BIM and Google Project Glass

A couple of days ago one of the good guys, Carlus Kilgore sent out an update to the Southern Arizona Revit Users Group (SARUG) about a pilot project Google is working on called Augmented Reality. Some of you may have already heard about this and maybe looked at the You Tube Vid Google put up to describe the service. Gizmodo has some more info as well you can check out. So thanks to Carlus for the links and notice




I can imagine how this might work on a construction site or an integrated FM application. A setup like this would allow someone to know all kinds of things about what was going on, or access information about how something was built or to be serviced.

This is an idea that has been around for quite a while in one form or another. I first saw a working prototype back over 10 years ago in Dallas for field techs which almost worked over the first packet cell services, Remember before 3G service? Well you can imagine it was very slow, but with the new 4G services this is really possible.

A FM Setting
Imagine if you were repairing a pump, now we could use QR coding technology to identify the specific item being looked at in context of a BIM model maintained as as-built conditions, retrieve the running time, instructional/ repair manuals, list of parts or just about anything else needed for a repair on equipment. Even make a call to the technical help line of the manufacturer if needed. All this would hopefully reduce the amount of time it takes to diagnose and repair the item.

A Construction Setting
During construction site review overlay the BIM model on a specific area being viewed to check for construction compliance or capture an issue and overlay with model and make changes in the field on the model right then. There would be a conferencing capability so connect up with a couple of other people to confirm consensus and you have a live CA resolution system. Video capture of required inspections, such as concrete pours, form inspections, safety compliance, the list goes on and on.

Now there are a couple of assumptions going on here. First that the BIM model is connected to an enriched dataset and is probably available from a cloud service. Oh and the model resides on some kind of BIM server service. Second that the 'glasses' can receive/send a signal in a construction site and a CAFM system has been built that allows this kind of dynamic overlay directly from the model into the real world view seen by the repairman or construction inspection person. Oh and one more thing, the BIM model is probably modeled out to a level of detail where discrete sub-systems are shown in the model accurately.

If you think this is pretty far fetched Buck Rogers stuff, don't. The BIM servers and cloud services already exist and are being joined and served up as we talk about this. We've been able to deploy wifi services inside building sites now very inexpensively for quite a while now and BIM models segmented by sub-systems are already being done every day right now. And we are getting better and better at this as time goes on. When we understand how to use data better these graphic models will get even more efficient and rely on remote data to drive more processes, not the explicit graphics shown.

If any of you are already merging some of the technologies and you would like to share your stories of either success or failure I would appreciate it.

Remember, "Collaboration is the Glue of Success"