Structural vibration frequency monitoring based on event camera

Abstract Compared with traditional cameras, event cameras (ECs) have the significant advantages of high temporal resolution, low data redundancy, and microsecond delay, which are beneficial in structural monitoring to extract the dense response of structures in both spatial and temporal dimensions. In this paper, the vibration frequency detection method based on ECs is studied. This study investigates vibration frequency detection methods based on ECs, and proposes two algorithms for vibration frequency detection based on event streams: marker tracking and event count. Experimental verification is conducted through forced vibration experiments. The results indicate that the event count method achieves high-precision measurement of vibration frequencies in the range of 10–190 Hz for different vibration scales, with a maximum relative error of 1% and an average relative error of 0.673%. The marker tracking method demonstrates a maximum relative error of 1.43% and an average relative error of 0.575% in frequency measurement for large-amplitude vibrations. However, as the amplitude decreases, the frequency measurement error increases. When the amplitude is less than 3 pixels, the frequency measurement error exceeds 30%, rendering the measurement results unreliable. This research provides technical support for high-precision structural vibration frequency monitoring and further expands the application of ECs in structural monitoring.