MULTIMEDIA INSPECTION DATABASE SYSTEM (MIDAS) FOR DYNAMIC RUN-TIME DATA EVALUATION

An object-oriented system provides a comprehensive and integrated tool to manage, operate, analyze and inspect structures by providing 3-D visualization of the structures, a database interface, connectivity with one or more databases, a data display and analysis capabilities. The structural model is stored as an object-oriented, serialized file as a series of objects, including primitives, coordinates, object names, group names and other object identifiers. The system integrates various types of data, including tabulated textual data, annotated engineering drawings, photographic records, graphical plots, audio and videotaped records, from different tables and databases. Data are displayed to the user based on queries that the user submits to the system, which queries are evaluated at run-time. As a result, the user achieves unparalleled flexibility in data analysis and evaluation.