Fabiana Frata Furlan Peres Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 3, (Part - 1) March 2016, pp.24-28 www.ijera.com 24 | Page Augmented Reality to Access Dam Cracks Information Fabiana Frata Furlan Peres 1 , Sergio Scheer 2 , Étore Funchal De Faria 3 , William Antonio Da Rosa 4 1 (Center of Engineering and Exact Sciences, Western Paraná State University, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil) 2 (Department of Civil Construction, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil) 3 (Division of Civil Works, Itaipu Binational, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil) ABSTRACT Augmented reality technology is a tool with great potential for application in several areas, including engineering. During the early phases of the enterprise life cycle, as design and construction, augmented reality has been widely used. Concrete dams, during operation and maintenance phase, require regular inspections as part of the necessary activities to keep their structural safety. Cracks are common pathology in these structures that must be detected, mapped and measured as their evolution may evidence structure compromising, need for maintenance or intervention. In this context this paper aims to present a prototype to access in situ the dam cracks information through the use of augmented reality, thus giving a contribution to the effectiveness and efficiency of inspections. Keywords: augmented reality, crack, dam, dam safety, dam inspection I. INTRODUCTION During the last two decades, it has been searched computing tools to support activities related to engineering in order to organize and integrate all the digital documentation regarding buildings. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a technology for this proposal. It generates a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of any built object, producing a virtual representation of the construction along its whole life cycle [1]. This representation has been explored in field via augmented reality technology [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.8]. There are many built and under construction dams worldwide. Although most of them is already in operation, they have neither been designed and nor constructed using BIM. There is a constant effort to modernize them, adopting current technologies to support activities related to itsoperation and maintenance [9, 10]. It is very important that the dams in operation are kept safe throughout their life cycle. Thus it is necessary to periodically perform dam safety activities, such as visual inspections, in order to detect early signs of pathology. Cracks are common pathologies in dams and require the monitoring of their progress over time. In recent years, researchers have tried to innovate the way that inspections are performed. With respect to cracking, several alternative to conventional methods for detecting, mapping and measure them have been proposed [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. These alternative methods generate large volumes of information. Accessing them properly in field is very important and can make the evaluation process more efficient and effective. In this context augmented reality is an advantageous technology, since it mixes real and virtual information, enabling data, images and other information generated about the cracks coexist in the real environment. This paper presents an augmented reality prototype for in situ access to concrete dam crack information. It demonstrates the feasibility of using augmented reality technology in dams, specifically in structural safety activities, to monitor the development of cracks. It also allows the proper use of data extracted in related activities in the operation and maintenance phase. In section 2 is defined what is augmented reality and a discussion about its use in the context of Architecture, Engineering and Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) and BIM is introduced. Afterwards, in section 3, it is discussed, in general, dam safety showing of what comprises and its importance in the context. In the section 4 it is described the conventional procedure and some proposed alternative for mapping and monitoring of the crack in concrete structures. Finally, the proposed prototype is covered in section 5 and some conclusions are presented in section 6. II. AUGMENTED REALITY Augmented reality can be defined as an innovative way for data visualization, images and information. This technology mixes virtual content, generated by computer, to real environment to enrich the senses, usually the sense of human vision [18]. Despite the basic technology have arisen in the 60's, only in the current decade, after the evolution of devices and frameworks for the development of RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS