhance the thoroughness of condition assessments.

Furthermore, in the field of cultural property surveys, there are situations where multiple stakeholders—not only surveyors but also preservation staff, designers, managers, and construction personnel—need to share information. In such cases, three-dimensional data that conveys shape and the visual materials derived from it make it easier to align understanding than explanations using only text and photographs. Data acquired with smartphone LiDAR can serve, as a separate layer from detailed survey results, as a foundation for sharing the current state and for explanatory materials.

In the field of cultural heritage, it is important not only to ensure the accuracy of records but also to minimize as much as possible the impact that work has on the objects. Being able to capture an object's shape without touching it, completing documentation in a short time, and operating within restricted movement paths all have significance from a conservation perspective. Smartphone LiDAR, as a non-contact and mobile recording method, has become one easily adoptable option for cultural heritage surveys.

Considerations on the Accuracy of Smartphone LiDAR in Cultural Heritage Surveys

When considering smartphone LiDAR for cultural heritage surveys, the most concerning factor is accuracy. However, it is important to note that accuracy should not be judged simply as "high or low." In cultural heritage surveys, the required level of accuracy varies depending on the purpose and the degree of reproducibility needed. Whether it is a simple record for documenting current conditions, baseline data for repair design, comparison of changes over time, or the creation of preservation drawings, the accuracy required differs.

Smartphone LiDAR is generally suitable for broad shape capture and spatial recording, but it has limitations for applications that require precise assessment of fine sculptural details, very small losses, the widths of thin cracks, slight steps, and similar features. The surfaces of cultural heritage objects contain extremely fine information such as weathering, wear, losses, traces of repair, tool marks, and fine details of ornamentation. When these need to be read accurately, smartphone LiDAR alone may not be sufficient.

Accuracy is not determined solely by the capability itself; it is also greatly affected by on-site conditions. If the distance to the target is too great, fine surface irregularities become difficult to capture. Conversely, if it is too close, it becomes hard to capture the overall shape. The material, color, and reflectivity of the target surface, ambient lighting, the operator’s walking style, the scan path, and the presence of obstructions also affect result stability. In cultural heritage surveys the target is often outdoors, and sunlight, shadows, post-rain moisture, vegetation, and scaffolding conditions can all influence data quality.

When considering the accuracy of cultural heritage, it is also necessary to be aware of the difference between absolute accuracy and relative accuracy. Absolute accuracy refers to how accurate something is with respect to real-world position coordinates and dimensions. Relative accuracy, on the other hand, refers to how naturally the continuity of shapes and proportions are preserved within the acquired data. Smartphone LiDAR tends to be more valuable for applications that primarily aim to grasp shapes relatively and to increase material for downstream consideration, rather than for situations that require high absolute accuracy including strict on-site coordinate control.

In cultural heritage surveys, it is important not to overestimate the accuracy of smartphone LiDAR, and conversely not to underestimate it either. Certainly, it is unrealistic to expect the same level of results as high-precision professional equipment. However, if the goal is to quickly capture the current site conditions in three dimensions, create records that can be compared, and use them to align understanding among stakeholders, there are plenty of practical situations where it is sufficiently useful. What matters is to clearly define its role according to the intended use.

For example, smartphone LiDAR is particularly effective for purposes such as capturing the overall form of cultural heritage, the spatial relationships of layout, the sense of spatial extent, the planar composition of walls and stonework, the sense of interior dimensions, and comparisons of conditions before and after surveys. Conversely, tasks such as recording fine ornamental detail, detecting extremely small displacements, providing source data for precise restoration design, and producing high-precision three-dimensional surveys as official deliverables should be considered on the assumption that they will be used in combination with other methods.

In practical terms, the accuracy of smartphone LiDAR in cultural heritage surveys should be seen as "not all-purpose, but sufficiently useful if you narrow its intended applications." If you are concerned about accuracy, start by testing it on small-scale subjects, and—while cross-checking with photographs, hand measurements, and existing drawings—determine which tasks it can be applied to.

Six Ways to Use Smartphone LiDAR for Cultural Heritage Surveys

The value of introducing smartphone LiDAR into cultural heritage surveys is not limited to simply enabling 3D capture. It functions as an assistive tool that reduces the recording burden on site, makes verification and sharing in later stages easier, and helps reduce omissions in surveys. Here, we outline six practical ways it can be used in everyday practice.

The first is accelerating the assessment of current conditions. In cultural heritage surveys there are many things to verify on site, and you may need to grasp the whole subject within a limited time. Using smartphone LiDAR makes it easier to record three-dimensional information that is hard to capture with plan photographs alone, and to do so in a short time. Being able to review shapes later, rather than relying on impressions from the site, is a great help in the initial phase of a survey. It is especially suitable for subjects that require three-dimensional understanding, such as stone monuments, wall surfaces, and the spatial relationships around structures.

The second is a comparative record of before and after repairs. In the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage, it is important to appropriately preserve the pre-work condition and be able to confirm differences after the work. Smartphone LiDAR is an easy-to-use means as an auxiliary record for comparison—rather than being intended for high-precision displacement analysis itself—for overall shape, areas of loss, surface configuration, and surrounding conditions. Parts whose positional relationships are difficult to grasp from photos alone become easier to explain among stakeholders when there is three-dimensional documentation.

The third is the organization of shapes such as stone walls, stone steps, foundational platforms, and ruins. Cultural properties often include objects with irregularly shaped stones and complex surface configurations. For such objects, planar records alone make it difficult to convey the overall picture, and differences in field experience can lead to variability in understanding. By capturing the rough shape with smartphone LiDAR, it becomes easier to confirm which parts protrude, which faces are tilted, and how they connect to the surrounding terrain. This is useful not as a final deliverable for detailed design but as a basic record that increases the information available for decision-making.

The fourth is documentation of indoor spaces and exhibition environments. Cultural property surveys are conducted not only outdoors but also inside storage facilities, exhibition spaces, and historic buildings. In such situations, one may want to understand the space including floors, walls, columns, openings, and the circulation routes around exhibits. Smartphone LiDAR is easy to carry and relatively flexible even in narrow spaces, so it can be well suited to indoor surveys. It also serves as convenient reference material when later considering layout plans, conservation measures, or temporary installation plans.

The fifth is preparing materials for explaining the situation to stakeholders. In cultural property surveys, there are occasions to explain the situation not only to experts but also to managers, owners, clients, and preservation-related parties. At such times, specialized drawings alone can be hard to convey. Based on shape information obtained with smartphone LiDAR, organizing and sharing how the current condition appears makes it easier to understand the sense of scale and the positional relationships of the subject. This is also effective in supporting consensus building. In the cultural property field, it is practically important not only to be technically accurate but also to communicate in an easy-to-understand way.

The sixth point is supplementing records at sites that are difficult to revisit. Some cultural heritage surveys involve sites with limited access periods, sites affected by seasonal conditions, or sites that are hard to revisit because of public opening schedules. In such cases, it is important to leave as much information on site as possible. Smartphone LiDAR does not replace detailed surveys, but it is effective as an additional record to cover any omissions during on-site checks. When later you encounter areas that photos alone cannot clarify, the value of having three-dimensional records is significant.

Thus, the use of smartphone LiDAR is not a substitute for precise surveying results but rather practical support that raises the quality of cultural heritage surveys. Considering it from six perspectives—current condition assessment, comparative documentation, shape organization, spatial recording, sharing, and supplementation when revisits are difficult—clarifies its positioning for adoption.

Situations Where Smartphone LiDAR Is Suitable and Not Suitable

To use smartphone LiDAR effectively in cultural heritage surveys, it is essential to distinguish the situations where it is suitable from those where it is not. If you use the equipment without understanding its characteristics, the records may appear to have been captured but might not meet the standards required in professional practice. Conversely, when used in ways that match the purpose, it becomes a very efficient supplementary recording method.

One of the primary situations it is suited for is grasping the overall shape. Cultural heritage objects are not necessarily self-contained; they need to be understood in relation to surrounding terrain, base platforms, stonework, pathways, walls, and attached or ancillary elements. In such cases, it is more important to capture how the space is composed than the fine details of the individual object. Smartphone LiDAR is well suited to this kind of overall understanding.

It is also suitable for the initial stages of recording and for preliminary surveys. This is because it is easy to use as material for deciding, before a full-scale investigation, where to concentrate observation, which areas show concentrated deterioration, and from which angles additional documentation is needed. In cultural heritage surveys, there are often situations where priorities must be set within limited schedules, so it is also effective in aiding on-site decision-making.

Furthermore, it is also well suited to assist with regular follow-up observations. Apart from precise displacement measurements, if you record the same approximate area each time using the same approach, it becomes easier to broadly grasp changes over time. When comparing signs of deterioration, changes in the surrounding environment, or how repair areas are settling in, having preserved shape information can sometimes be easier to interpret than photos alone.

On the other hand, there are clearly situations where it is not suitable. For example, recording extremely fine surface information. The fine details of sculptures, minute incised lines, shallow weathering marks, thin cracks, and subtle differences in material surface texture may not be adequately captured by smartphone LiDAR alone. For such subjects, priority should be given to close-up photography or high-resolution recording using other methods.

Furthermore, in situations that require precise coordinate reference frames, it is insufficient as-is. In the preservation and maintenance of cultural heritage, alignment with on-site coordinates, consistency with existing drawings, and registration of datasets from multiple time periods may be necessary. In such cases, not only the geometric data but also the reliability of positional information becomes important. Smartphone LiDAR alone can be weak in that regard.

Suitability also depends on the condition of the target surface. Highly reflective surfaces, uniform surfaces with few features, areas with complex shadows, and locations where vegetation and scaffolding materials are heavily intermixed can cause shape acquisition to become unstable. Even when cultural properties are man-made, they often undergo significant aging and do not have uniform surface conditions, so assessment on a site-by-site basis is necessary.

In short, smartphone LiDAR is not a universal tool for cultural heritage surveys. However, if you identify the tasks it is suited for, it becomes easier to achieve both quality and speed in on-site documentation. To use it appropriately without excess or shortfall, it is important to clarify in advance what you want to record, what level of accuracy is required, and how the data will be used in subsequent processes.

Practical points to confirm before introduction in cultural property surveys

When incorporating smartphone LiDAR into cultural heritage surveys, you should not judge it by functionality alone but consider operational aspects as well. Whether it is truly usable in practice is not determined solely by the appearance of the data you can acquire. Only by designing the process to include site conditions, work arrangements, recording rules, storage methods, and the handling of location information will it become a method that is continuously useful.

First, what I want to confirm is alignment with the survey objectives. In cultural property surveys, objectives may be divided into multiple purposes, such as assessing current conditions, creating preservation records, considering repairs, public use, and educational use. If introduced while objectives are unclear, you may end up recording a wider area than necessary or, conversely, fail to capture required parts. Before using it on site, it is important to decide which subjects to document, at what level of detail, and for what purpose.

Next, the shooting flow and work procedures are important. Smartphone LiDAR may look easy to use, but simply walking around is not enough. If movement is too fast, the distance to the subject is unstable, there are many blind spots, or the route changes each time, the resulting records tend to be difficult to compare. Because reproducibility is important in cultural heritage surveys, when recording the same subject multiple times you should consciously keep your standing positions, the way you circle the object, and the distance to the subject consistent to some extent.

Rules for organizing data are also indispensable. In cultural property surveys, past data are often referenced at a later date. Therefore, if fields such as recording date and time, object name, part, orientation, operator, survey purpose, and supplementary notes are not properly organized, the data you worked hard to collect will become difficult to use. Especially in the cultural heritage field, the same location may be handled differently depending on the year or survey classification, so it is important to establish naming conventions and storage rules at an early stage.

In addition, you should plan to use photographs alongside it. Smartphone LiDAR is useful for capturing shape, but photographs are often better suited for color tones, material texture, the appearance of dirt, and traces of repair. In cultural heritage surveys, both shape and surface condition are important, so it is practical to design 3D records and photographic records as complementary rather than treating them separately.

Handling location information must not be overlooked. When trying to make use of three-dimensional data in cultural heritage surveys, situations arise where you want to overlay it later with drawings or other survey results. What becomes problematic then is the question of which reference was used when recording. If you leave only three-dimensional data without coordinate verification on site, you may struggle to reconcile positions in later processes. Even if it is useful as a record in a broad sense, if the positional reference is ambiguous its range of use tends to be limited.

In this respect, in practical cultural heritage surveys it is important to separate shape capture from position management. By recording object shapes and spaces with smartphone LiDAR while separately securing positional references, the possible uses of the data expand greatly. In particular, if you are considering comparisons across multiple time periods, correspondence with site coordinates, or consistency with related drawings, the establishment of positional references should be considered at an early stage.

It can also be effective to set a small-scale trial target before introduction. Rather than immediately applying it across an entire large-scale cultural property survey, verifying it within a limited scope—such as a single stone monument, part of a stone stairway, or a section inside a building—makes it easier to see the achievable precision, work time, data volume, and data-management burden. In practice, whether on-site operations are practical, rather than the inherent quality of the technology, is the key to continued use.

Summary

In cultural heritage surveys, smartphone LiDAR is a sufficiently practical option when used with a focused purpose. In particular, in situations such as accelerating the assessment of current conditions, pre- and post-repair comparisons, organizing the shapes of stone structures and archaeological features, recording indoor and outdoor spaces, creating explanatory materials for stakeholders, and supplementing records at sites that are difficult to revisit, it offers the advantage of increasing the amount of information while reducing the burden on site.

On the other hand, it cannot directly substitute for reproducing fine design details, assessing extremely small displacements, providing the baseline materials for precise conservation drawings, or producing high-precision survey results accompanied by coordinate references. What is important in cultural heritage surveys is not to treat smartphone LiDAR as a universal solution, but to clearly define what can be entrusted to it and where other methods should be used to supplement it. If that judgment can be made, smartphone LiDAR becomes a very practical and user-friendly tool even in the cultural heritage field.

To truly make use of three-dimensional records in cultural heritage surveys, it is essential not only to capture shape but also to accurately establish which part of the site the data refers to. Even carefully acquired 3D data will have limited value for comparison, sharing, and reuse if its positional reference remains ambiguous. This is where systems like LRTK, a smartphone-mounted high-precision GNSS positioning device, become effective. When recording the current condition of cultural properties and mapping surrounding spaces, considering shape capture and positional verification together makes it easier to produce survey data that are manageable in subsequent workflows. If you are considering using smartphone LiDAR in cultural heritage surveys, the quickest path to practical results is to design your operations to include not only the convenience of 3D recording but also on-site coordinate verification and the organization of location information.