Georgia Institute of Technology professor Charles M. Eastman, long considered a research guru for computer-based building design and construction, displays parental pride in his latest brainchild: Georgia Tech's Digital Building Laboratory. Unlike Eastman's past efforts, starting some 40 years ago, the fledgling DBL, created in 2009 to help improve building design and construction through the aid of digital tools, is a collaboration among academics and players in the buildings-sector food chain. “This is industry and academia together,” says Eastman, DBL's director and a professor of both architecture and computing at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. “To me, it is so obvious that
It's the Achilles' heel of the iPad. The HandStand makes it easy to hold an iPad at the jobsite or in a meeting. The ergonomics of Apple's tablet are “like a bar of soap,” says Spencer Houser, a product engineer at Houser Works in Portland, Ore. “The HandStand changes that.”The HandStand, an iPad case from Houston-based Hub International LLC, minimizes the chances of dropping an iPad.A semi-hardened rubber iPad case with a handle, the HandStand ergonomically secures the iPad to the user's hand, gripping it with an elastic cuff so that the device doesn't have to be held. A “finger
A wallet-sized sensor that works with a projector and computer to turn any hard, dumb surface into an interactive display is being introduced to the U.S. market. Early adopters say they are thrilled. Photo, top, courtesy of fullcon. Photo, bottom, by Luke Abaffy SMART WALL The U-Pointer can turn any computer image or projection into an interactive display. The size of the image is only limited by the projectors capability. “It's a tremendous opportunity,” says Andrew Berger, vice president of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif. Berger acquired one of the devices, called a U-Pointer, in late May. He put it to
It’s the Achilles’ heel of the iPad.The ergonomics of Apple’s tablet are “like a bar of soap,” says Spencer Houser, a product engineer at Houser Works in Portland, Ore. “The HandStand changes that.” Photo By Luke Abafy The HandStand makes it easy to hold an iPad at the jobsite or in a meeting. The HandStand, an iPad case from Houston-based Hub International LLC, minimizes the chances of dropping an iPad. A semi-hardened rubber iPad case with a handle, the HandStand ergonomically secures the iPad to the user’s hand, gripping it with an elastic cuff so that the device doesn’t have
A wallet-sized sensor that works with a projector and computer to turn any hard, dumb surface into an interactive display is being introduced to the U.S. market. Early adopters say they are thrilled. Photo:Courtesy Of Fullcon The U-Pointer can turn any computer image or projection into an interactive display. The size of the image is only limited by the projector’s capability. “It’s a tremendous opportunity,” says Andrew Berger, vice president of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif. Berger acquired one of the devices, called a U-Pointer, in late May. He put it to work immediately for engineering design reviews. “You can create
To most consumers, advanced meters are the poster child for smart- grid efforts. Workers are installing millions of these digital meters around the United States to improve two-way communication between customers and their electric utilities. Graphic courtesy Electric Power Research Institute A complete smart grid will include sensors, monitors, information technology and intelligent infrastructure, such as transmission lines and poles. Related Links: Mapping Tool for Buried Utilities Generates View From Three Sensors But for transmission and distribution companies, “smart grid” means something else: the addition of “intelligent infrastructure” layers over standard poles and wires. And for these companies, “smart grid”
All search engines are not created equal, claims the developer of Yometa.com, a “visual search engine” that simultaneously searches any term on Yahoo, Bing and Google and then displays the results all at once as pins on a Venn diagram. PHOTO, TOP, COURTESY OF AMBERG TECHNOLOGIES. IMAGE, BOTTOM, COURTESY OF YOMETA.COM SPREAD Hits are color-coded by search engine Yometa's algorithm ranks the top results of each search engine in sets, according to relevance. Results that appear in the Venn overlaps most likely contain the looked-for information. By hovering the mouse over any pin, a bubble pops up to offer information
All search engines are not created equal, claims the developer of Yometa.com, a “visual search engine” that simultaneously searches any term on Yahoo, Bing and Google and then displays the results all at once as pins on a Venn diagram. Image Courtesy Of Yometa.com Color-coded by search engine Yometa's algorithm ranks the top results of each search engine in sets, according to relevance. Results that appear in the Venn overlaps most likely contain the looked-for information. By hovering the mouse over any pin, a bubble pops up to offer information about the corresponding website. It is surprising how often highly
High-speed, high-resolution laser scanners that monitor the clearance envelope of railroad tracks have been available to European and Asian companies for some time. Now, a rail track scanner has been introduced to North America that is designed to capture track geometry and track envelope data in one pass, creating a 3D point cloud. The product claims 3mm accuracy. Photo : Courtesy Of Amberg Technologies Employed this GRP5000 to survey New York’s East Side Access, and No. 7 subway and was one of the first engineering firms to use it. “The amount of time required on the track is decreased,” says
To gain full advantage of innovations in technology, the construction industry must sometimes appropriate technology that was not developed specifically for construction. Visolu, a photo management app, is one such technology. Image courtesy of Underground Imaging Technologies Berlin-based Pixolution uses visual-image compression to find, sort and simultaneously display thousands of photos on most mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android). Visolu can arrange the photos in a list view, a grid view or a color view, which groups photos by visual similarity and ends up looking like a pointillist painting by Seurat. Among other applications, construction managers could employ Visolu to find,