Mobile imaging and computing for intelligent structural damage inspection

Optical imaging is a commonly used technique in civil engineering for aiding the archival of damage scenes and more recently for image analysis-based damage quantification. However, the limitations are evident when applying optical imaging in the field. The most significant one is the lacking of computing and processing capability in the real time. The advancement of mobile imaging and computing technologies provides a promising opportunity to change this norm. This paper first provides a timely introduction of the state-of-the-art mobile imaging and computing technologies for the purpose of engineering application development. Further we propose a mobile imaging and computing (MIC) framework for conducting intelligent condition assessment for constructed objects, which features in situ imaging and real-time damage analysis. This framework synthesizes advanced mobile technologies with three innovative features: (i) context-enabled image collection, (ii) interactive image preprocessing, and (iii) real-time image analysis and analytics. Through performance evaluation and field experiments, this paper demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed framework.