Artificial Intelligence

A toolbox talk is an informal group discussion that focuses on a particular safety issue. These talks can be used daily to promote department safety culture as well as to facilitate health and safety discussions on job sites. A toolbox talk covers special topics on safety aspects related to the specific job.

Topics: AEC Technology, Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics

Everyone who has been part of one, dreads being summoned to a deposition. Specifically, you are called to the carpet by a lawyer who has every incentive to get you to support the conclusion they want. Lawyers know that with the benefit of hindsight, no accident is unpreventable. The accident happened but the question would be – what did you do to avoid it?

Topics: AEC Technology, Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

The construction industry has historically been an under-digitized sector, only beating out agriculture and hunting. Change is upon us and projects are adopting new technology on the job site. Superintendents and project engineers are now armed with powerful mobile apps and photo and video capture devices wherever they are on the job site. Mobile devices with high quality cameras, 360°, and high resolution site cameras are becoming commonplace. Making sure this equipment is used efficiently, by capturing quality photos and videos, can play a significant role in the success of a project.

Topics: AEC Technology, Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Video, Industrial Media Management

I’m pleased to welcome Charles (Chuck) Cobb, former general counsel for construction manager William A. Berry & Son, to Smartvid.io as our advisor on construction risk and insurance. He will be working with us closely as we help our customers understand how to best leverage our construction risk analytics data. Chuck's first contribution below explores how contractors can best use insights from AI to reduce actual and legal risks. And, if AI engines like VINNIE proactively detects risks on jobsites, what is a contractor's potential liability if accidents still occur? We’re excited to have Chuck on board to explore these questions and many other important topics for our customers and partners.  Josh Kanner, Founder & CEO, Smartvid.io

Topics: AEC Technology, Safety, Artificial Intelligence

What does AI actually mean? It’s a term thrown around all the time in media and tech circles used to describe anything from the latest app to full-on doomsday robots. Wikipedia defines AI as “intelligence demonstrated by machines,” versus natural intelligence shown by humans and other animals. Since AI is still nowhere close to the any human-like “intelligence,” its working definition usually refers to software that’s very good at accomplishing narrowly defined tasks.

Topics: AEC Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Safety

Properly tracking and documenting progress on a construction project is critical to a well-managed project. Documenting when and how key tasks and activities are completed by specific trades can make schedule updates more straight forward. Capturing this information, however, has traditionally required time-consuming site walks and tedious, paper-based processes that are poorly controlled and inconsistently executed.

Topics: AEC Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Media Management

Today at ENR’s FutureTech conference in San Francisco, Jit Kee Chin, EVP and Chief Data Officer at Suffolk, announced the results of 6 months of collaboration between our companies. We think it’s groundbreaking and hope you will too.

Topics: Customer Success, AEC Technology, Safety, Artificial Intelligence

Without a doubt, keeping workers safe on the job site should be the most important thing to any project team. And yet, today’s job sites that are increasingly large, complex, and rapidly changing make it very challenging to constantly monitor the site for all aspects of safety best practices. Having a second set of eyes that look out for safety hazards can be a valuable tool for project teams -- a key reason why many leading contractors are investing in safety training and assigning on-site safety professionals for their largest jobs. Even so, there are limits to how many site inspections teams can execute in the context of broader responsibilities that include planning and coordination, training, reporting, and incident investigations.

Topics: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Safety

As we have turned the page on 2017, we wanted to pause to look back at the highlights of the year for Smartvid.io and our mission of bringing machine learning (ML) to construction. More than anything else, we are deeply appreciative of our committed and innovative customers, partners, and employees who are committed to our vision of improving the industry with technology.

Topics: Machine Learning, AEC Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Like all firms, it is important for Engineering News Record (ENR) to know if unsafe conditions are being shown in the imagery it releases to the public. For their annual photo competition, the ENR team used our machine learning to review all 763 images submitted for consideration. In this article published by ENR, you can see our ML engine, nicknamed “VINNIE”, found 97 people not wearing gloves, 31 without hardhats, 89 without safety colors and 11 without eyewear. We helped screen the winning pictures and identified two that we recommended be reviewed further.

Topics: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence

Don’t be one of the million construction workers who visit the ER this year due to hand injuries.

The construction site is riddled with hazards for your hands and wearing proper gloves might be the only thing between you and a trip to the emergency room. The stats on hand injuries in construction are staggering.

Topics: Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, AEC Technology

Hard to believe that Fall and Autodesk University are here again!  Seems like just yesterday we were in Vegas in a (very) small “startup kiosk”.  In a few short weeks, we’re headed back, this time in a real booth (Booth C606), involved in three sessions, and co-sponsoring an event Tuesday night with BuiltWorlds @ TopGolf. Here’s where to find us!

Topics: Machine Learning, AEC Technology, Artificial Intelligence