Bentley’s Applied Research group showcased some really compelling technology that harnesses the camera capability of a cell phone to augment the traditional 2D paper plans of construction workers. I played with the handheld device and spoke at length with Mark Smith, director of Applied Research at Bentley.

The system incorporates a digital barcode on a printed page and the user simply captures the barcode with the camera to interface with a corresponding 3D drawing on their device. I’ll work to outline the device and application with words, but am promised a video that I can link to soon for more of a visual understanding of this application.

When the camera takes an image of the barcode, the device goes back to the server to pull up the drawing. When the drawing is on the handheld, the user can activate a browse and pan mode that takes charge of the camera sensor for what Bentley is calling “air mouse” functionality. As you tilt and pan the device pointed at the paper, you navigate in the corresponding 3D design model. You can zoom in and reveal levels of detail that aren’t captured on the paper design, and you can better synthesize relationships in 3D space with both the paper drawing and the model in your hands.

The idea is truly revolutionary, and takes advantage of a tool that construction workers already have at their disposal, their phone. Besides the ability to augment the 2D view with the 3D view, Bentley suggested a few interesting applications.

One idea was to query the document using the bar code to make certain that you’re looking at the most current paper plan. The device brought up a more recent version and coded changes in one color, new features in another color and deletions in red. I’m guessing that having this comparison function in the field would resolve an incredible amount of conflicts and errors that creep into the construction process.

Another interesting idea was to query components of the design to access information that isn’t present in the drawing. By placing cross-hairs on the element, workers could draw up a more detailed view of individual components or access information that instruct them on details of assembly.

I’ve blogged before about augmented reality and its promise. There are a large number of unresolved issues related to positioning and bearing when bringing augmented reality out to the field. This augmented reality for field visualization that’s tied to the paper view is a much simpler technological hurdle. I’m really excited about the possibilities with this toolset, and will post more details as they become available.

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