Visualisation in construction - Trends and future directions

Abstract

It is widely recognised that construction is an information intensive and complex industry. Traditional computational techniques have failed our industry because of the shear number of information interfaces and complex relationships. Modern visual technologies can resolve many of the aforementioned problems by providing construction professional with 3 dimensional information interfaces that allow them to use the visual model (3D, VR, etc) as the medium for communication, interaction, and integration. This lecture looks at trends and predictions within the construction sector for technologies such as visualisation through CAD and VR. It then presents an improved model for information interfacing through VR capabilities. The information interface model is a webbased one developed to provide opportunities for many construction professionals across the supply chain using open technologies such as the Internet. This lecture will demonstrate that information visualisation is of importance and can be used by every participant within the construction sector including clients, contractors, cost estimators, project planners, and others. Finally, this lecture will conclude with a series of live demos resulting from state of the art research on information visualisation and interfaces being conducted at the University of Salford in the UK. Salford is bringing together visualisation, object oriented and webtechnologies to solve the problems associated with construction information integration and communication. This lecture will provide an overview of this research that will help many interested parties understand how these technologies can work together.