Interactive Virtual Application on Building Maintenance: the Lighting Component

The main aim of the research project, which is in progress at the UTL, is to develop a virtual interactive model as a tool to support decision-making in the planning of construction maintenance and facilities management. The virtual model gives the capacity to allow the user to transmit, visually and interactively, information related to the components of a building, defined as a function of the time variable. In addition, the analysis of solutions for repair work/substitution and inherent cost are predicted, the results being obtained interactively and visualized in the virtual environment itself. The first component of the virtual prototype concerns the management of lamps in a lighting system. It was applied in a study case. The interactive application allows the examination of the physical model, visualizing, for each element modeled in 3D and linked to a database, the corresponding technical information concerned with the wear and tear aspects of the material, calculated for different points in time during their life. The control of a lamp stock, the constant updating of lifetime information and the planning of periodical local inspections are attended on the prototype. INTRODUCTION Along the lifecycle of a building a great amount of data must be generated, analyzed, transformed or replaced. The information technology (IT) becomes an important support on the management of computer-based information, namely to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve datasets. With the emergence of the relevant computer technology, method based drawing and the visualization capabilities were combined into one process, the three-dimensional (3D) models. The further enhancement of the computers resulted in the development of 3D visualization tools, which facilitates a more real appreciation of the end product. At present, the management building planning could be presented in a 3D form and various materials can be assigned to the fixtures and furnishing enabling the user to be virtually placed in the building and view it from inside as well as outside. Visualization technologies empower users to perceive important data, identify areas of information and make decisions. However, without interactivity, visualization is often considered as an end point of the workflow or as a way of communicating observations. Users need to manipulate and explore the data. The way people perceive and interact with visualizations can strongly influence their understanding of the data as well as the usefulness of a visualization system. In order to increase the users’ ability to explore the data and better understand the results, interaction and visualization capabilities need to be optimized. Effective integration of advanced visualization is incorporated to inter active simulation systems. The integration of several specific applications has been established on domains