Building leakage detector using reference-free background oriented schlieren photography

A computer program product for detecting leaks at a surface of a building structure, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor device to cause the device to:

• receive image information from a sequence of images, said sequence of images being captured from a video camera disposed at a predetermined distance from a surface of the building structure;
• detect, from said received image information, differences in light intensity at corresponding pixel locations in successive image frames;
• provide a visualization of an air flow movement based on detected differences in light intensities at the corresponding pixel locations in successive images;
• identify and isolate one or more regions of interest within said air flow visualization, a region of interest (ROI) corresponding to a location indicating a potential leak at the surface of the structure;
• obtain one or more flow parameters characterizing the air flow movement within said ROL and
• identify, based on said obtained one or more flow parameters, a location and magnitude of said potential leak at the surface of the building structure.

A method of detecting leaks at a surface of a building structure, the method comprising:

• capturing, from a video camera device, a sequence of images, said video camera device disposed at a predetermined distance from a surface of the building structure;
• detecting, from said received image information, using a hardware processor, differences in light intensity at corresponding pixel locations in successive image frames;
• providing, using the hardware processor, a visualization of an air flow movement based on detected differences in light intensities at the corresponding pixel locations in successive images;
• identifying and isolating, using the hardware processor, one or more regions of interest within said air flow visualization, a region of interest (ROI) corresponding to a location indicating a potential leak at the surface of the structure;
• obtaining, using the hardware processor, one or more flow parameters characterizing the air flow movement within said ROI;
• and
• identifying, based on said obtained one or more flow parameters, a location and magnitude of said potential leak at the surface of the building structure.

A method for prioritizing a sealing of leaks at a surface of a building structure, the method comprising:

• capturing, from a video camera device, a sequence of images at a predetermined area of the surface of the building structure;
• processing the captured sequence of images to detect an air flow movement indicating a leak at the predetermined area of the surface of the building structure;
• for each detected air flow movement indicating a leak, determining a corresponding leak-ranking parameter of each air flow movement at the predetermined area;
• repeating said projecting, capturing, air flow movement detection processing, and corresponding leak-ranking parameter determining for each detected air flow movement at each of a plurality of different predetermine areas of the surface;
• determining, based on said leak-ranking parameters for all detected air flow movements at different predetermined areas, corresponding leaks having a largest corresponding leak-ranking parameter or volumetric flow rate and successively smaller leak-ranking parameters or volumetric flow rates;
• and
• prioritizing actions to seal leaks at locations at the surface in an order corresponding to leaks having the largest corresponding leak-ranking parameter or volumetric flow rate and successively smaller leak-ranking parameters or volumetric flow rates.