Image Processing for Sustainable Remodeling: Introduction to Real-time Quality Inspection System of External Wall Insulation Works
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Nice job, try to put the IR images in your next algorithm.
If you evaluate the thermal conductivity of a building through a new algorithm with IR images I thing that it would be very useful and more interesting.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer #1
We would like to thank the reviewer for considering our manustrip and for the thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions helping us to improve the quality of this manuscript. Our responses are as follows (the reviewer’s comments are in italics)
General Comments:
Nice job, try to put the IR images in your next algorithm.
If you evaluate the thermal conductivity of a building through a new algorithm with IR images I thing that it would be very useful and more interesting.
Reply:
We appreciate the feedback from the reviewer. In this paper, IR device is not implemented, and normal web camera is utilized to reduce the equipment cost. As the reviewer mentioned, we will try to implement an algorithm in order to improve our paper. Thanks a lot for your constructive comment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
According to my opinion, this is out of the scope of the Sustainability Journal. The Sustainability – according to the Journal self-presentation – provides an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development. Generally,
there is no word in the text as “sustainability” or a word derived from
this noun. There is also no thought related to the area of
sustainability. Moreover, it is hard not to observe that among 25
references, not even one is addressed to the Sustainability Journal.
The paper is very technical and detailed, partially tedious,
description (technical guide) of how to inspect in real-time thickness
and area of the adhesive mortar pasted on the board. The “Dryvit
System Outsulation Application Instruction” is mentioned in the text
which gives the impression of being too close to commercial. Perhaps the Automation in Construction would be a better address.
.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer #2
We would like to thank the reviewer for considering our paper and for the thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions, which help to improve the quality of this manuscript. Our responses are as follows (the reviewer’s comments are in italics):
General Comments:
According to my opinion, this is out of the scope of the Sustainability Journal.
The Sustainability – according to the Journal self-presentation – provides an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development.
Generally, there is no word in the text as “sustainability” or a word derived from this noun. There is also no thought related to the area of sustainability. Moreover, it is hard not to observe that among 25 references, not even one is addressed to the Sustainability Journal. The paper is very technical and detailed, partially tedious, description (technical guide) of how to inspect in real-time thickness and area of the adhesive mortar pasted on the board. The “Dryvit System Outsulation Application Instruction” is mentioned in the text which gives the impression of being too close to commercial. Perhaps the Automation in Construction would be a better address.
Reply:
We appreciate the feedback from the reviewer. Title of the manuscript did not include any terms for ‘sustainability’ meaning. Hence, we have modified the title of the manuscript, and reflected such modification to the contents of the manuscript accordingly.
This research is performed through adoption of general web camera in adhesive inspection system in order to improve the efficiency of outsulation panel task, which is one of efficient methods to improve energy performance by retrofitting existing buildings. Moreover,
1. Building retrofitting with suggested method enhances structural sustainability because it improves buildings’ performance with minimum resource costs.
2. This method allows inspection tasks to be done prior to attachment process, and the method also shows high reliability due to accurate inspection. Therefore, this method can reduce not only panel material cost itself, but also labor and time costs which is expected to contribute to economic and social sustainability.
Hence, we have submitted this paper in the Sustainability journal.
Comments:
1) Generally, there is no word in the text as “sustainability” or a word derived from this noun. There is also no thought related to the area of sustainability. Moreover, it is hard not to observe that among 25 references, not even one is addressed to the Sustainability Journal.
Reply:
Title of the paper is changed into:
Image processing for sustainable remodeling: introduction to real-time quality inspection system of external wall insulation works.
For further explanation regarding the insulation work and its relationship with sustainable remodeling purposes, this paragraph highlighted in following part is added to the introduction part.
l The external wall insulation has been introduced [1] because it does not sacrifice the inner space. In this method, a layer of insulation is attached to the outside walls, and in allows sustainable remodeling of the building without sacrificing indoor living environment. However, owing to unskilled workers, insufficient supervision, material and system failures, defects such as cracks, bumps, depressions, holes, drops or undulations have been occurred.
Also, we have reviewed three more literatures in sustainability journal, and cited them in this manuscript. Other literatures from another journal were reviewed as well, to explain the importance of retrofitting, which were mentioned in previous manuscript.
Detailed list of references (newly added) are as follow:
1. H. F. Castleton, V. Stovin, S. B. Beck, J. B. Davison, Green roofs; building energy savings and the potential for retrofit, Energy and buildings 2010, 42, 1582–1591.
2. A. L. Webb, Energy retrofits in historic and traditional buildings: A review of problems and methods, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2017, 77, 748–759.
3. M. Fiorentini, P. Cooper, Z. Ma, Development and optimization of an innovative HVAC system with integrated PVT and PCM thermal storage for a net-zero energy retrofitted house, Energy and Buildings 2015, 94, 21–32.
4. S. Wang, H. Hae, J. Kim, Development of easily accessible electricity consumption model using open data and GA-SVR, Energies 2018, 11, 373.
5. Y. Heo, R. Choudhary, G. A. Augenbroe, Calibration of building energy models for retrofit analysis under uncertainty, Energy and Buildings 2012, 47, 550–560.
6. J. Quan, S. H. Kim, J. H. Kim, A study on probabilistic social cost–benefit analysis to introduce high-efficiency motors into subway station ventilation, Energy Policy 2018, 121, 92–100.
7. E. De Angelis, G. Dotelli, F. Pittau, A. La Torre, C. Porcino, G. Pansa, N. Villa, LCA and LCC based Energy Optimization of Building Renovation Strategies, In International Sustainable Building Conference 2013, Passer, 77–86.
8. A. Jafari, V. Valentin, Decision-making life-cycle cost analysis model for energy-efficient housing retrofits, International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development 2015, 6, 173–187.
9. J. Mitterpach, E. Hroncová, J. Ladomerský, J. Štefko, Quantification of improvement in environmental quality for old residential buildings using life cycle assessment, Sustainability 2016, 8, 1303.
10. N. Ham, S. H. Lee, Empirical Study on Structural Safety Diagnosis of Large-Scale Civil Infrastructure Using Laser Scanning and BIM, Sustainability 2018, 10, 4024.
11. B. W. Jo, Y. S. Lee, J. H. Jo, R. M. A. Khan, Computer Vision-Based Bridge Displacement Measurements Using Rotation-Invariant Image Processing Technique, Sustainability 2018, 10, 1–16.
2) The “Dryvit System Outsulation Application Instruction” is mentioned in the text which gives the impression of being too close to commercial.
Reply:
For addressing the commercial-related comment, we have substituted the word ‘dryvit panel’ with ‘a sample of outsulation panel’. Expression ‘dryvit system outsulation application instruction’ is changed into ‘application manual for sample outsulation panel system’. Modified sentences are as follows:
l In this research, Dryvit System 485 (DS485) is selected as a sample of outsulation panel to analyze variables and to develop algorithm. RQIIP would be designed to adjust to other type of outsulation by modifying values of variables. In the guide for sample outsulation panel system, the workers are supposed to place eight (8) dabs of the adhesive with 9.5 mm (3/8 in) thickness using a stainless steel trowel.
l According to application manual for sample outsulation panel system, the installers have regulated the diameter, thickness, and horizontal and vertical distances between the centers of gravity of the adhesive that must be applied on the insulation panel.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors introduced a real-time quality inspection system for external wall insulation to detect potential failure. Image processing technology was presented to detect errors. The schematic model RQIIP is straightforward, reasonable and validated by experiment. Some minor revisions are needed:
1. Please explain the major advantages of this system compared to other methods.
2. What is the maximum distance between the digital camera and the insulation board? The distance will affect the clearness of the images.
3. All the image collection process was completed in the room, which gave clear images with good light conditions. If this system is applied outside, how to deal with the effect of light on the images.
4. There is a typo in the caption of Figure 4 “Syatem” should be “System”.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer #3
We would like to thank the reviewer for careful and thorough reading of this manuscript and for the thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions, which help to improve the quality of this manuscript. Our response follows (the reviewer’s comments are in italics)
General Comments:
The authors introduced a real-time quality inspection system for external wall insulation to detect potential failure. Image processing technology was presented to detect errors. The schematic model RQIIP is straightforward, reasonable and validated by experiment. Some minor revisions are needed:
Reply:
We appreciate the feedback from the reviewer. With regards to the comments, we have modified the contents of the manuscript. Detailed change of contents is listed below. We truly appreciate the reviewer, giving us valuable insights on this research.
Comments:
1) Please explain the major advantages of this system compared to other methods.
Reply:
The advantages of this system are 1) speed and reliability from image processing algorithm, 2) cost reduction from low-cost equipment utilization (utilizing general web camera), and 3) labor cost reduction. However, these points were not clearly addressed in the manuscript. To highlight these advantages clearly, we have changed manuscripts as below. (modified sentences are highlighted).
l This means that it enables real-time quality inspection as to external insulation construction process with higher speed, better reliability and lower cost than the previous quality inspection through the existing supervising manpower method. Furthermore, this method reduces not only the labor cost but also the equipment cost, due to the utilisation of the general web camera requiring much lower cost compared to the other visual inspection equipment. In comparsion with the existing methods in which the inspector has to inspect each outsulation panel after attachment, suggested method is able to reduce the inspection procedure significantly since the inspection can be performed before the attachment process. In addition, the suggested method could be improved by the adption of an algorithm.
2) What is the maximum distance between the digital camera and the insulation board? The distance will affect the clearness of the images.
Reply:
Before conducting experiments, we have investigated the camera height and image clearness. However, we have not measured the maximum distance, because enough clearness was maintained within general floor height within 2–3 meters. For this issue, we will measure maximum distance and conduct further research regarding the implementation of this method in the specific environment, which requires more camera distance.
3) All the image collection process was completed in the room, which gave clear images with good light conditions. If this system is applied outside, how to deal with the effect of light on the images.
Reply:
We have conducted the experiment inside the room, and used the term ‘regular light’. It is clear that light is affecting the result of image processing. This algorithm uses only the color difference for distinguishing border of applied adhesive, and does not consider depth measuring. Therefore, the effect of light on the image recognition is believed to hardly affects the results. In further research, we will perform an expriment on the actual application of this method in construction site, and will perform experiments and cost-benefit assessment with the various solutions.
4) There is a typo in the caption of Figure 4 “Syatem” should be “System”.
Reply:
Caption of Figure 4 have changed into ‘Schematic of RQIIP System’.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Appreciate the Authors efforts and a final improvement
