Construction and energy services company McKinstry is testing virtual reality technology in the job site office of Amazon’s two-tower Block 21 development in Seattle. According to Puget Sound Business Journal, the HTC Vive Virtual Reality System immerses workers inside a model of the site, which is being built across the street.
The article says that augmented reality will eventually be added to safety glasses on the actual work site, allowing crews to pull up 3D drawings showing where to install ducts, pipes, and other infrastructure.
McKinstry told the journal that they company is in the early stages of introducing the technology to field crews. They say the more exposure employees have to the tools in AR, the more adaptable they will be when the technology becomes mainstream.
“In the field normally you’re snapping tape measures. If you can automate that by having it projected ahead of you, we think there are some exciting efficiency gains,” Matt Allen, director of construction technology, told the Journal.
Senior project manager Brian Peguillan has tested augmented reality on job sites, and has shown a few people how it can be used.
“I don’t think we’re quite there yet with getting the AR stuff into an actual field person’s hands, but that’s where it will go,” he told the Journal.
Source: Puget Sound Business Journal
