Technology Trends

Surveying and measuring buildings don’t look like sexy occupations. However, with the current boom of real estate prices in many countries, it’s a good idea to hire a professional surveyor to measure a future property and to avoid to pay some extra square meters for several thousand dollars each. And now, an Israeli company, EZ2CAD, has developed a new system which can measure accurately an apartment inside a building, without the limitations of the current (and more expensive) systems. In this article, IsraCast says that the new device is composed of two units, a base station and a lightweight mobile unit called Rover. Besides being as accurate and cheaper as current systems, this device also creates a CAD model directly usable by a software such as AutoCAD to build a 3D model in real time. It should become available in about two years for a starting price of $3,000. Read more…

Before going further, here is what you can read about modern surveying technologies in this page at Wikipedia.

Modern surveying utilizes an instrument called a total station, a small telescope equipped with an electronic distance-measuring device (EDMD) and set up on a tripod, although the modern use of satellite positioning systems, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), is also well established, with the robotic total station becoming widely used. Though GPS systems have increased the speed of surveying, they are still only accurate to about 20 mm. It is because of this that EDMDs have not been completely phased out. Robotics allows surveyors to gather precise measurements without extra workers to look through and turn the telescope or record data.

So how does this new system work?

To overcome these limitations a team of Israeli professional surveyors and engineers set out to create a revolutionary new device called QuickSurveyor. The new system is composed of two units, a base station and a lightweight mobile unit called Rover. The Base station is essentially a 50cm high metallic pyramid with nine tiny RF and ultra sound transmitters / receivers built into it.

The Rover is a portable unit shaped like a telescopic rod 1meter in length, which can extend up to 3m to help measure high ceilings, and other hard to reach places. The rod includes 3 sensors triangular in shape and can be aided by laser distance meter to increase its range. The Rover unit can also include a handheld computer which shows the measurements’ progress in real time.

Below is a picture of the base station composed of its three base beacons and its nine radio transmitters (Credit: EZ2CAD).

Now, what about the performance of QuickSurveyor?

In the current prototype stage of development, the Rover can operate in a radius of approximately 30 m from the base station and create a 3D model of the measured area with an accuracy of about 2 cm within less than a second. In the finished product the accuracy level should improve to about 5 mm (almost the level of accuracy of the much more expensive TS system).

On its web site, EZ2CAD mentions a precision of 1 millimeter and a range of 200 meters, but these are probably of the future version of the product.

And by the way, when will this product be available?

The company plans to market its innovative system in about two years. [...] The estimated price of the commercial version should be between $3,000 and $10,000 depending on the system configuration.

Even if this system is not currently available, EZ2CAD is pretty optimistic about its potential market, and gives numbers I am unable to confirm from other sources.

EZ2CAD advisor Benny Marcus told Isracast that the market for surveying systems like the RTK-GPS and the QuickSurveyor is currently estimated to be more than $3 billion annually and should grow to more than $5 billion by 2008.

Finally, if you want more information about this system, including animations, please visit these two pages, QuickSurveyor Review and QS4AsBuilt.

Sources: Iddo Genuth, IsraCast, July 1, 2005; and various web sites

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Virtual reality (VR) modeling has been used for years in various industries, including the automotive sector. But most of the applications were neglecting the effects of lightning. In “Getting the Feel of Virtual Reality,” IST Results, a EU organization, says that RealReflect, a project started in 2002 at several European universities, is about to change this. It uses “a new image acquisition technique known as Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) that captures the look and feel of different materials.” The system handles both lighting and viewing direction and can acquire and render very subtle textures in VR environments. With previous VR modeling applications, you could see the results as believable. But, according to the researchers, with RealReflect, you think the model is real. The system has been targeted for the automotive industry, but could be used for other applications, such as architecture design or computer games. Read more…

Here are the opening paragraphs of the article.

A giant leap forward in the realism of virtual reality (VR) may be just around the corner as a team of European researchers near the completion of a pioneering project to add textures, lighting effects and ‘feel’ to computer-generated 3D models.

Launched in 2002, the RealReflect project was the first attempt to use a new image acquisition technique known as Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) that captures the look and feel of different materials. When this IST programme funded-project ends this October it is expected to result in the first comprehensive application using BTF for industrial modelling.

Researchers are pretty enthusiast about the new system.

“RealReflect is a major advancement over traditional virtual reality modelling, which basically relies on simplifications of reality by describing optical properties of a surface by a 2D matrix of data that does not show the real effects of lighting,” explains project coordinator Attila Neumann at the Technical University of Vienna. “Traditional virtual reality modelling, despite its name, lacks the feeling of reality and is a poor representation of it because the way things look highly depends on how they are illuminated and from what direction they are being viewed.”

Below is a rendering of the complete exterior of a Mercedes C-Class: “Taken directly from the VR-System, this screenshot shows the standard rendering subproduct using environment mapping (Credit: RealReflect).

You’ll find other screenshots, demos and a movie in the Media & Downloads Library section.

Because RealReflect takes into account both lighting and viewing direction, it is able to acquire and render in VR even the most subtle textures. But there is the price to pay: the system generates lots of data.

In order to be able to realistically represent textures the system requires a thousand times more data than other VR modelling tools, leading the project partners to develop compression techniques for the BTF information. The compression allows the models to be viewed and worked on in real time.

If the models created with RealReflect can feel like real cars, is this the end of prototypes?

“When a car company wants to make a new model around 50 prototypes of different designs are built, of those most will be rejected before the company reaches the final stage of choosing a model from maybe five examples,” the coordinator says. “With RealReflect there would be no need to produce 50 physical prototypes as they could be created and viewed virtually, requiring maybe only five or 10 real prototypes or even less to be produced.”

Besides cost savings and reduced times to market a new model, RealReflect can be used for other purposes.

Besides displaying in detail the look of the vehicle, the system could also enhance safety by allowing designers to see the way different types of illumination reflect off its surfaces. This could, for example, allow designers to reduce potentially dangerous reflections on the windshield that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Beyond the automotive sector, the RealReflect system could also be applied to architecture, allowing architects to better visualise the appearance of materials used in construction, while offering clients the opportunity to virtually tour a building.

Today, the project partners have not yet decided how the system will be put on the market. But as the EU financial funding will stop in October 2005, they have to decide pretty soon if RealReflect will be sold as a full application or as individual components targeting different industries.

Sources: IST Results, April 27, 2005; and RealReflect website

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Two recent short articles from BBC News Online (”City toilets rise to the occasion“) and the Register (”Rise of the man-eating cyberloo“) are pointing at the installation of futuristic retractable urinals in the center of Aberdeen, Scotland. The City Council considers that there are not enough public toilets, especially at night and that these 6 feet retractable toilets will prevent men to urinate in the streets. These Urilifts will be remotely controlled by city employees and can welcome three men simultaneously. There is also a version for women, called Urilady, but apparently the City Council is not considering such an installation for the moment. Read more…

Here are some details given by BBC News Online.

Aberdeen City Council officials said there were not enough toilets available at night when revellers pack the city centre bars and restaurants.

It is considering installing two 6ft Urilift retractable cubicles which look like manhole covers until hydraulic cylinders bring them from the pavement.

They would be operated by Aberdeen City Council staff using remote controls. Up to three men at a time can use the urinal facility.

The two pictures above show the Urilift — for men — and the Urilady — for women — which is not currently under consideration by the Aberdeen City Council.

You can find high-quality versions of these photos on this page, but please avoid the irritating parent site (Macromedia Flash format).

How do you think these Urilifts cost? You can find an answer in an Aberdeen city bulletin, “City may purchase new hi-tech toilets.” Two of these toilets, plus a more traditional Automatic Public Convenience (APC) will cost up to £125,000.

Now, let’s switch to the Register, which, as usual, uses quite an ironic tone. Here are two short paragraphs from the article.

Battalions of remote-controlled stealth cyberloos disguised as manhole covers but capable of rising from the pavement in seconds and devouring up to three urinating Scotsmen in one vicious attack.

We kid you not. Aberdeen City Council is considering installing two 6ft “Urilift” retractable cubicles in response to a reported lack of late-night toilet facilities. Naturally, it’s not enough to knock up a traditional, brick-built Caledonian crapper. Nope, what Aberdeen needs a is hydraulically-powered cyberbog operated by “council employees” from a remote command centre.

Now, for real fun, here is a link to a document prepared by the Aberdeen City Council about environment and infrastructure (PDF format, 14 pages, 240 KB).

Here is what the Council says about Justice Mill Lane.

This is a very busy nightspot with extensive associated street urination. We would suggest the installation of two urilifts on the routes out of the lane towards the taxi rank.

Finally, if you’re interested by this subject, you’ll find more details on the Urilift by reading this fact sheet (PDF format, 2 pages, 300 KB). This document states that this retractable urinal is “designed to counter the growing problem of indiscriminate urination.”

Sources: BBC News Online, March 18, 2005; Lester Haines, The Register, March 24, 2005; and various web pages

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In a very well-documented article, Computerworld describes the current status of building automation systems (BAS) that control heat, air conditioning or lighting and how these systems are merging with traditional IT infrastructures. Computerworld writes that they’re not enough standards in this industry and asks a fundamental question: who will administer these building networks, IT or facilities managers? Take for example Yale University which wants to connect 210 campus buildings, but also wishes “to integrate the BAS with the university’s accounting system for billing and chargeback.” Imagine the security risks involved with such an approach. Read more…

Let’s start with a an assessment of the current situation.

As building automation systems (BAS) that control heat, air conditioning, lighting and other building systems get smarter, they’re converging with traditional IT infrastructures. Emerging standards are enabling data sharing between building systems as well as with other business applications, improving efficiency and real-time control over building operating costs. Information security concerns, immature standards, the reluctance of vendors to give up proprietary technologies and ignorance among IT professionals of the convergence trend are all slowing the pace of this transformation, but it’s gathering momentum.

But who will control such networks? And are there enough standards in this industry?

Open standards are just beginning to evolve and will likely break down the silos between building systems ranging from physical security to elevator controls. And the data from those systems is likely to be shared with other business applications such as the accounting system. This will allow for more-efficient buildings as applications are developed that can capitalize on newly converged data streams and real-time access to data.

[Right now,] standardization has started from the bottom up. Proprietary cabling systems in networks that link sensors and other devices to controllers on individual floors have given way in recent years to two competing, open protocols, BACnet and LonTalk, while floor controllers are migrating onto IP backbones.

Barry Haaser, executive director of LonMark International, says LonTalk and BACnet will prevail at the device level for technical and cost reasons. Others aren’t so sure. “Instead of two guys running the IT and controls networks, why not one guy? I see IP going down to the individual device,” says Anno Scholten, chief technology officer at BAS vendor Plexus Technology Ltd. in Irving, Texas.

Let’s take the example of Yale University to see how complex can be the merge between control systems and IT infrastructure.

But sharing the IP backbone raises security concerns among network administrators. Yale University is starting a project to consolidate its BAS onto an IP network that will link 210 campus buildings, and it plans to tie the BAS into a room-scheduling system that will automatically control energy usage based on room occupancy. For security reasons, Bill Daniels, manager of systems and technologies for the university’s facilities group, has created an isolated, parallel network that’s protected by firewalls and uses nonroutable IP addresses to keep data off the Internet.

Jerry Hill, director of systems engineering at Yale, says security is paramount. “We don’t want a student to hack into our building management systems just because they can,” he says.

The problem is that Daniels wants to integrate the BAS with the university’s accounting system for billing and chargeback.

One thing is sure: I wouldn’t apply for an IT security job at Yale University. Too many nightmares…

Finally, this must-read article looks at how web technologies are used in building automation systems, such as the use of encrypted XML messages via SOAP to control heat and lights at an airport gate when needed.

Source: Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld, March 14, 2005; and various websites

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You might think that concrete is a boring material. Not at all. In a very well-documented article, “Concrete Nation,” Science News tells us how the limits of this humble material are being pushed. You can now find concrete that bends like metal and which is five times as strong as regular concrete without any reinforcing steel bars. Or you can use concrete which doesn’t need a vibration machine to remove the air bubbles inside, which can save lots of time during construction. There are also translucent concrete or concrete incorporating transparent elements, allowing to build floors lit from below. And by adding titanium dioxide to cement, you obtain a self-cleaning concrete that remains the same color for centuries and can even clean the air by breaking down dangerous pollutants. Fascinating, isn’t?

Before going further, let’s start by some illustrations. The pictures and the legends below come from the site of a current exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete (Macromedia Flash needed).

Below are computer-generated images of the hypothetical Mound Builder Museum designed by Building Studio from Memphis, Tennessee (Macromedia Flash needed).

And this one shows another museum, the MUCEM, in Marseille, France, which will be completed by 2009.

Now, let’s look at a concrete that bends like metal.

For instance, consider some of the new materials developed by concrete giant Lafarge, headquartered in Paris.

Vic Perry leads the company’s North American operation producing Ductal, one of Lafarge’s newest concrete products (Macromedia Flash needed). Unlike regular concrete, which is brittle and can rupture suddenly under a heavy load, Ductal can bend. “It will deflect and show signs of cracking before it fails,” says Perry. “You can see in advance that you’ve got a problem.”

What’s more, Ductal is five times as strong as regular concrete. That extra oomph comes from the addition of small fibers dispersed throughout the matrix. These fibers, made of either steel or polymer, reinforce the concrete and eliminate the need for reinforcing steel bars, or rebar. A bridge made out of Ductal can be lighter and thinner than a traditional bridge, Perry says.

Because of an aging workforce, there is also the need to reduce the amount of labor during construction.

In response to this concern, Lafarge has developed Agilia. According to the company, laying a 60-cubic-meter slab of regular concrete — enough for a floor in an office building — requires eight people and takes about 8 hours. Placing the same-size slab of Agilia could require as few as two people and take a couple of hours.

Normally, after concrete is poured, the mason passes a vibrating machine over the surface to squeeze out all the air bubbles. It’s a loud and time-consuming process. However, Agilia contains a mix of additives: superplasticizers that keep the concrete fluid and other chemicals that cut down on the water needed. These enable the concrete to consolidate under its own weight without mechanical vibration.

Other concerns, such as global warming, also lead to concrete innovations. Do you know that the cement industry produces 7% of the global human production of carbon dioxide? There are now efforts to replace cement by ‘greener’ materials. And new kinds of concrete are specifically designed to reduce pollution.

Scientists at the Italcementi Group in Bergamo, Italy, have developed a self-cleaning concrete that keeps buildings from turning black from pollutants in the atmosphere. Luigi Cassar and his colleagues at the research branch of Italcementi made the concrete by adding particles of the white pigment titanium dioxide to the cement component.

When titanium dioxide absorbs ultraviolet light, it becomes highly reactive and breaks down pollutants that come into contact with the concrete’s surface. The reactive material can kill bacteria and fungi and also break down pollutants such as nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, and many volatile organic compounds that contribute to concrete’s darkening.

After reading about all these innovations, do you still think that the ubiquitous concrete is boring?

Sources: Alexandra Goho, Science News, Vol. 167, No. 1, Jan. 1, 2005, p. 7; and various websites

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The two world’s fastest elevators are now installed in the world’s tallest building, the Taipei 101 office tower, in Taipei, Taiwan. In this short article, the Japan Times writes that the Guinness Book of Records has certified the elevators’ specifications. These elevators, built by Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp. (TELC), can move 24 passengers up at a speed of 1,010 meters per minute (about 60 km/h), or down a little bit slower at only 600 meters per minute (about 36 km/h). Going up 382 meters inside this 508-meter-high building will take you only 39 seconds using these elevators. And don’t worry about ‘ear popping’: these elevators include new technologies, such as a pressure control system. Read more below…

Because the Japan Times article is very short, please also check the TELC web site and this press release about these elevators. But let’s start with the building itself.

Soaring 508 meters, Taipei 101 is now the world’s tallest building, having supplanted the 452-metre Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The new building, largely devoted to offices, is called Taipei 101 because it has 101 above-ground floors, as well as five underground floors.

Construction of Taipei 101 started in June 1999 and the grand opening will be celebrated on December 31, 2004. TELC has installed 61 elevators and 50 escalators in Taipei 101, including two elevators that run at 1,010 meters per minute (60.6 kilometers per hour), the world’s fastest, and 34 double-deck elevators.

Of course, these elevators, which exceeded the previous speed record by an impressive 33%, are filled with new technology.

• The world’s first pressure control system, which adjusts the atmospheric pressure inside a car by using suction and discharge blowers, preventing those riding inside the car experiencing ‘ear popping’.
  
• An active control system which cancels vibrations by moving the counter mass in the opposite direction based on the vibration data from a sensor installed in the car.
  
• Optimization in the configuration of the streamlined car to reduce the whistling noise produced by a car running at a high speed inside a narrow hoist-way.

Here is a link to an illustration showing the different control systems of these elevators (848 x 1,200 pixels, 247 KB).

And in case you want more technical information about the world’s fastest elevator, you can read this long paper published by Elevator World in September 2003 and was reprinted from the International Association of Elevator Engineers (IAEE) in Elevator Technology 12, Proceedings of Elevcon 2002, the 12th International Congress on Vertical Transportation Technologies, held June 25-27, 2002 in Milan, Italy.

Taipei 101 will be opened to the public on December 31, 2004. And if someone wants to invite me for this opening, I would be delighted to say “Happy New Year!” to the other people sharing my ride to the top of the world’s tallest building. But I’m surely dreaming!

Sources: The Japan Times Online, December 17, 2004; and various web sites

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