Abstract
A novel video inspection method for an interior surface of a small diameter pipe may include the steps of advancing a videoscope through the pipe of known size while acquiring raw images therefrom; estimating the video camera pose for at least some of the raw images; sequentially building a pipe point cloud, a mesh, and a 3D textured model of the interior surface of the pipe from the raw images with adjustments for video camera poses; unwrapping the raw images using camera poses and the pipe point cloud to create unwrapped images of the interior surface of the pipe; and creating a panoramic image of the interior surface of the pipe by stitching the unwrapped images together. The method improves on a conventional Structure-from-Motion technique and allows enhanced sharpness, reduced artifacts, and improved uniformity of lighting as a result of reduced model noise and removal of outliers. The method may be implemented with conventional video borescopes by postprocessing raw images using proprietary software.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Patent number | WO2022172048 |
| IPC | G06T 7/00 2017.1,G06T 7/579 2017.1,G06T 7/73 2017.1 |
| Priority date | 15/02/21 |
| Filing date | 15/02/21 |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Aug 2022 |
Keywords
- small diameter pipe
- video inspection method
- videoscope
- 3D textured model
- panoramic image of the interior surface
- enhanced sharpness
- reduced model noise