Implementing augmented reality technology to measure structural changes across time

Abstract: In recent years, augmented reality (AR) technology has been increasingly employed in structural health monitoring (SHM). In the case of conditions following a seismic event, inspections are conducted to evaluate the progression of the damage pattern quantitatively and efficiently respond if the displacement pattern is determined to be unsafe. Additionally, quantification of nearby structural changes over short-term and long-term periods can provide building inspectors with information to improve safety. This paper proposes the Time Machine Measure (TMM) application on an Augmented Reality (AR) Head-Mounted-Device (HMD) platform. The main function of the TMM application is to restore the saved meshes of a past environment and overlay them onto the real environment so that inspectors can intuitively measure structural deformation and other movement across time. The proposed TMM application was verified by experiments meant to simulate a real-world inspection.