New Construction Photo Tool Can Create a Google Street View Style Database for Your Project

OpenSpace.ai

OpenSpace.ai

Picture documentation is arguably one of the most important aspects of a construction project.  They can help communicate a story, catch mistakes, and assist in warranty calls. In the past, pictures only told part of the story, because they were two dimensional and often impossible to place where they were taken on the site.  Now, 360 degree photos are becoming the norm and pictures are becoming an even more powerful tool.

360 Degree Camera Hard Hat Attachment

360 Degree Camera Hard Hat Attachment

A new tech company, called OpenSpace, is making their way into the 360 degree photo scene with a fresh take for the construction industry.  Much like that Microsoft commercial that you’ve probably seen a million times already, OpenSpace stiches together hundreds of thousands of video frames to create a Google Street View style tour of your jobsite.

The only thing the worker wearing the 360 degree camera has to do is complete a normal jobsite walk and the platform does the rest.  The software will work with a commercially available 4K, 360 degree camera (like the Garmin VIRB 360, $799 on Amazon), which attaches on top of a standard hard hat.

OpenSpace not only charts your path around the jobsite, dropping checkpoints directly onto a digital floor plan, but also allows you to review pictures of the same area from different times.  One of the coolest features that I’ve seen so far is the split screen option, which shows the same view side-by-side at different points throughout history, shown in the picture below.  This will make it much easier to determine exactly what is behind walls after the drywall goes up.

OpenSpace's split screen mode

OpenSpace's split screen mode

The app is also integrated into other popular project management platforms, like Procore (PlanGrid coming soon), so you can avoid the hassle of switching from one program to another. The OpenSpace.ai app is currently available for Apple products in the App Store, with Android availability following later.  Pricing for the service is yet to be announced.

Check out the video below for more information:

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