The non-contact and non-invasive eNightLog system is embedded with event sequence tracking and different kinds of remote sensing and imaging technologies, based on innovative algorithm developed by the BME team of PolyU. This innovative technique has already been patented.
Seventeen systems have been installed and tested in a nursing home for 2 months this year for nighttime monitoring. During this period, 380 incidences of elderly leaving bed alone were recorded, with all them being successfully detected (100%), and only 2 times of false alarm occurred (0.5%). In addition, the system recorded 525 events of caregivers visiting elderly and accompanying the elderly leaving, and accuracy rate is 100%.
Working on Imerso is simple as Users start by loading the software with all the data from the planning stage, which includes BIM, geometry, schedules as well as tolerance parameters and then these data are used as monitoring targets. When, site works continues, users upload 3D data on field. The next step perform by Imerso is to register that 3D data directly to the 3D building information model and displays the result, through this it is easy for the users to compare the current on-site conditions against the original design intent.
Keywords: Imerso; 3D; Building Information Modelling (BIM); digital construction; Frederico VALENTE
… by leveraging machine learning, organizations can largely diminish the security concerns that come with Internet of Things (IoT). Machine learning enables data exchanges to be monitored within the organization, and with external parties to detect anomalies that are not considered the norm. Machine learning can also aid in predicting threats, in its ability to analyze historical data from specific trends, which can be evaluated from the big data produced by the algorithms.
Keywords: Healthcare; Internet of Things (IoT); cyber security; machine learning; behavior analytics
Seven people at a time can sit in the purpose-built “igloo” at the Aberdeen station concourse, where 360-degree drone footage will be projected onto the walls.
With total immersion in the room, viewers can feel like they are floating high above the tracks as they look on at scenes of the extensive construction work.
The scheme ties into the concept of “digital construction” where projects are mapped out in excruciating detail on computers to test every possibility before shovels hit the ground.
Keywords: Aberdeen to Dyce rail construction; drone; digital construction
We’ve had our first visitors in the Aberdeen to Inverness Igloo! It’s a pretty cool way to see our progress! pic.twitter.com/aIg4c9F7aZ
From digital models to next-generation fabrication and delivery techniques, technology is at the center of the firm’s movement toward an iterative approach that, as Chris Sharples says, “is beginning to blur the line between architecture and manufacturing.”
… the firm’s 180-person staff uses digital models to conceptualize urban architecture projects that engage the public realm and, ultimately, transform cities—New York being high on the list. “Among architects, there’s a lot of focus on form and expression, and not so much on experience,” continues Sharples. “We think it’s really important to think of how architecture can create a new civic moment.”
Keywords: SHoP Architects; Botswana Innovation Hub; digital technologies; architecture and manufacturing
The list of companies providing innovative IT products for built environment continues below (the first part, i.e. Part 1 of 3, has been published earlier). These companies will participate in the UK Construction Week.
The company provides cost effective and realistic solution to gain access to high level and awkward sections of buildings in order to investigate defects and repairs. It has the state of the art equipment to ensure clients get the best results from its services, including aerial surveys, aerial inspections and promotional imagery. It provides 100% HD video and images of the highest quality.
KORE delivers transformative business performance through the Internet of Things (IoT). It is the largest independent provider of secure managed IoT networks, application enablement, and location based services, and focuses on combining our capabilities and expertise into business-centric IoT solutions.
Its provides the most useful and logical solution for the most complex IoT deployment challenge in the construction and real estate industry.
Kubla focuses on creating applications for engineering, surveying and construction professionals. It provides easy to use software solutions for volumetric analysis and coastal engineering.
Its Kubla Cubed is the easy-to-use earthworks cut-and-fill software.
myConsole is a cloud based work winning collaboration platform. It uses a cognitive approach to integrate all work winning data, insights and systems into one place, and hence improve pre-construction and work winning capability by delivering profound savings, win rates and profitability.
myConsole collaboration software replicates the work winning process with easy to use templates. Its operations team are on hand to explain this easy to use software, and to support each user with the necessary training programme from the outset.
The company is an B2B communications platform that manage companies’ day-to-day work, e.g. invoicing and general job management. It combines social and market network technology to communicate and collaborate with employees, subcontractors, across different sites and with different B2B clients.
Using the Okappy to streamline processes can make a significant contribution to bottom line profits by reducing paperwork and increasing efficiency.
As a construction productivity tool, PlanGrid helps project teams deliver projects on time, every day. They can access all project information (from plans and specifications, through documents, to project photos) from wherever they are.
Plans and documents that are automatically hyperlinked, versioned in order, and easily searchable with full sheet search can be instantly distributed.
It is also easy to turn over a digital as-built with its accurate data collection for facilities management and operations.
Procore’s cloud-based platform connects the project team, applications, and devices in one centralized real time hub. It helps construction professionals manage risk and build quality projects safely, on time, and within budget.
It streamlines workflow and is easy to use. The platform support clients so they can see a return on their investment immediately.
iAuditor is an inspection app. Its customisable, easy-to-use smart checklists empower workers to conduct onsite inspections, identify hazards and share reports in real time.
iAuditor provides visibility and insights to help raise safety and quality standards across an organization. The project team can collect consistent data, standardise operations, send reports, identify failed areas and get problems resolved.
Some industry jobs currently done by human beings are to be taken by machine
Surveyors, town planners and estate agents … do they have anything in common? They are middlemen. For example, general practice or estate surveyors specialize in land matters. They verify titles and ensure all other details in the property deeds are accurate and up to date. They also make sure the required legal administrative procedures and formalities are fully and properly complied with. Town planners advise clients on town planning matters that are too complicated for ordinary people to understand and follow in an cost effective way. As for estate agents, they look for buying / selling opportunities on behalf of home purchasers / landowners.
Essentially, these professionals match the demand and supply or act for others to carry out duties with higher degree of complexity.
Yet, in the awake of Blockchain, their current roles are being challenged.
How does Blockchain operate?
Blockchain, the technology that underlies cryptocurrencies, is a database of computers that enable automated recording of transaction, as well as verification of identities and the associated information. All the administration about the transactions is decentralized and open to the public. The whole process is without central authority, but to dispense with the need for each users to trust one another. It is impossible to commit fraud as the underlying technology is secured with strong cryptography.
Watch the following BBC’s explanation for more about Blockchain:
Blockchain’s immutability and distributed nature look like an ideal intermediate that bridges buyers and sellers, who can use the same database to track transactions or any changes in their records instantly and accurately.
Here are a few examples of Blockchain in built environment.
Example 1 (since 2016) – Blockchain of lease agreements
The City of Rotterdam, the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), a US startup hub network, and Deloitte Netherlands, have worked together and developed real estate Blockchain that monitors lease agreements. Lease information such as land ownership, tenancy terms, financial obligations attached to lands and physical conditions of the subject premises is centrally recorded. As a result, identities and details of lease documents can be verified instantly at low cost whenever there is transaction or when a property is to be revalued or refinanced.
This enables contracts to be concluded faster and easier. Eventually management of real estate will be more efficient and transparent. “[I]t enables decision makers to use data analysis for making future investment decisions on selling, buying and constructing real estate” said Jan Willem SANTING, manager of Deloitte Real Estate.
Picture: Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Example 2 (2018) – Blockchain in construction
The São Paulo state government has been working with an engineering and construction company Construtivo for a Blockchain project. Headed by Marcus GRANDEIRO, the company integrated Blockchain technology into its SaaS (Software as a Service) platform called Collaborative. The platform tracks changes in its contractural documents using blockchain. The technology, powered by the cloud management system, also records all pieces of information of the construction process, such as diaries, surveyors, pictures showing the progress.
As a result, especially for projects of large size or complication, e.g. subway or hydroelectric plant, revisiting the erratic parts of the process become time- and cost-effective.
The benefits of adopting blockchain are obvious. In addition to reducing time and cost, it increases productivity and reliability, and brings more transparency. Besides, it restores the industry’s credibility from investors to root out corruption and money laundering scandals. “With Blockchain, a tiny change in the project, such as change of date, would have to break the encryption of all blocks in the chain on all computers in the network. This helps to ensure the data reliability and security and avoid fraud, guaranteeing more credibility” explained Mr GRANDEIRO.
Example 3 (2018) – Blockchain-based green energy trading platform
WePower, a company based in Lithuanian, aims to fuel renewable energy production by enabling developers to raise capital by selling their energy production upfront in the form of tradeable Smart Energy Contracts, or energy tokens. The company uses Blockchain to bridge end users and investors of energies, enabling them to trade energy at below market rates. Its Ethereum Smart Energy contract tokens standardizes, simplifies and globally opens currently existing energy investment ecosystem.
Nikolaj MARTYNIUK, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, introduces the company:
In July 2018, the company launched its first its Alpha product, which allows traders, investors and energy consumers to participate in auctions of electricity produced from renewable energy sources. Many users were found to be individuals looking to cut electricity bills. They would buy a smart contract now, running on Ethereum’s blockchain, that will provide them with power later.
Blockchain is still immature
In highlighting the benefits of Blockchain, one must be aware of What blockchains may be able to do for your business, and what they can’t? The built environment professionals however should alert to, and be prepared for, the rising uses of technologies, no matter it is blockchain, robots or artificial intelligence, that are threatening to take over their professional jobs in one way or another.
ICT facilitates information flow and enhances work efficiency
Construction is fragmented, complex and complicated. The amount of documentations and paperwork involved in the whole process are tremendous. Worst still, there has been numerous updates from day one till after the project completion. Imagine constructing a 30-storey residential building. How many pieces of paper are you gonna use for drawings alone? The floor plans, elevations, sections, each and every construction details, fittings, finishing, material and furniture schedules …
With the help of IT, coupled with the advancement of cellular network technologies, paperless virtual environment and workplace become possible. It not only avoids bulky files and stacks of papers of irregular sizes spread over the desks, but also facilitates information transaction and hence enhances work efficiency.
Novade is a typical Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tailor made for construction projects. It provides a digital platform to contractors and developers for managing building and civil engineering projects. The 6 project areas that can improve with Novade are quality, safety, logistics, maintenance, workforce and activity.
Assign work with a starting date, completion date and party responsible
Collect digital signatures from customers
Resource management includes: project allocation, daily time cards, overtime management and more
Equipment management includes: allocation, daily checklists, maintenance operations and more
Safety management includes: permits to work, inspections, non conformity reports, near misses, incident reports and more
Flexible project configuration enables usage on any type of building including residential, commercial and more
Works offline; info synced using Internet or WiFi
The Singapore-based tech firm is led by his Chief Executive Denis BRANTHONNE who had 11-year work experience in Autodesk. All its software is developed and coded in Singapore. The company had about 20 people in Singapore and 40 worldwide developing, marketing and supporting the platform.
To start with, a large amounts of project data needs to be made available real time on web and mobile devices.
Integrated platform
The system runs through an integrated electronic platform. This is ideal for workforce, resources and financial management. All records with the internal staff and external parties are gathered in one single database.
All project team members can be granted rights to gain access to the online documents and exchange information electronically. They can track and monitor the status with dashboards and reports, and use it to perform duties such as field inspections.
Achieving efficiency
You can manage a set of activities by assigning jobs to different persons and monitoring their progresses. The whole process is streamlined and time saved.
Safety performance can improve by managing safety procedures on construction sites such as Permits To Work (PTWs) or Non Conformity Reports (NCRs). As the system is paperless, the whole process of enforcing safety policies becomes instant and timely.
Allocation of resources can be more efficient as an overview of assets across multiple projects is available immediately upon request. Besides, real-time information related to project assets can be obtained easily.
With Novade, analyses of data for monitoring project performance in productivity, safety, etc. can be easily conducted at lower cost.
After completion
Upon project completion, homeowners can be involved in the handover phase. They can request repair jobs and access reports online.
For maintenance, inspection schedules, repair activities and reports can be generated speedily. The users, contractors and sub-contractors can interact with one another for any rectifications needed.
