Building a Safer World with Wearable Technology and Data Science
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BY ANTHONY MULLEN
PROFUSION
There’s an iconic photograph entitled ‘Lunch atop a Skyscraper’ taken 83 years ago, showing construction workers eating their packed lunches while perched precariously on a metal beam on the 69th floor of the under-construction Rockefeller Center in New York City. The picture encapsulates America’s skyscraper boom, although it was in fact a publicity stunt to promote the building. What the picture also reveals is the risks people were willing to take to get work during the Great Depression. We’ve obviously come a very long way in improving safety, at least in the West. What would probably surprise the foremen of Depression-era construction sites is that increased safety has not come at the expensive of productivity. Thanks to technology, better designs and working practices, construction sites have never been safer or more efficient. However, there is always room for improvement, and the advent of wearable technology and data science is set to change the nature of the construction site once again.
Wearable technology comes in lots of forms — from fitness devices like Jawbone or Fitbit to communication pieces similar to Apple Watch or Pebble and smart clothes. This opens the door to a number of innovative ways workers on a construction site can lead safer lives. In 2014 there were 874 worker fatalities on construction sites, accounting for one in five work-related fatalities in the U.S. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has categorized the causes of these accidents into what’s called the Fatal Four — falls, struck by object, electrocution, and caught-in/between.
How can wearables help? In addition to tracking these risks, they can help avoid them altogether. Google Glass-type technology could soon be worn by every worker. The display could provide updated information to workers on what wires are live, the proximity and route of vehicles or machinery and the presence of dangerous substances. It also allows workers to keep their hands on the job and not a tablet or mobile device. Construction professionals could see what their on-site workers see. Technologies like XOEye and Daqri are delivering this today for the industrial workplace.
In many cases, muscular injuries are not immediately apparent, with pain or stiffness arriving after an initial injury has taken place. Smart clothing can reveal immediately when muscular injuries have occurred, allowing speedy treatment and preventing further exacerbation. As prevention is the best cure, wearable devices can also send warnings when a worker has adopted a dangerous posture when lifting a heavy object or operating heavy machinery.
Trips and falls are harder to predict. However, smart devices and beacon technology could be deployed en masse to improve the overall layout and functioning of a construction site. By monitoring the movements and activities of workers, machinery and vehicles, coupling this information with the construction plan and applying data science techniques, the most efficient means of construction can be ascertained.
The correct work plan could be delivered to each worker via a Google Glass headset or smart watch. Not only will this allow foremen and planners to identify dangerous actions or locations and apply better safety procedures, it will also allow the construction process to become much easier to modify in real time. For example, designers, project managers or developers can view the construction as it happens through the Google Glasses on their workers. Modifications and problems could be solved almost instantaneously, without the need for site visits or a drawn out decision process.
The design of buildings and infrastructure will also be influenced by data science. By rigging existing structures with beacons and monitoring how individuals interact with them, a picture will soon emerge of the best way to design new developments. This will become a more prevalent trend as smart cities become the norm and provide designers with even more information on how people within a city use different facilities.
Data science thrives on analyzing more information and refining algorithms, therefore, the more times these techniques are applied to construction projects the more efficient the results will be. In short, there will come a point when data science can reveal the optimum strategy for completing any project – balancing build efficiency, worker productivity and safety.
Wearable technology and data science is changing how a lot of industries operate, and construction should not be an exception. Developing and experimenting with wearable devices is surprisingly cheap, especially in the context of the cost of most construction projects. There is a significant opportunity for building professionals to invest in wearable technology for their staff or work with third parties to create new devices and procedures that make construction safer, cheaper and more efficient.
Anthony Mullen is practice lead, research and development at data science consultancy Profusion. He is an expert in consumer and enterprise technology research with more than 20 years’ experience advising Fortune 500 market leaders on emerging technology, development and innovation strategies.
