Construction workers may soon be able to borrow a page out of a Superman comic book.
Augmented reality headsets give building developers and construction workers a version of X-ray vision to get a better sense how a project is shaping up.
As walls and floors are completed on a building, the construction site starts to look less like the blueprints and more like full renderings. At that point, project managers on a construction site can no longer see the progress made installing any of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing materials (MEP) or plan for modifications to their installation.
AR headsets, like the DAQRI Smart Helmet, overlay blueprints and MEP plans in real-time so workers can look at a ceiling and see precisely what’s supposed to be above it. Unlike most consumer AR headsets, DAQRI’s is made specifically for the industrial sector.
The Smart Helmet, which costs $15,000 each, uses a 166-degree, wide-angle grayscale lens to position its wearer within the digital blueprint—is accurate to one centimeter, according to ArchDaily. It uses Intel’s RealSense lens to identify objects around the worker for real-time updates on construction progress.
The helmets were deployed as a proof-of-concept during the construction of the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
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