NETWORK DESIGN in CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY with SHORT BASELINE IMAGES

The avaibility of automated software for image-based 3D modelling has changed the way people acquire images for photogrammetric applications. Short baseline images are required to match image points with SIFT-like algorithms, obtaining more images than those necessary for "old fashioned" photogrammetric projects based on manual measurements. This paper describes some considerations on network design for short baseline image sequences, especially on precision and reliability of bundle adjustment. Simulated results reveal that the large number of 3D points used for image orientation has very limited impact on network precision

Life-extension: a biomedical goal? Scientific prospects, ethical concerns

The potential for development of biomedical technologies capable of extending the human lifespan raises at least two kinds of question that it is important both to distinguish and to connect with one another: scientific, factual questions regarding the feasibility of life extension interventions; and questions concerning the ethical issues related to the extension of life- and healthspans. This paper provides an account of some life extension interventions considered to be amongst the most promising, and presents the ethical questions raised by the prospect of their pursuit. It is suggested that problems concerning the effects of these technologies on health care resources and on intergenerational relationships will be the most difficult to tackle

Damages from extreme flooding events to cultural heritage and landscapes: water component estimation for Centa River (Albenga, Italy)

Abstract. The monitoring of hazardous events through change detection has an important role in the emergency management. Such actions can be performed shortly after the hazardous event for first rapid mapping but also over longer periods of time for recovery purposes and risk mapping. The use of medium resolution free-of-charge multi-spectral satellite imagery for purposes of flood extension and impact monitoring can be extremely valuable due to their ability to offer an "easy" and remote access to information, even in cases of extreme weather conditions, but also due to their high compatibility with GIS environments. The case study regards Centa River estuary that hosts an important archaeological site of Albenga within the boundaries of its riverbed. The authors propose a workflow that uses Copernicus Sentinel-2 data to provide the comparison changes firstly in the single relevant bands and successively in the indexes NDVI e NDWI, suitable for the estimation of water component. The results of this study were useful for observing the extension of the flooded area, to evaluate its impact on the archaeological remains and to further propose more targeted UAV-born and ground survey

BIM and GIS: WHEN PARAMETRIC MODELING MEETS GEOSPATIAL DATA

Geospatial data have a crucial role in several projects related to infrastructures and land management. GIS software are able to perform advanced geospatial analyses, but they lack several instruments and tools for parametric modelling typically available in BIM. At the same time, BIM software designed for buildings have limited tools to handle geospatial data. As things stand at the moment, BIM and GIS could appear as complementary solutions, notwithstanding research work is currently under development to ensure a better level of interoperability, especially at the scale of the building. On the other hand, the transition from the local (building) scale to the infrastructure (where geospatial data cannot be neglected) has already demonstrated that parametric modelling integrated with geoinformation is a powerful tool to simplify and speed up some phases of the design workflow. This paper reviews such mixed approaches with both simulated and real examples, demonstrating that integration is already a reality at specific scales, which are not dominated by "pure" GIS or BIM. The paper will also demonstrate that some traditional operations carried out with GIS software are also available in parametric modelling software for BIM, such as transformation between reference systems, DEM generation, feature extraction, and geospatial queries. A real case study is illustrated and discussed to show the advantage of a combined use of both technologies. BIM and GIS integration can generate greater usage of geospatial data in the AECOO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner and Operator) industry, as well as new solutions for parametric modelling with additional geoinformation

Applying bim to built heritage with complex shapes: The ice house of filarete's ospedale maggiore in milan, Italy

This paper presents the development of a BIM model for a stratified historic structure characterized by a complex geometry: Filarete's Ospedale Maggiore ice house, one of the few remaining historic ice houses in Milan (Fig. 1). Filarete, a well-known Renaissance architect and theorist, planned the hospital in the 15th century, but the ice house was built two centuries later with a double-storey irregular octagonal brick structure, half under and half above ground, that enclosed another circular structure called the ice room. The purpose of the double-walled structure was to store ice in the middle and store and preserve perishable food and medicine at the outer side of the ice room. During World War II, major portions of the hospital and the above-ground section of the ice house was bombed and heavily damaged. Later, in 1962, the hospital was restored and rehabilitated into a university, with the plan to conceal the ice house's remaining structure in the courtyard, which ultimately was excavated and incorporated into a new library for the university. A team of engineers, architects, and students from Politecnico di Milano and Carleton University conducted two heritage recording surveys in 2015 and 2016 to fully document the existing condition of the ice house, resulting in an inclusive laser scanner and photogrammetric point cloud dataset. The point cloud data was consolidated and imported into two leading parametric modelling software, Autodesk Revit© and Graphisoft ArchiCAD©, with the goal to develop two BIMs in parallel in order to study and compare the software BIM workflow, parametric capabilities, attributes to capture the complex geometry with high accuracy, and the duration for parametric modelling. The comparison study of the two software revealed their workflow limitations, leading to integration of the BIM generative process with other pure modelling software such as Rhinoceros©. The integrative BIM process led to the production of a comprehensive BIM model that documented related historic data and the existing physical state of the ice house, to be used as a baseline for preventive maintenance, monitoring, and future conservation projects

THE USE OF TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING TECHNIQUES TO EVALUATE INDUSTRIAL MASONRY CHIMNEY VERTICALITY

Abstract. This paper presents a strategy to measure verticality deviations (i.e. inclination) of tall chimneys. The method uses laser scanning point clouds acquired around the chimney to estimate vertical deviations with millimeter-level precision. Horizontal slices derived from the point cloud allows us to inspect the geometry of the chimney at different heights. Two methods able to estimate the center at different levels are illustrated and discussed. A first solution is a manual approach that uses traditional CAD software, in which circle fitting is manually carried out through point cloud slices. The second method is instead automatic and provides not only center coordinates, but also statistics to evaluate metric quality. Two case studies are used to explain the procedures for the digital survey and the measurement of vertical deviations: the chimney in the old slaughterhouse of Piacenza (Italy), and the chimney in Leonardo Campus at Politecnico di Milano (Italy).</p

Flattening complex architectural surfaces: Photogrammetric 3d models converted into 2d maps

The paper describes a workflow to flatten 3D photogrammetric models of undevelopable surfaces into unfragmented 2D texture maps. The aim is to create a texture map with reduced fragmentation compared to typical photogrammetric texture files associated with 3D models. Geometric reformatting of the mesh is required to achieve an unfragmented final texture image with enough visual quality to allow for its use in 2D editing software (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). With a lighter model and defragmented texture, graphic documentation of conditions, treatments, or other relevant information can be performed directly. The approach considers both simple and complex architectural surfaces, with particular attention to elements that cannot be developed without introducing distortions. In the case of historic buildings, such surfaces constitute the majority, especially in the case of decorative elements and irregular vaulted systems. The approach extends to full 3D models, particularly those where orthomosaics would result in stretched details. We will discuss two methods: The first is particularly suitable when the photogrammetric project (oriented images) is still available, and the second applies to generic 3D models without the availability of the original images

Designing an Evaluation System for Climate Change Mitigation Policies using GPT-4

In the realm of addressing global warming, the development and implementation of effective policies play a pivotal role. Given the vast amount of legislative documents generated annually, it becomes imperative to have a system in place that can efficiently analyze these documents to identify measures aimed at climate change mitigation. This article outlines the design of an innovative system that employs GPT-4, a state-of-the-art language model developed by OpenAI, to evaluate climate change policy. The proposed system is designed to ingest legislative documents as input and utilize GPT-4 to identify, categorize, and evaluate the policies within these documents that are related to climate change mitigation efforts. The system would be capable of processing a wide range of document formats and languages, thanks to GPT-4's multimodal and multilingual capabilities

AUTOMATED AND ACCURATE ORIENTATION OF COMPLEX IMAGE SEQUENCES

The paper illustrates an automated methodology capable of finding tie points in different categories of images for a successive orientation and camera pose estimation procedure. The algorithmic implementation is encapsulated into a software called ATiPE. The entire procedure combines several algorithms of both Computer Vision (CV) and Photogrammetry in order to obtain accurate results in an automated way. Although there exist numerous efficient solutions for images taken with the traditional aerial block geometry, the complexity and diversity of image network geometry in close-range applications makes the automatic identification of tie points a very complicated task. The reported examples were made available for the 3D-ARCH 2011 conference and include images featuring different characteristics in terms of resolution, network geometry, calibration information and external constraints (ground control points, known distances). In addition, some further examples are shown, that demonstrate the capability of the orientation procedure to cope with a large variety of block configurations

AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF MULTI-SOURCE MEDIUM RESOLUTION SATELLITE DATA

Multi-temporal and multi-source images gathered from satellite platforms are nowadays a fundamental source of information in several domains. One of the main challenges in the fusion of different data sets consists in the registration issue, i.e., the integration into the same framework of images collected with different spatial resolution and acquisition geometry. This paper presents a novel methodology to accomplish this task on the basis of a method that stands out from existing approaches. The whole data (time series) set is simultaneously co-registered with a two-dimensional multiple Least Squares adjustment with different geometric transformations implemented. Some tests were carried out with different geometric transformation models (including similarity, affine, and polynomial) and variable matching thresholds. They showed a sub-pixel precision after the computation of multiple adjustment. The use of multi-image corresponding points allowed the improvement of the registration accuracy and reliability of a time series made up of data imaged with different sensors