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Augmented Reality Will Soon Play a Bigger Role in Construction

Augmented reality (AR) is finding a place in many industries as the technology advances, and soon, it will be implemented in all sorts of aspects of construction. If you’re not familiar, AR is an interactive experience in which computer-generated information and graphics are superimposed over the real-world environment, usually using special glasses or headsets. Other ways it’s used include enhanced navigation systems that superimpose a route over your view of the road, apps that let you see how furniture will look in your home and digital models of human organs to guide surgeons through complex operations.

The Woodworking Network recently published a list of 5 ways AR will help make construction faster, safer and more efficient, and frankly, it’s pretty exciting. 

The first is project planning. Where you might once have relied on design sketches and your imagination, now you can view a virtual model of the project and make changes to it in real time, like adjusting certain things to the client’s satisfaction. Augmented reality will come in handy for measuring, too, using digital rulers to take measurements in seconds, which can help reduce inaccuracies that arise from human error.

The ability to interact with a building before it’s completed is another big one. For instance, it’s rarely particularly helpful to have an interior designer come onto an active work site and view a partially completed building in order to visualize how it should be decorated. Augmented reality, however, lets them see the full picture by viewing a digital finished version the site through a smartphone or tablet.

Augmented reality can be a big help in bringing teams together, too. Let’s say you have one person on site who needs help from someone located far away. An AR headset lets the remote employee see through the other employee’s eyes and display helpful information in their field of view.

Check out the whole piece at the Woodworking Network.

Image via BDC

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