Patent ID: 6952487

Claim:
A method for capturing at least one image of an existing man-made structure and for detecting the presence of failure(s) in such existing man-made structures comprising: (a) separately providing a detectable material on a surface so that portions of the detectable material will be present in the failure(s) of the existing man-made structure that accentuates the failure, wherein the detectable material is separately applied, after forming the surface as a man-made structure; (b) providing an image sensor which captures at least one image of the existing man-made structure and identifies failure(s) due to the existence of the detectable material in the failure(s) to provide at least one digital image; and (c) processing the captured digital image(s) to provide a visual image of the existing man-made structure to determine the presence of failure(s) in the existing man-made structure; wherein the digital image(s) is captured by a capture device which is located in an aircraft or satellite.