by Houston Neal

The latest talk of the town in the Apple blogosphere is 3D head-tracking. Apple recently filed a patent for technology that allows users to change perspective of an object by moving their head or body. So instead of dragging your mouse to rotate a graph or chart, you simply look behind it; a more intuitive approach (at least in the eyes of Apple engineers). Here’s a quick video of how this could be used to view 3D construction plans:

With all the attention augmented reality is getting, we’re not surprised to see big players like Apple experimenting with this genre of technology. Novelty aside, there seems to be endless applications. We think the technology would be great for the construction industry. Combined with construction software, contractors could use it to visualize complex construction projects, like the example above which uses 3D building models from Synchro software.  
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Augmented reality will soon be available on smartphones to transform site visits. Written by Simon Johns

Imagine walking down the street, looking for somewhere to eat. You use your phone to photograph a restaurant, and the overlay on the screen shows you menu items pulled from the restaurant’s online menu, reviews from newspapers and so forth.

Science fiction? No, this is available right now from a startup called Layar (www.layar.com), with content from Yellow Pages, Google, Flickr and Wikipedia.

Modern smartphones, such as iPhones and Google Android devices, can determine their own location through GPS and an internal compass, they can download data through mobile broadband connections and they have reasonably powerful graphics-processing capabilities. These provide the necessary ingredients for mobile augmented reality.  
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Two-hour interactive online offering for design and construction professionals explains Building Information Modeling – how it works, who can benefit, and why it’s important

To help architects, engineers, contractors and other design professionals keep up with the rapidly evolving world of virtual modeling technology, RedVector is pleased to release “Building Information Modeling (BIM): An Introduction.”

The course covers the ways that a Building Information Model can use a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of a facility to enable collaboration among all the stakeholders on a project, and shows how it can increase productivity from the planning stages through the finished product. The origins of BIM are discussed, along with some common limitations, current standardization activities, and its increasing popularity as a primary tool in the industry for project information and coordination.  
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Phoenix, November 11, 2009 – ecoScorecard, the technology platform that helps building product specifiers evaluate environmental attributes of products, today revealed the new ecoScorecard plug-in that works with Google SketchUp and provides a critical link between popular BIM (Building Information Modeling) tools and important environmental rating systems such as LEED. The announcement was made today in conjunction with the opening of the US Green Building Council’s annual Greenbuild Expo.

The new integration will enable users to easily access environmental product attributes and rating system calculations for ecoScorecard enabled products that are in the Google 3D Warehouse, resulting in faster and more accurate rating system documentation for Google SketchUp users.

“The BIM process is built on the concept of coordinated information, and ecoScorecard takes that process a step further by providing an immediate to link to environmental product attributes and rating system calculations,” said Martin Flaherty, president of ecoScorecard. “Users can now pull data from ecoScorecard enabled products directly into the model and use that information throughout the design process.”  
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The General Services Administration (GSA), Public Buildings Services (PBS), has officially awarded ten Nationwide Building Information Modeling (BIM) Services IDIQ Contracts to the following firms:

• Beck Technology
• Applied Software Technology
• DPR Construction, Inc.
• Ghafari Associates, LLC
• Hallam Associates, Inc.
• KlingStubbins, Inc.
• HNTB Corporation
• ONUMA, Inc.
• View by View, Inc.
• Kristine Fallon Associates, Inc.

Congratulations to all of these firms! It will be interesting to see how much work actually comes out of this contract and how it will impact the architectural industry. Be sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates on this monumental contract award.

On September 22, 2009, the AIA Houston BIM Association hosted their Fall seminar titled Building Information Modeling: Content, Collaboration and Construction. Presented by Jeff Chittenden, AIA (WHR Architects) and Jim Jacobi, P.E. (Walter P. Moore), this seminar was a discussion on model content, (where to find it, how to make it, and what should it be), collaboration, (how to collaborate with consultants, owners and contractors), and construction (how does the contractor use BIM and what do they expect).

NEW YORK, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ — The rapid emergence of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) technologies is revolutionizing the way architecture, engineering and construction firms work together to communicate, solve problems and build better projects. To bring design and construction professionals closer to BIM’s benefits, McGraw-Hill Construction will host a national conference on the “Business of BIM” on September 21-22, 2009, at the Mission Bay Conference Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

More than 200 design and construction professionals and affiliates will convene to discuss the business benefits of BIM, present projected effects on the bottom line, and detail case studies that have demonstrated real, measurable results. Attendees will have direct access to BIM technologies, including those new to the market, and will have the opportunity to analyze trends alongside the foremost BIM thought-leaders.  
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The word on the street is that the General Services Administration (GSA)has notified firms selected for Nationwide BIM and Laser Scanning Services contracts this morning. The selected firms will begin contract negotiations this week. No details have been given as to which firms were selected just yet, but follow us on Twitter or check back here for updates as we get more information.

UPDATE: August 25, 2009 – Contracts were awarded on both a regional and national basis. More to come…