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[>Htech] Wearable computers would save money, increase efficiencies

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 22:04:14 +0100
From: Erik Starck <>
Reply-To: 
To: 
Subject: [>Htech] Wearable computers would save money, increase efficiencies

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/gentips/03/03arch.html

Wearable computers have revolutionized communications in fields such as 
firefighting and emergency medical services, where information must flow 
fast in adverse work environments. George Elvin thinks lightweight, 
wireless computers may similarly transform the construction industry in the 
not-too-distant future.

"Building design and construction has been called the worlds largest 
industry," said Elvin, a professor of 
<http://www.arch.uiuc.edu>architecture at the University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign. "It is also is one of the most inefficient.

Consensus estimates suggest that as much as 30 percent of project costs are 
wasted through poor management of the design-construction process. This 
waste represents more than $10 billion in the United States every year that 
could be directed toward improved design, better materials and related 
improvements to our built environment."

To that end, Elvin is leading efforts at Illinois to study the effects of 
using wireless-enabled portable computers that can be strapped to a 
toolbelt and pen-based electronic tablets to complete integrated 
design-construction projects.

Elvin will present results of a preliminary study at the American Society 
of Civil EngineersConstruction Research Congress in Honolulu, March 19-21.

Elvin said the goal of the study, part of a larger research program to 
develop tools and practices for improving the built environment through 
integrated design and construction, was "to measure the accuracy, 
timeliness, completeness and efficiency of information exchange enabled by 
wearable computers." The study was based on interviews with architects and 
contractors; construction-site observations; and data from controlled 
experiments at IllinoisBuilding Research Council. In those experiments, 
three small structures were built using different communications devices: 
traditional paper documents, a pen-based tablet computer, and a wearable 
computer with flat-panel display.

"Results indicated that tablet and wearable computers may significantly 
reduce rework, while productivity decreased slightly when tablet and 
wearable computers were used,"
Elvin said. With paper documents, for example, 4.15 percent of total 
project time was spent re-doing some aspect of the project, compared to 
1.38 percent with the wearable computer. Elvin said communications using 
paper likely proved less efficient because the quality of paper documents 
faxed to job sites is often poor, whereas the use of tablets or wearable 
computers allows construction-team members to enlarge parts of documents to 
view greater detail.

Elvin said a dip of less than 8 percent in productivity indicated in the 
study "is typical of the initial decline in productivity observed when a 
new technology is introduced to a workforce in any field," he said. 
"Further study is needed to determine the long-term productivity impacts of 
tablet and wearable computers once the user had become proficient in their 
use."

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