News: Trimble Brings Mixed Reality to the Construction Site with DAQRI Smart Helmet

Trimble Brings Mixed Reality to the Construction Site with DAQRI Smart Helmet

Trimble is integrating its mixed reality applications into the DAQRI Smart Helmet to enable outdoor and on-site support for design, construction, and heavy industry as part of a collaboration the companies announced today.

A provider of advanced solutions for industrial companies, Trimble's mixed reality suite lets users interact with digital content, such as building plans and job workflows, within the physical environment.

Trimble's Mixed-Reality Pilot Program enables companies from architecture, engineering, construction, and operations industries to utilize mixed reality applications in their projects. The program lets companies see first-hand how the applications can improve team communication, data interpretation, and collaboration in their work.

The video below shows how Trimble applies mixed reality to the mining industry using the Microsoft HoloLens.

Bringing mixed reality applications into the field have been problematic for architecture, engineering, construction, and operations companies due to safety concerns. While Trimble's applications work during design development and pre-construction stages on the HoloLens, expanding support to the DAQRI Smart Helmet opens up possibilities for work in the field.

Our customers would like to extend the use of this technology as part of their day-to-day on-site work. It is our mission and part of our hardware agnostic approach to provide them a variety of solutions, which support their needs.

The DAQRI Smart Helmet facilitates mixed reality applications while meeting safety requirements for these work environments. For instance, in addition to head protection, its augmented reality display is strong enough to withstand industrial environments, with high brightness for indoor and outdoor environments.

DAQRI Smart Helmet allows users to view construction blueprints in the context of the real construction environment. Image by DAQRI/YouTube

"DAQRI's proprietary, augmented-reality technologies and Trimble's mature set of mixed-reality applications can enable workers to be safer and more productive in the field," said Roy Ashok, DAQRI's chief product officer.

In the video below, DAQRI demonstrates how their Smart Helmet has been used in the field. In this case, it's viewing electrical, mechanical, and plumbing plans at a job site.

Aside from safety protection, the DAQRI Smart Helmet boasts a portfolio of features that Trimble's mixed reality applications can access. Powered by an Intel Core m7 processor, the Smart Helmet utilizes a high-speed, wide-angle camera with a dedicated processor for augmented reality applications.

The wearable is equipped Intel RealSense LR200 camera, with an array of sensors, namely an RGB camera, stereo infrared cameras, and an infrared light projector, to allow for depth perception. It also hosts a thermal camera that is handy for scanning for temperature-related issues in real-world environments.

With these specifications, the device can support data visualization, thermal vision, guided work instructions, and remote technical support applications.

With this collaboration, plus previous products from Trimble and DAQRI, and offerings from Scope AR and VIATechnik, the augmented/mixed reality community has seen several attempts to bring the technologies to the construction and other heavy industries.

Which of these applications, in your opinion, has hit the mark? Let us know in the comments section.

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Cover image via DAQRI/YouTube

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