D3.8 – Visual Data Pre-processing Module v2
Creators: name: Tsakiris, Thanos
name: Gounaridou, Apostolia
name: Dimitriadis, Vasilis
name: Chatzakis, Michalis
name: Sinanis, Anastasios
name: Esposito, Martin Bueno
name: Bosché, Frédéric
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: The COGITO Deliverable D3.8 “Visual Data Pre-processing Module v2” is the second version of the COGITO Visual Data Pre-processing Module and focuses on the updated design and development activities concerning the T3.5 “Visual Data Pre-processing Module”. Overall, the Visual Data Pre-processing Module aims to receive, prepare and enhance the raw visual data (images and point clouds) acquired onsite, in order to deliver it to the relevant COGITO components for further exploitation. The raw data is first stored locally, enhanced and linked with the relevant Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) components and specific pre-processing jobs. It is then sent to the Digital Twin (DT) Platform for digesting by the involved components. Therefore, the Visual Data Pre-processing Module is considered one of the main modules of the COGITO solution. 

As aforementioned, the Visual Data Pre-processing Module manages the visual data acquired onsite. It is in charge of receiving and handling the point clouds and the 2D images sent by laser scanners, and static cameras, mobile phones and Augmented Reality (AR) goggles respectively. It consists of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) where the user can interact with the application, add fields and new information, as well as link the IFC components with a capturing device and specific visual data. The Visual Data Pre-processing Module is composed of three sub-modules, the main one being the Main Pre-processing sub-module, the second one the Pre-processing sub-module for 2D Visual Data and the third one the Pre-processing sub-module for Geometric Data. The Main Pre-processing sub-module contains the Device Manager, the Job Generator, the IFC Element Connector sub-modules, and the IFC 3D Viewer. The Device Manager sub-module is in charge of directing the capturing devices connected with the Visual Data Pre-processing tool. The Job Generator and the IFC Element Connector sub-modules are responsible for creating and handling individual jobs or jobs related to a specific device and for linking the IFC elements with a created job respectively. Finally, the IFC 3D Viewer helps to visualize the BIM model obtained from the DT Platform. The Pre-processing sub-module for 2D Visual Data consists of two sub-modules concerning the visual data processing: the Filter Implementation sub-module and the 2D Visual Data Viewer. The former module applies visual filters to the raw data (2D image), processes it and returns it in an enhanced form (cropped, rescaled etc.). In addition, with the latter module, the user can preview the raw and processed 2D images, in order to discard them or select and send them further for Quality Control (QC) detection. Regarding the Pre-processing sub-module for Geometric Data, it is in charge of uploading and enhancing the point clouds in order to be sent for Geometric quality control. 

The present documentation of the COGITO Visual Data Pre-processing Module, along with its sub-components, is oriented towards the functionalities they broadly deliver, the technology stacks they build upon, the inputs, outputs and APIs they expose, the installation instructions, the assumptions and restrictions, the applications examples, the development and integration status, and the requirements coverage. In this second release, more functionalities are implemented with regards to 2D image pre-processing refinement as well as the Pre-processing sub-module for Geometric Data (point clouds enhancing and uploading).