A virtual-reality spatial matching algorithm and its application on equipment maintenance support: System design and user study

IF 3.4 3区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC Signal Processing-Image Communication Pub Date : 2024-08-10 DOI:10.1016/j.image.2024.117188

Xiao Yang , Fanghao Huang , Jiacheng Jiang , Zheng Chen

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Abstract

Equipment maintenance support is an important technical measure to maintain the equipment’s expected performance. However, the current maintenance supports are mainly completed by maintainers under the guidance of technical manual or additional experts, which may be insufficient for some advanced equipment with rapid update rate and complex inner structure. The rising technology of augmented reality (AR) provides a new solution for equipment maintenance support, while one of the key issues limiting the practical application of AR in maintenance field is the spatial matching issue between virtual space and reality space. In this paper, a virtual-reality spatial matching algorithm is designed to accurately superimpose the virtual information to the corresponding actual scene on the AR glasses. In this algorithm, two methods are proposed to help achieve the stable matching of virtual space and reality space. In detail, to obtain the saliency map with less background interference and improved saliency detection accuracy, a saliency detection method is designed based on the super-pixel segmentation. To deal with the problems of uneven distribution on the feature points and weak robustness to the light changes, a feature extraction and matching method is proposed for acquiring the feature point matching set with the utilization of the obtained saliency map. Finally, an immersive equipment maintenance support system (IEMSS) is developed based on this spatial matching algorithm, which provides the maintainers with immediate and immersive guidance to improve the efficiency and safety in the maintenance task, as well as offers maintenance training for inexperienced maintainers with expanded virtual information in case of limited experts. Several comparative experiments are implemented to verify the effectiveness of proposed methods, and a user study of real system application is carried out to further evaluate the superiority of these methods when applied in the IEMSS.

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虚拟现实空间匹配算法及其在设备维护支持中的应用：系统设计和用户研究

设备维护保障是保持设备预期性能的重要技术措施。然而，目前的维护支持主要由维护人员在技术手册或其他专家的指导下完成，这对于一些更新速度快、内部结构复杂的先进设备来说可能是不够的。日益兴起的增强现实（AR）技术为设备维护支持提供了新的解决方案，而制约增强现实在维护领域实际应用的关键问题之一是虚拟空间与现实空间的空间匹配问题。本文设计了一种虚拟现实空间匹配算法，将虚拟信息准确叠加到 AR 眼镜上对应的实际场景中。在该算法中，提出了两种方法来帮助实现虚拟空间和现实空间的稳定匹配。具体来说，为了获得背景干扰更少、显著性检测精度更高的显著性图，设计了一种基于超像素分割的显著性检测方法。针对特征点分布不均匀、对光线变化鲁棒性弱等问题，提出了一种特征提取和匹配方法，利用得到的显著性图获取特征点匹配集。最后，基于该空间匹配算法开发了一个沉浸式设备维护支持系统（IEMSS），为维护人员提供即时和沉浸式指导，以提高维护任务的效率和安全性，并在专家有限的情况下，通过扩展虚拟信息为缺乏经验的维护人员提供维护培训。为了验证所提方法的有效性，我们进行了多次对比实验，并对实际系统应用进行了用户研究，以进一步评估这些方法在 IEMSS 中应用的优越性。

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来源期刊

Signal Processing-Image Communication 工程技术-工程：电子与电气

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

2.90%

发文量

138

审稿时长

5.2 months

期刊介绍： Signal Processing: Image Communication is an international journal for the development of the theory and practice of image communication. Its primary objectives are the following: To present a forum for the advancement of theory and practice of image communication. To stimulate cross-fertilization between areas similar in nature which have traditionally been separated, for example, various aspects of visual communications and information systems. To contribute to a rapid information exchange between the industrial and academic environments. The editorial policy and the technical content of the journal are the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief, the Area Editors and the Advisory Editors. The Journal is self-supporting from subscription income and contains a minimum amount of advertisements. Advertisements are subject to the prior approval of the Editor-in-Chief. The journal welcomes contributions from every country in the world. Signal Processing: Image Communication publishes articles relating to aspects of the design, implementation and use of image communication systems. The journal features original research work, tutorial and review articles, and accounts of practical developments. Subjects of interest include image/video coding, 3D video representations and compression, 3D graphics and animation compression, HDTV and 3DTV systems, video adaptation, video over IP, peer-to-peer video networking, interactive visual communication, multi-user video conferencing, wireless video broadcasting and communication, visual surveillance, 2D and 3D image/video quality measures, pre/post processing, video restoration and super-resolution, multi-camera video analysis, motion analysis, content-based image/video indexing and retrieval, face and gesture processing, video synthesis, 2D and 3D image/video acquisition and display technologies, architectures for image/video processing and communication.