Concluding Notes - Mobile and Pervasive Computing in Construction - page 258

indicative of their potential. Construction sector organizations, as well as orga-
nizations in other industry sectors that have adopted mobile and pervasive
computing technologies, need to remain abreast of developments in this field.
Wherever necessary, they should also seek to influence the future direction of the
technologies to enhance their utility in their operations. While it is impossible to
predict, with any accuracy, the future directionsof mobile and pervasive computing
technologies, it is useful to highlight a number of trends and developments that will
have an impact in shaping the future:
It is generally thought that the period from 2010 to 2020 will become “The
Decade of Ubiquity”, during which every aspect of life will be permeated by digital,
mobile, media, data, information, augmented reality, virtual reality, and other
technologies. Information will be available everywhere and accessible almost
instantly (Rice, 2009). The vision is that ubiquitous/pervasive computing will
influence the current industries, professions, and millions of jobs, including AEC/
FM. To realize this vision requires the convergence of a variety of technologies and
domain knowledge. Mobile and ubiquitous computing will affect the construction
industry in similar ways that it is affecting other industries. The following are some
of the key issues that future trends will address:
* Standardization of mobile communications protocols and data formats
exchanged between different mobile platforms.
* Service-oriented architecture (SOA) will complement the current server-client
communication architecture.
* Mobile multi-user systems -both synchronous and/or asynchronous.
* Integrated visualization tools such as Augmented Reality and Mediated Reality
for onsite real-time visualization.
* Image and pattern recognition, image mining, and the use of intelligent agents
for more intelligent mobile applications for construction contexts.
* Natural human-computer interaction, for example, from simple gestural
interfaces to more sophisticated embodied interaction, considering the fact
that construction workers have to carry equipment, tools, drawings,and so on.
* User-friendly authoring tools for developing applications for construction
management use.
* Increasing opportunities for automatic data collection using mobile and
pervasive computing technologies for a variety of purposes, such as progress
monitoring, structural health monitoring, and energy performance monitoring
(to name a few).
* Using mobile and pervasive computing, there is scope to enhance the quality of
collaboration. In design, this is expected to lead to a transition from collab-
orative design to collective design, in which the collective intelligence of the
design team and the wider community is harnessed in arriving at a more
collectively-generated design solution.
Inspired by The Decade of Ubiquity (Rice, 2009), the vision of future construction
sites can be as follows: “The physical objects in the construction site and the site
itself around you becomes your display and your interface to interact with