Effective scan guidelines

🔋  Camera battery

📱  Mobile device battery

🗄️  Camera storage space

Shown in the app before you start. Charge fully before going on site.

A long scan on a low battery phone risks losing your session mid-walk.

Shown in the app. Delete old published scans from the camera if space is low.

1

📍  Set your start location accurately

Why: Oculo maps your entire scan to the floor plan using your start point as the anchor. An inaccurate start location shifts the whole scan on the plan.

1. When prompted, pinpoint your exact position on the floor plan before the recording begins
2. Zoom in on the plan and place the pin precisely - don’t just drop it approximately in the right area
3. Choose a recognisable, fixed reference point (e.g. a doorway, stairwell, or column) rather than an open space
4. If you’re scanning multiple floors, select the correct floor from the dropdown before placing your pin

⚠️  An inaccurate start location is the most common cause of a scan appearing misaligned on the floor plan. Take 10 extra seconds here.

2

💡  Check your lighting before you walk

Why: 360° cameras need even, diffuse light across the whole space. Poor lighting causes grainy scenes, blurring, and location tracking problems.

1. Scan during daylight hours where possible - avoid dusk and dawn when light levels are dropping
2. Turn on all available static lighting in the areas you’re scanning - overhead lights, strip lighting, temporary site lighting
3. For dark areas (basements, plant rooms, areas without natural light), use a diffuse lighting attachment such as a Bushman Halo on a selfie stick or a Hard Hat Halo.
4. Never use a head torch, beam torch, or your phone’s flash - any directional beam causes hotspots, grainy images, and processing errors

⚠️  If an area is too dark to scan well today, note it and return when lighting conditions improve. A dark scan is worse than no scan - it can cause processing failures.

3

🚶  Walk like you’re carrying a cup of coffee

Why: The camera captures a frame every 0.5 seconds in Timelapse mode. Move too fast and you’ll have gaps in coverage. Move too erratically and the image quality drops.

1. Walk at a calm, steady pace - think of a relaxed stroll, not a quick site inspection march
2. Keep your movements smooth and predictable - avoid sudden turns, stops, or jerky movements
3. You can look around naturally, but avoid fast head movements if you’re hard hat mounting
4. Pause for a second or two in the centre of smaller rooms to ensure full coverage

4

🔄  Walk around the perimeter of every room

Why: Walking through the centre of a room leaves the corners and edges under-captured. Walking the perimeter gives comprehensive coverage of all surfaces.

1. Walk around the perimeter of each room, staying approximately 1-2 metres from the walls
2. For smaller rooms, walk to the centre then pause briefly
3. Don’t skip rooms - including smaller spaces like toilets, plant rooms, stairwells, and storage areas
4. For large rooms, walk a snake-like path to ensure coverage throughout

⚠️  Missing rooms is one of the most common feedback points from office-based teams reviewing a scan. If it’s on the floor plan, scan it.

5

⬆️  Use stairs between floors - not lifts or hoists

Why: Oculo tracks your movement continuously to stitch the scan across floors. A lift or hoist breaks that spatial continuity and causes the scan to fail across floors.

1. Always use the stairs when moving between floors during a scan
2. You can ride a hoist or lift to the top floor before starting - then walk down the stairs, scanning each floor as you go
3. If you absolutely must use a lift during a scan, stop the recording before entering it. Start a new scan from your current location when you exit
4. Update your start location accurately when beginning a new scan mid-site

⚠️  Using a lift mid-scan without stopping will cause processing delays, and possible floor allocation problems.

6

📹  Record everything in one continuous scan

Why: Oculo works best with one long, continuous recording per site visit. Multiple short scans mean manual stitching and gaps in the coverage timeline.

1. Start recording at the beginning of your site walk and stop only when you’ve finished
2. You can cover multiple floors in a single recording - Oculo handles the transitions via the stairs
3. Pausing to talk to someone on site is fine - the recording continues but no audio is captured in Timelapse mode
4. If something forces you to stop mid-scan (e.g. you need to use a lift, leave the site, or deal with an issue), stop the recording properly, then start a new one when you resume from where you left off

7

🧹  Camera care and maintenance

Why: A dirty lens or a scratch may be invisible to the eye but immediately obvious in the 360° output. Dust, fingerprints, and debris cause blurring that affects both image quality and AI accuracy.

1. Wipe both lenses with the microfibre cloth before every scan — make it part of your pre-scan routine
2. Give the lenses a quick clean after transporting the camera across site or in a bag
3. Store the camera with the lens cover on when not in use
4. If the lenses look scratched or damaged, and your outputs are affected consider a replacement lens (X5 camera only) or a replacement camera

Mistake

What goes wrong

How to avoid it

Rushing through rooms

Gaps in coverage, missed areas, low image quality

Walk like you’re carrying a cup of coffee. Pause in small rooms.

Poor or uneven lighting

Grainy images, blurred images, processing failures

Turn on all static lighting. Use a diffuse light attachment in dark areas. Never use a beam torch.

Dirty camera lenses

Blurry or smeared images across the entire scan

Wipe both lenses with the microfibre cloth before every scan.

Holding camera in hand at body height

Body blocks parts the 360° view, processing problems, cancelled scans

Hard hat mount or selfie stick held above head height.

Missing rooms (toilets, plant rooms, storage)

Gaps in site record, coverage complaints from office team

If it’s on the floor plan, scan it. Plan your route before you start.

Inaccurate start or end location

Scan appears misaligned on the floor plan, processing delays

Zoom in and place the pin precisely on a recognisable fixed point.

Using a lift mid-scan without stopping

Processing delays

Stop the recording before entering any lift. Start a new scan when you exit.

Not using Oculo mobile app

Unsupported recording modes, processing delays, cancelled scans

Always use Oculo mobile app