Top 10 Technology Trends in Construction
Fran Rabuck Director, Director Real Time Asset Lab Bentley Systems Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis, MN September 17-19, 2007
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten." Bill Gates
Top Ten Technologies
#10 – The Cell Phone Pervasive and Underutilized Not just smartphones iPhone is just the beginning & a Trojan Horse 2 Billion cell phones NFC – RFID GPS in the phone 700 MHz New Spectrum – Google, Apple, Yahoo FMC and Cognitive Radio UMPC devices
How about a $600 UMPC?
#9 – Smart Browsers Microsoft Silverlight, Google Gears and Adobe AIR Browsers on/off line, cross platform, rich media E.g. Microsoft Silverlight add-on for Firefox, Safari, and runs on Linux, and works offline The browser is the new OS “Today, you always know whether you are on the Internet or on your PC's hard drive. Tomorrow, you will not care and may not even know.” – Bill Gates
#8 – Next Gen Wireless 802.11n – higher speed, 4th Generation WiMax (Sprint/Clearwire) 70 Mb/s over 50 kilometers Mobile WiMax – 802.16e-2005 ZigBee and Mesh Networks 802.11p – WAVE -Dedicated Short Range Communications for ITS (5.9 Ghz) WiMedia – UltraWideBand (UWB) – wireless USB up to 480 Mb/s – short distance New Plant Wireless players – beyond CISCO
#7 – Sensors, Everywhere Not just for concrete anymore Driven by Green movement, better predictive maintenance and flexibility IP becomes the 4th Utility Proprietary UI to open, integrated, web-based, touch-screens Bridges and other infrastructure – man vs. machine?
#6 – Haptic Technology Touch screen technology will become pervasive iPhone, Samsung W559, LG Prada Microsoft Surface Re-engineering HMI for plants Improved collaboration in design cycles Interactive training simulation www.immersion.com/corporate/press_room/pdfs/Value-of-Haptics_May07v1-lr.pdf
#5 – Location, Location, Location Beyond GPS and Google In-Building Location Track and Trace of equipment and people GIS and Buildings, viewed as one New technologies on the horizon – Rosum, Galileo and more Watch OGC!
#4 – 3D Gets Real 3D, 4D modeling is here 3D Printing – soon for $5000! 3D input devices Improvements in Visualization, walkthrus, stereoscopic images Augmented Reality – combination of virtual and real worlds. Second Life – Out, World Wide Reality – In
#3 – Security and Safety $1B/Yr lost on construction sites 20% increase in thefts every year since 1996 Employee “ID” for security and safety FIPS 201, HSPD-12 DeWalt MobileLock
#2 – Workforce Automation, Training, and Process Multilingual, global workforce Faster Just-in-time training Alternate media Process Improvement Innovation and Future Planning Zachry Machine Training
Top Ten Technologies
#1 –YOU! Innovation is – IN! Cautious investment in new technologies Collaboration and pooling of risks, softens the blow How do we spend your money?
Other Technologies
Robotics Nano Technology/Materials Simulation RFID Other?
1st & 2nd Rules of Technology “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.� Bill Gates