Integrated 3D Building Model and Thermography Analysis to NTD Virtual Reality

Abstract

A thermal infrared camera can be used to restore the 3D model such that the restored model contains the surface temperature information. The surface temperature information can be employed to identify the defects illustrated in the model. However, the 3D model is limited to the resolutions of the thermal infrared camera. Furthermore, the surface temperature information is supposed to be analyzed by employing image processing techniques to develop the temperature boundaries for defect detection. The study proposes to restore a 3D model by employing a series of photos collected by a drone. In doing so, a 3D model with high accuracy can be built. Then, the surface temperature information can be recorded with a thermal infrared camera which can provide thermal infrared images with high resolutions. Then, image segmentation is applied to the recorded thermographs by introducing the level set functions in an iteration scheme. The initial level set functions will change their locations and shapes during the iteration scheme till the convergence can be reached. Eventually, the thermal infrared images are segmented, and the surface temperature boundaries can be located. The restored 3D model from the drone and the segmented results are integrated by attaching the segmented results to the 3D model. In doing so, a 3D model with high accuracy and the segmented results can be integrated such that the defects can be identified on the model.