One of the most inspiring lectures I attended at SPAR this year was Jim Balding’s and John Russo’s 30 minute lecture titled “Glorious Gadgets” in which the two presented a series of videos and asked a simple question – tool or toy? The lecture was incredibly fast paced and very clearly laid out the evolution of many emerging technologies from toy to tool.
Below, I’ll walk you through the most interesting emerging technologies Balding & Russo cover and provide videos to illustrate applications.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality involves placing an additional layer of information on the existing world. Imagine holding up a tablet in a store and having the prices or nutritional facts pop up over food items.
I was able to play with an augmented reality tool – Google’s Project Tango Phone – during the conference and it was fascinating. The application was relatively simple – tetris like blocks were projected over the existing space and I was able to walk around the room to get closer to them, pick them up, carry them around and drop them off in different locations. The key here is that I had to walk around physical reality to get closer to digital objects which is a very bizarre feeling.
As you can imagine the back and forth between BIM and augmented reality is endless, from virtually rearranging furniture in your living room to identifying locations of hazardous chemicals at an industrial plant. The Building Construction Design Network has a great article titles “12 Augmented Reality Applications for Design and Construction Professionals” that I would suggest reading if you are interested in the topic.
Below is a video that shows a direct application of augmented reality to construction.
Immersive Environments
Immersive environments differ from augmented reality in that they aim to utilize multiple senses to completely change your reality. They do not just provide an additional layer of information, they attempt to completely change your reality. In the video below, at first it’s almost hard to tell the girl is in a relatively small 10 by 10 foot room until a few seconds into the clip.
Immersive environments are most applicable in situations where it’s important to have a wide field of view and have your hands free. An example is training for military operations.
3D Printing, Scaled Up
Although we currently think of 3D printing on a small scale, the “Glorious Gadgets” lecture opened my mind up to the idea of 3D printing on the scale of building. Balding & Russo showcased work being done by Contour Crafting – a company that is developing what essentially amounts to a gigantic 3D printer that uses concrete as its ink.
I highly recommend visiting their web site and looking at their other videos, however here is one that demonstrates the concept. They start of small and then scale up to the size of a building throughout the clip.