Automatic Training Data Generation in Deep Learning-Aided Semantic Segmentation of Heritage Buildings

In the geomatics domain the use of deep learning, a subset of machine learning, is becoming more and more widespread. In this context, the 3D semantic segmentation of heritage point clouds presents an interesting and promising approach for modelling automation, in light of the heterogeneous nature of historical building styles and features. However, this heterogeneity also presents an obstacle in terms of generating the training data for use in deep learning, hitherto performed largely manually. The current generally low availability of labelled data also presents a motivation to aid the process of training data generation. In this paper, we propose the use of approaches based on geometric rules to automate to a certain degree this task. One object class will be discussed in this paper, namely the pillars class. Results show that the approach managed to extract pillars with satisfactory quality (98.5% of correctly detected pillars with the proposed algorithm). Tests were also performed to use the outputs in a deep learning segmentation setting, with a favourable outcome in terms of reducing the overall labelling time (−66.5%). Certain particularities were nevertheless observed, which also influence the result of the deep learning segmentation.ISSN:2194-9042ISSN:2194-905