Service for an end-to-end and

automated architectural survey

in villages

The aim of this project is to design and implement an efficient method for
architectural survey of villages for projects of middle to large scale, where the
initial effort in designing algorithms is justified by the greater efficiency
achieved later. The method will rely mainly on drone imagery and
computational processing.
Lately, many research is being done in the field of urban reconstruction that
attempts to generalize solutions to every possible environment. Instead, we
conceive our solution as a service, where the solution is specifically suited to a
particular typology or a particular region. Regarding the output of our
research, besides supplying the survey of the area of our choice, it could also
serve as a guideline or a case study for researchers or practitioners with
similar challenges in different locations.

Architectural surveys

Surveys are an important part of architectural practice. A deep knowledge of a

site’s conditions is key to a design’s success, and surveys through time can
help monitor a site’s evolution and make precise diagnosis and evaluations.
However, It is also a very time-consuming task. Specially in China, where the
scale of architectural projects is larger than in the rest of the world, steps
taken towards automation can be of significant value.

F Biljecki et al. have shown that 3D city models are currently being used in
dozens of application domains for diverse purposes, and have categorised the
uses of 3D city models into 29 use cases. The applications, which range from
flood simulation to visual tours and to urban planning, are also relevant in the
case of villages.
To assess the value of this project means to answer two questions: one about
the value of the output and one about the cost of the solution. In other
words, is it relevant to produce 3D models of villages in a large scale?, and is
the combination of aerial photography, photogrammetry and other
computational tools the best solution for this purpose?

The value

Estimation of some key applications

China... Of course, it is not only china...
For example...
Moreover, previous studies have proposed valuations of geographic
enterprises that, although different from our target output in many ways, can
give us an approximation of potential values for 3D models. For example, the
estimated economic value of the Dutch geo-information sector is €1.4 billion.

The cost
(WangLin or the PuTian project?)
Time!
Not only the government but also private initiatives...
Emi

Before proceeding to the technical part of this proposal, it is important to

make clear that this project by no means tempts to downplay the importance
of the human eye for architectural surveys. In the contrary, the application of
new technology should be a way of leveraging the abilities of the practitioner.

The solution

The process can be divided in the following stages: data collection, point cloud
construction, digital model construction, additional features extraction.

Data collection
Sensors for aerial photography include: LIDAR, RGB, NIR, Hyperspectral and
Multispectral.
Of all these, we will choose RGB because we want to find a solution that can
be readily adopted by other people. (Not a very good argument.Maybe we can
find some company to make a LIDAR survey for us? Leica?)
Point cloud construction
Because we will starting our flow with 2D imagery, the construction of the
point cloud (the conversion to 3D space) is one of the key elements of the
project.

Precision

Digital model construction

Point clouds by themselves can serve very little purposes, not to say only
visualization. They only become really useful once they are transformed to
digital models, where each element corresponds to a class with different
attributes and all the elements are connected.
The digital model achieved through the previous stages should be already
useful for many applications. However, it is unlikely that it can fulfill the
requirements of all the practitioners in search for a 3D model. Therefore, the
robustness of the model will rely partially on its capacity to accept new
features through iteration.
What is the 3D digital model we should provide?
LOD, what are the basic elements, the point cloud will always be there for
iterations.
Additional features extraction.
The success in building a model that can be enriched through iterations is
something that can only be evaluated through time, as requests for using the
model are received. However, as a trial, we...(help someone find waterflows)