Project 4
For this project, we were tasked with creating a novel interface to augment in-person and/or remote communication and collaboration. By far our most open-ended mandate so far. We were permitted the use of any and all technologies, as long as we can demonstrate how it improves communication & collaboration.
CONCEPT SKETCHES
01
What's At Home?
With this concept app, an individual would be able to view what his/her family/roommate is up to without having to contact them directly. A quick checkin for parents, children and friends alike will be infinitely simpler.
02
Tangible Touch-Free Petting Zoo
With this concept app, kids & adults would be able to interact with animals in a way never before possible. Using a projector within the animal's enclosure, it's possible to facilitate communication between humans and zoo animals through games, animations & more.
03
Construction Multi-disciplinary Co-operation
This was the concept idea we chose to further develop. This novel concept would enhance communication & collaboration on any construction site through a novel use of augmented reality technology.
By displaying construction infrastructure (planned or already built), such as piping, electrical wiring, air ducts, etc, we can help workers visualize their workspace in real-time and thus better facilitating co-operation between employees of multiple technical & disciplinary backgrounds. Thus our technology would reduce mistakes, minimize miscommunications, replace outdated blueprints & best of all, lessen workplace accidents.
04
The IceBreaker
Originally called "Conversation Starter", this concept idea involves the creation of an app to better encourage or suggest to users how to start a conversation with a stranger. Through the use of flashcards, users are presented with prompts or questions that let two strangers get to know one another better. That is, it allows two strangers to better communicate with one another by presenting them with conversational ideas and tips
05
Collaborative Painting
This concept idea is almost entirely explained by it's name alone. By allowing multiple users to pick colors & paint a picture simultaneously, kids & adults alike can let their imaginations run free & paint as they please, ultimately creating a collective masterpiece.
06
Kids Shape Game
Similar to the previous concept idea, the Kid's Shape Game allows multiple children to collaboratively play a shape game, where the objective is to build the correct pattern. An adult can optionally have their face displayed in the game (grandpa in the sketch) allowing them to converse with the children and guide them.
07
GestText
Shortened from Gesture-to-Text, GestText allows users to make some gesture while facing their mobile device & have that gesture be translated into some message. For example, making the peace sign would text "Peace out" to your most recent contact.
While convenient for most people, we feel confident that this technology would be immensely useful for the deaf & hard-of-hearing.
08
Family Tracker
This concept idea would have us create an app allowing users to check in on their family members easily. What differentiates this from the first concept idea, is that this concept wouldn't display the household but rather each individual household member's name along with what they've planned for their day.
At any time, users can check what their family member has planned and can call them by clicking the phone icon next to their name.
CONCEPT OUTCOMES
The race between concepts was closer than we thought, yet quite obvious. From both the practical & creative perspectives, the obvious choice was the Construction Multi-disciplinary Co-operation.
Why?
Let's explain. GestText was definitely it's biggest competitor. But it lacked creativity since similar projects had already been created. In terms of practicality, it lost two-fold: the best practical use of the concept would be in aiding the deaf & hard-of-hearing, but making such an app, that is, translating from sign language into text is far beyond the scope of what we three junior developers would be able to complete on time, in finals season no less.
And just like that, ConstructAR was born.
But not before we further refined the idea.
REFINED SKETCHES
01
Eyewear Integration
Considering the nature of a construction site, it's a fair to say that it's far from the ideal environment for smart phones, much less expensive smart phones capable of AR/VR rendering. Again, due to the nature of construction sites, workers are required to wear protective clothing like hard hats & safety glasses.
For all the above reasons, and of course the ease of useage, it's trivially easy to see how useful the integration of smart eyewear would be for CONSTRUCTAR.
Luckily, CONSTRUCTAR was built using the Vuforia & Unity engines, meaning that, among others, CONSTRUCTAR. is compatible with Microsoft's Hololens.
02
Filter By Relevant Infrastructure
Allowing users to filter by the infrastructure they'd like to see avoids displaying irrelevant information as well as avoiding sensory overload.
03
Directional Infrastructure
A small upgrade - directional infrastructure. It's easy to see how the flow of infrastructure, that is, water in pipes, electrical current in wires, etc, would be useful to those at a construction site.
If nothing else, this improves our previous design since it provides, at a very low development cost, much needed real-time information.
04
Informational Infrastructure
A BIG upgrade. Being able to view statistics & information about the construction infrastructure displayed would be a giant benefit to everyone.
Imagine being able to detect leaks due to drops in pressure in a pipe. Imagine knowing the last time a particular wire was serviced. What about it's current voltage? It's maximum voltage? The length of the wire? Whether it carries ground or positive charge? What about the temperature of the liquid in a pipe? What about the pressure?
The possibilities are endless.
So are the benefits.
05
Automatic Blueprint Recognition
Short and sweet. Take a picture of your blueprint, scan the construction site and have our proprietary algorithm render the blueprint for you in real-time.
The technology for this is probably a decade away, if not more. So obviously we couldn't go with this idea, though it would almost certainly be worth billions.
REFINED SKETCHES 2.0
Not Based On ConstructAR
SO WHAT'S CONSTRUCTAR LIKE?
About CONSTRUCTAR
CONSTRUCTAR
In conclusion, CONSTRUCTAR is a proof-of-concept prototype created by Mehrad Faridan, Kamalpreet Mundi and Edward Mah using the Unity/Vuforia engines.
In an attempt to enhance on-site & remote collaboration & communication between multi-disciplinary roles, we envisioned the engineering & construction process of the future.
By prototyping an augmented reality application that captures & visualizes construction infrastructure & planning in real time, we finally retired the outdated blueprints of today in favor of technologies that improve efficiency & teamwork.
Of course, there is still much work to be done. Visualization alone isn't enough. Automatically capturing & rendering blueprints would vastly increase the switch from blueprints to CONSTRUCTAR. In addition, being able to visualize important information & statistics in real time could be quite crucial and may even save lives. Of course, quality-of-life improvements would also go a long way, such as a method to filter displayed/visualized information.
