The construction industry is just waking to the realization that with the adoption of mobile devices, BIM and other new technologies, the amount of data being generated by projects has grown exponentially. This data comes in a variety of sources from images to schedules to models and more - most of which is locked inside the system in which it was created. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging way to bring additional value from this data and allow for better decision making on projects.
Smartvid.io, in particular, uses AI to automatically analyze photos and other data gathered across the job to recognize safety hazards and the potential for incident. Their “Safety Suite” is made up of three modules: Safety Observations, Safety Monitoring, and Predictive Analytics.
Safety Observations
While AI is their bread and butter, Smartvid.io also recognizes the fact that the more eyes that are on a problem, the better chance there is of making an impact. The Safety Observations module allows people in the field to use an app to log risk rated safety observations that are categorized as either “positive” or “risk”. Users can assign a task to another user who is better equipped to address an identified hazard. More than just a checklist, Smartvid.io trains users of its app to interact with tradespeople, driving worker engagement and a shared safety culture.
Safety Monitoring
The Safety Monitoring Module is at the heart of Smartvid.io’s AI system. Vinnie, as the company calls their construction trained AI program (akin to Amazon’s Alexa), sorts through pictures and video loaded to the system in the background and detects safety hazards, such as lack of PPE, ladder hazards, and slip trip and fall hazards.
To get those photos and videos, Smartvid.io integrates with several of the most popular construction apps, like Procore, Autodesk BIM 360, Ox Blue, StructionSite and Box. Once the photos are analyzed, Vinnie creates risk reports, highlighting where a company or project’s biggest areas of risk are.
Predictive Analytics
Perhaps most important when it comes to safety, the Predictive Analytics Module predicts where safety incidents are most likely to occur. Built on the observations collected by human workers and insights obtained from photos and video by Vinnie, the predictive models are tuned to identify risk patterns buried deep in the data. It’s one thing to be able to analyze a site after the fact, but avoiding a likely safety incident altogether is already having an extremely positive impact for some in the industry.
All of these modules combined also help continuously train Vinnie to better identify risk in the future. Harnessing AI to analyze pictures and other jobsite data, including for safety purposes, has the potential to be one of the most important technological advances for the construction industry. In addition to saving lives, as it allows for proper benchmarking and accurate data analysis at job sites around the country.
For more information about Smartvid.io, visit their website www.smartvid.io and check out my interview from Procore Groundbreak below!
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