The Learning Camera

"The construction industry has poor productivity compared to other sectors in part as a result of the diverse and changing project environments. Often it is constrained by the reluctance to explore and adopt technology that is more accepted and mature in other sectors.

However recently there is increasing focus on thinking of construction as a manufacturing industry and part of this approach it to take tasks off-site so that they can be undertaken in a controlled factory environment. However there is an ongoing need to have a construction site as being the place where the output from the construction industry is delivered. It is in this site environment that we are proposing to improve productivity by increasing the effectiveness of the people employed there.

UK Construction sites are highly regulated in terms of health, safety and environmental matters and this has introduced additional resources to monitor and manage these aspects. The advancement of technology in respect of increasing capacity and decreasing cost coupled with greater awareness of the potential internet connected devices has created perfect conditions for us to explore how this can bring benefit to the construction industry and drive safer sites, and higher quality and productivity. There is pressure on the availability of skilled experienced construction professionals caused by an aging workforce so therefore we must ensure that they are supported with appropriate tools in order to make the best use of their time and skills.

On construction sites, human resources are often engaged in activities that do not add value and they should therefore be freed from these low value tasks which are more suited to automation through the application of appropriate technology.

The Learning Camera is a flexible solution that allows users to train a standard web camera attached to a ruggedised edge computer which is linked to an online dashboard. The device is programmed to recognise a scenario on site and when the content of that view differs then an alert or action is automatically issued so that someone can attend to the situation.

It is intended that this tool is a collaborative innovation solution that can be readily applied to new use cases identified by users on construction sites. It will be designed to be resilient and low cost, and able to operate in a typical construction environment in variable weather and environmental conditions."