Remote Construction Monitoring System

Photo-Net II remote construction monitoring system integrates Web cameras and software to bring the construction site any place where there is an Internet connection. The system can be used as a tool to plan, control and monitor construction projects. The system records real time imagery and integrates the collection of pictures in a database. It works 24/7, from beginning to completion of a project. The database enables a manager to generate a movie where the entire construction project can be watched.

PHOTO-NET II builds a screen where the time-lapse film can be played back in synchrony
with two dynamic diagrams. The dynamic diagrams are an animation of the schedule bar chart
and of the histogram that show the evolution of the cumulative percentage of completion. As the
movie is being shown, new bars (blue) reflecting the activities undertaken are built next to the
as-planned bars and updated in a frame-by-frame basis.

Current Status of Technology

The first version of PHOTO-NET II was the Ph.D. thesis of Dr. Jorge Abeid, presented to the Civil and Architectural Engineering Department, of IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago, USA. It was awarded the first place as the best research project in the 5th Annual Research Conference & IPRO Projects Day organized by the Illinois Institute of Technology in May 2000. PHOTO-NET II is being used in a construction site in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is following the erection of the concrete structure of a 6-store building. In that case the hardware consists of two fixed cameras that compound a panoramic view of the entire site, and a third camera that can be panned, tilted and zoomed remotely.

Contact Information

Jorge Abeid, Ph.D.
PHOTO-NET II
421 Griffith St.
London, ON N6K 2S3
Phone: (519) 657-2277 (Canada)
Fax: (519) 433-8351 (Canada)
Web: www.photonet2.com