AUTOMATED INTEGRATION OF CONSTRUCTION IMAGES IN MODEL BASED SYSTEMS

In the modern, distributed and dynamic construction environment it is important to exchange information from different sources and in different data formats in order to improve the processes supported by these systems. Previous research has demonstrated that (i) a significant percentage of construction data is stored in semi-structured or unstructured data formats (ii) locating and identifying such data that are needed for the important decision making processes is a very hard and time-consuming task. In this paper, an automated methodology for the classification and retrieval of construction images in AEC/FM model based systems will be presented. Specifically, a combination of techniques from the areas of image processing, computer vision, and content-based image retrieval have been deployed to develop a method that can retrieve related construction site image data from components of a project model.