Application of Mixed Reality and Infrared Inspection to Examine External Wall Tiles

The current methods used for inspecting external wall tiles in Taiwan are known to be time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address these limitations, we conducted a study that applied an infrared inspection technique along with mixed reality (MR) technology to accurately measure the degree of tile detachment. The aim of this study was to simplify the external wall tile examination process through the integration of mixed reality technology and infrared inspection. To achieve this goal, we incorporated data collection, system development, and system validation in our research. To develop our system, we combined MR and infrared camera devices with software tools such as Unity, Android Studio, Visual Studio, and Socket. We determined various scenarios for external wall tiles and developed two infrared image processing methods that address the differences in these scenarios. The MR technology enabled us to accurately identify the detached tiles on the external walls, while the infrared inspection allowed us to detect temperature differences that indicated the detached areas. Finally, we validated our system using real experiments and found that our method was 95% accurate, on average. Our research can significantly benefit inspectors in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness in examining external wall tiling. By incorporating MR and infrared inspection technologies, our system simplifies the inspection process and provides accurate results, ultimately contributing to the overall improvement of building safety and maintenance.