Improve your facility management process with AR, Location Awareness, Wearables and BIM.
BIM provides great value to the design and building industry for a prolonged period of time. Recently some crucial technological evolutions emerge out with BIM which will increase the application of BIM among worldwide AEC sectors. In order to bring more value to the owners BIM should be incorporated with the natural workflow of operations and maintenance.
Here lies the importance of AR, Location Awareness, Wearables and BIM. If all these technologies are properly developed and combined, the information in BIM can be fully optimized.
Go through the following video that will focus on how this technology can be linked to a natural workflow.
Location Awareness
Location awareness is considered as the leading next gen digital technology that facilitates the similar type of workflow as well as opens up the new horizon in BIM/VDC advancement. Location awareness belongs to devices to be applied for finding out their location vigorously or passively.
Some useful technologies like iBeacon and other location awareness technologies are inexpensive and can be utilized in day to day activities.
It is applicable with GPS and associated systems for cities and streets (macro). This technique can't perform well at a smaller scale (micro) like inside a building.
Gain maximum speed once location awareness is accessible with greater precision (<10cm in x,y,z) to put in value. As the part of a facility management process, a facility operator, constructor or designer goes through a building with their tablet, the BIM will meet their actual x,y,z position within building and auto-navigate the model. This system will then provide access to the "information" in BIM in order to gather relevant information concerning the room, equipment, or device while walking the building.
Augmented Reality
After resolving the micro location issue, the model can be combined with the correlated information (the "I" in BIM) to real world coordinates. The following process should be leveraging augmented reality to superimpose the 3D model and information. AR will link the virtual with realism providing normal workflow.
Wearable Technology
If AR is linked with everyday gadgets like eye glasses (google glasses or Daqri hard hat), window displays, computers and even contact lenses, it can provide great impact on construction jobsite. These type of technologies can be used in pre-design, design, engineering, construction and operations/maintenance. Recently several advanced wearable technologies like google glass, smart watches etc emerge out in the market. These technologies can make virtual design, construction and BIM more accessible in jobsite. BIM data can be maneuvered efficiently for non-BIM experts through a single click as well as comprehensible design.
Some emerging AR and Wearable Technologies:
SmartReality | SmartReality for Oculus Rift | Leap Motion | Oculus Rift virtual reality headset | Epson Moverio smart glasses