An operational application of automatic feature extraction: The measurement of cracks in concrete structures

An understanding of the evolution of cracks in concrete structures due to long term natural deformation is important to civil engineers, but quantitave measuremets can be difficult to make. However, digital imaging offers a potential solution. This short Paper illustrates the operational application of automated image processing techniques for accurate, multi-temporal crack measurements. The first part of this paper provides an overview of automatic feature extraction, extraction for automatic crack detection. The latter part describes the method developed for detecting and measuring cracks. Due to the long term nature of the application, operational results have yet to be finalised, although sample results are presented.