Abstract
Image data remains an important tool for post-event building assessment and documentation. After each natural hazard event, significant efforts are made by teams of engineers to visit the affected regions and collect useful image data. In general, a global positioning system (GPS) can provide useful spatial information for localizing image data. However, it is challenging to collect such information when images are captured in places where GPS signals are weak or interrupted, such as the indoor spaces of buildings. The inability to document the images’ locations hinders the analysis, organization, and documentation of these images as they lack sufficient spatial context. In this work, we develop a methodology to localize images and link them to locations on a structural drawing. A stream of images can readily be gathered along the path taken through a building using a compact camera. These images may be used to compute a relative location of each image in a 3D point cloud model, which is reconstructed using a visual odometry algorithm. The images may also be used to create local 3D textured models for building-components-of-interest using a structure-from-motion algorithm. A parallel set of images that are collected for building assessment is linked to the image stream using time information. By projecting the point cloud model to the structural drawing, the images can be overlaid onto the drawing, providing clear context information necessary to make use of those images. Additionally, components- or damage-of-interest captured in these images can be reconstructed in 3D, enabling detailed assessments having sufficient geospatial context. The technique is demonstrated by emulating post-event building assessment and data collection in a real building.
Highlights
Engineers often learn from observing the consequences of natural disasters on our physical infrastructure by studying the real world
The 3D point cloud was generated from the scenes including wall, doors, columns, of which scenes were contained in KeyFrames
Engineers are not able to conduct in-depth studies needed to understand the consequences of natural hazard events on our buildings and
Summary
Engineers often learn from observing the consequences of natural disasters on our physical infrastructure by studying the real world. Field engineers may take photos close to the object being documented within the scenes-of-interest With such images, one cannot infer any of the relevant spatial contexts to make use of the information extracted. The images may not contain contextual information associated with, for instance, the column location on the floor, its relative size, or the relative conditions of other nearby building components To obtain such information the engineer will need to sift through the set of previous or pictures collected near this region. Since we collect a large number of PathImgs along the path, any useful scenes on InspImgs can be reconstructed in 3D including color surface texture, enabling their detailed inspection with sufficient spatial context.
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