From Sci-Fi to Site Plans: How Augmented Reality is Changing Design-Build

Once considered cutting-edge, technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, and natural language processing are now ubiquitous. Today, anyone can ask a natural language processing platform for recipe ideas, visualize new furniture in their home with an app, use AI to craft a social media post, or prank friends with image generators – for better or worse.

The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) space is no exception. The availability and usability of machine learning, AI, and various forms of digital reality have skyrocketed, making technology not just an option but an expectation.

This month’s episode of the Design-Build Delivers Podcast, sponsored by USCAD, delves into the use of augmented reality on job sites with Argyle CEO Maret Thatcher and DBIA’s Director of VDC Brian Skripac. Listen to "From Sci-Fi to Site Plans: How AR is Changing Design-Build" to discover how AR solutions like Argyle can help design-build teams meet the standards of Design-Build Done Right®, understand the impact of increased technology use on job sites and explore what’s next for technology in the AEC industry — and maybe a sci-fi pop culture reference or three.

Guests:

Maret Thatcher
CEO, Argyle

Brian Skripac
Director of Virtual Design and Construction, DBIA

Access all our free design-build resources and learn more about Design-Build Done Right® at dbia.org.

DBIA members are shaping the future, one successful collaboration at a time.

Chapters

• 0:10 Decoding the Matrix: A Crash Course in Tech Jargon
• 4:37 ARcheology 101: Tracing the History of Augmented Reality on the Job Site
• 6:50 Maret Thatcher's Voyage from Law to AR with Argyle
• 9:35 The Design-Builder's Guide to the Galaxy: How AR Can Benefit Design-Build Projects
• 15:01 Overcoming the Dark Side: Challenges to AR and What to Do About Them
• 19:17 Robots Are Not Taking Our Jobs: Addressing Pushback to AR
• 21:25 Charting the AR Nebula: Mastering the Design-Builder's Learning Curve
• 24:50 Ground Control to Major Success: AR Success Stories on Challenging Site Projects
• 27:36 Do Design-Builders Dream of Augmented Reality?: What’s Next for AR in Construction

Transcript

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Erin Looney  00:10

Once the domain of the tech forward technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning virtual reality, augmented reality and natural language processing seems to be popping up everywhere. Who hasn't asked ChatGPT for recipe suggestions, right? And the architecture, engineering and construction space is no exception. Sure, we're not looking for recipes. But there are some very powerful uses for these technologies in the AEC industry, especially in design-build projects. That's one of the many reasons DBIA has a department dedicated to the use of virtual design and construction from the DBIA headquarters in DC. I am Aaron Looney, and this is the design-build delivers podcast brought to you by USCAD this month I visited that VDC department with our director of VDC Brian Skripac. We are also joined by Maret Thatcher, the CEO of Argyle, find them at Argyle dot build. Now we'll let Maret go into details on what Argyle does in just a bit. Before we really get into this, it might be a bit tedious for anyone who works with these types of technologies on the daily but let's assume a certain level of distance for a moment first, for anyone who might not be tech savvy yet, terms like AR VR, Mr. machine learning and AI might sound like jargon, you know, a little bit, the robots are coming for us. So let's start there. What is the difference between all of those terms,

Maret Thatcher  01:31

I like to work in augmented reality, my first exposure was helped me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope. It shows the light projecting out onto the real world. That is what augmented reality is now instead of our two, we have headsets, or we have iPads. And the headsets are clear glass. So the layers of glass are what's making this projection of light hit your eye. And it's just the coolest thing. It's really, really amazing. And then virtual reality is when you can go into a totally different world. So maybe you want to do a design meeting with your team, you can all check out maybe what the laboratories gonna look like before it's even got its own site. And then the next thing is mixed reality where you've got your vision occluded, you are in a different world, technically, but there's a camera that's pointed on the outside world, feeding in onto the screens, some the vision of what's out there. So it can superimpose a 3d model or your tablet screen, we did some fun things with Apple vision Pro, where you could just take a 3d scan using your iPhone and then send that scan to the Apple vision Pro. And now you're looking at it spatially. So it's a world out there, our main customer base is just the construction world, they're out on the site, and they're walking. So we use the clear glass augmented reality for them until I can get our to to show up.

Brian Skripac  02:56

I think it's really interesting. There's so many different use cases for the AC community and for the designers and or builders. And I think I think a lot of people are familiar with the VR side of things they've seen that they they've maybe played around in that immersive environment, or they've seen it a design meeting. So I'm really excited to hear more about your experiences with the augmented reality. And this idea of taking the digital and overlaying it on the physical space in which we're at and because that's a really unique opportunity to bridge the digital and virtual environments that we're in. And there's a lot of opportunities for the builders and designers, trade partners, even the owners to start realizing this kind of hybridization of space digitally and physically out on the jobsite, which is pretty cool.

Erin Looney  03:40

So Brian, before we go into all that one more point of clarification, can you quickly distinguish AI from AR? Oh,

Maret Thatcher  03:48

interesting. So AI is just data that you've deployed with some tasks in mind. It's very, very simplified. But these devices are not actually able to solve your problems for you, they still need a human doing the work.

Brian Skripac  04:04

Well, the exciting things that I've seen is overlaying an augmented reality with a model. And then having an AI application run validation against that, ie there's different applications out there that you can do photogrammetry. You can do laser scanning, you can bring a digital model in a physical environment and find discrepancies. So there's some opportunities where AI can analyze the information and dissect it based on how it's been programmed to find efficiencies in that digital and physical environment.

Erin Looney  04:37

So now that we have a deep and intricate knowledge of these technical terms, let's situate this knowledge within the AEC industry. So take us through a history here.

Maret Thatcher  04:46

I've seen those popular posts on LinkedIn showing the draftsman and they were all men in large, large warehouse like rooms. And now we have these 3d model Oles containing just so much of that robust data that was a major, major evolution. What AR what the spatial computing world unlocks is just that we take that 3d model all that work that was so difficult to achieve in translating our workflows into 3d. It's just like such an easy unlock. It's just a display. And so you can look at it in a way that's so much more intuitive to our human brain and how we experience especially buildings that to me, it's a no brainer.

Brian Skripac  05:33

The Evolution has really gone from when we moved from this two dimensional drafting rooms, right people hunched over these boards, we went from a very analog paper and pencil or you know, ink and Mylar, then we went to CAD, traded that writing utensil for a mouse and a computer, and we were still doing the same type of work. But we got the BIM, we found more efficient ways to create these building information models, they were more efficient for us to create our construction documents, the industry started picking up on that. And then we started finding all of these other opportunities now that we have these great models, what other ways can we use them whether it was cost estimating, it was close clash detection was the first one cost estimating, scheduling and sequencing owner opportunities. One of the things that was very early on was visualization, but it never really moved from just being in the computer until VR AR and mixed reality really became accessible. And it's it's interesting as well, the fact that the accessibility of these things so very quickly shrunk and became accessible to everybody just like our phones, right? We have all this information now. And it's it's really easy to use, and you don't need these robust setups to be able to do that. So I think the accessibility of visualization has been a really strong opportunity for the industry to take advantage of.

Erin Looney  06:50

So Mayor spotlight on you for just a few minutes. You are the CEO of Argyle now, how did you get here? Why did you start Argyle and what exactly does Argyle do? Oh,

Maret Thatcher  07:02

good question. Well, I was born of humble parentage. No, my parents were with a construction family. No, really. It's part of it. I was born in the construction industry. My mom had a construction company. My grandpa had a construction company. When I graduated from high school, it was expected that I to should start a construction company. And so I did. And it was pretty casual. I was doing college at the same time. But it helped me pay for school, it helped me learn so much. And then I decided I'd like to be a lawyer. So I was a lawyer for several years, and I did estates, and I did some construction law. i It wasn't too long, it was around maybe your five of being a lawyer that I realized, AI would probably come from my lawyer job. First, the types of work that lawyers do is highly specialized. And I don't I'm not degrading that work. But I think a lot of what I used to do, and it took me hours to do is now automated. And so I began automating my own processes as a lawyer and making my own work faster. And then I said, you know, I think there's something else I'd like to be doing. I had a client as a lawyer who didn't get paid, and they ended up suing. And seven years later, they still hadn't been paid. The lawsuit had been escalated all the way to the state Supreme Court. And I was already to begin my new career as a spatial computing enthusiast turned CEO who helps specifically the construction site. After the law I had been looking I've been looking for my next thing, I saw the HoloLens one where there was a demonstration of a ballerina out in just space. And it was the first time I'd seen that layered glass approach to augmented reality and immediately thought of how it could be applied in construction and and how we've been building and even in litigation, you know, how visualisation could help prevent conflicts, which might sound simple, but Kaushik just so early, you could have prevented these conflicts. If you'd seen it, I was just naive enough to say, Well, gosh, you know, we've got 3d models that we're making and construction, and we've got these, these headsets that show 3d content, Bada bing, bada boom, peanut butter, jelly. Let's go. That was in 2017. And we are still working on this problem. And we're the best at it. At Argyle, we have the largest models aligning to the job site in the most stable way where customers can walk through it. But it took us years of r&d to get there. That's how I came to be construction family lawyer and ultimately just had to get back into the construction world.

Erin Looney  09:35

So Brian, we know who you are, so I'm not going to let you give us your history. Instead, we're going to tie that introduction of Argyll to AR and design-build specifically. So Brian, what is the problem augmented reality and solve for design-builders and owners?

Brian Skripac  09:53

I think the word that Marriott used is spatial computing. I think that's really interesting and I love my background as well, because so many of us that are leading the conversation and having these how do we integrate technology into the design-build environment, all have a foothold in practice and have dealt with the pains like you just heard Maret talk about and we're trying to find better solutions to do it better moving forward. And I think it's that reality of having those experiences moving ahead is quite interesting. And that's usually true for design-build, right, you have designers that move to the builder side, vice versa, integrator project teams that are building and creating these models that can be used in so many different ways to drive efficiency across the project. And, you know, for design-build specifically to have that owner design-builder relationship where that design-builder is responsible for both design and construction services, you can really set the stage and really define the use cases and how things need to be developed for the proper use of so we can take advantage of these massive models being available on site. One of the other interesting things is how in design-build, we have the opportunity to really bridge the gap between design intent means and methods. And it's not a designer do one thing, throw it over the wall, give it to somebody else and figure out but you can bridge the gap. And specifically, a tool like Argyle and augmented reality solution allows you to take that design, put it out on the jobsite, close the gap on means and methods even to put it on an owner, right? How is the owner going to access that piece of equipment and sure, you know, we can start to do that in a computer. But being able to see that reality on your face out in front of something opens up a whole new opportunity for them to be engaged in the design and construction process moving forward. So it really is something that that bridges the gap of design excellence, increase quality and productivity and improve lifecycle costs, which are there's three benchmarks of VDC done right that we talked about and design-build

Maret Thatcher  11:58

design-build has a specially unique opportunity to leverage their models, we see it all the way from bid like using augmented reality in bidding and marketing through making design choices about what actually fits on the site all the way through installation and quality assurance and emerging more and more large mega projects. And owners and factories have some type of mixed reality program where at the end of the day, they are leveraging some of these models in their own space. So this is becoming a full lifecycle of the building thing. And it's the job of the architect and the contractor this this whole world, it's never been more difficult, but it's also such an exciting time.

Erin Looney  12:42

Are you interested in sustainable design and construction practices but concerned about profitability, US CAD and our cons company helps forward thinking and our top ranked AEC firms in mitigating risk and driving profit through digitalization using Autodesk AEC technology. To learn more, contact us cad.com/dbia For a free 30 minute consultation, that's us cad.com/dbia. Let's drill down a little bit more into DBIA is mission specifically you hit on it a little bit when you mentioned VTC done right, we are the only membership association that represents the entirety of the AEC industry. So since we cover the spectrum, where does augmented reality fit into DBIA is VDC goals, another tool in

Brian Skripac  13:38

the toolbox that we can bring to the field, right. And it's an opportunity to integrate the design and the build side, which is exactly what we're talking about. I think the other real value proposition there is that properly set expectations is, as I'm sure American attest to, you know, not having your model set up right at the beginning of a project and trying to bring them into another environment. So they all connect and land in the right spot is a challenge that we've all had. But if we can set those expectations from the outset and have a quality approach to how we're going to deliver the work, it's just much easier to use at the end of the day. And that that's something that really helps when you're in a pull planning effort or an integrated workflow planning. And you can start to say, When are these deliverables going to be available from the design team from the the architect, the engineer, the trade partners so we can utilize them? These are expectations or use cases that we want to take advantage of? When is that information going to be available so we can have better informed decisions at the end of the day. So I think this is one of those tools that in the future will probably become more readily accessible and usable by everybody. And it's it's something that's going to help drive more efficiency on the jobsite. It's not a well, we don't really need to do that on this project. It's going to be an opportunity that people are going to use on every project because it's going to be bring that in Information rate to the field, but

Erin Looney  15:01

nothing is perfect. Presumably, Argyle and similar solutions should make the jobsite more efficient and accurate. But what is the biggest challenge to using AR in construction Maret?

Maret Thatcher  15:12

Well, I mean, models, we've seen them all, we've seen ones that are huge airport size that come in clean and beautifully and rapidly. And we've seen others that are actually pretty small, but because of somewhere along the line, somebody converted it into some other format, and then reconverted it back into the Revit. And they've modeled it at different coordinates. Man, we've seen it all when it comes to models. So after the model is uploaded, it'll go to the site worker, they can just use familiar reference points, either something that has been modeled like a survey point in the model, or if you don't have that, you can maybe look at your column grid, slab edges, I've used doors are not terribly reliable, I found because they'll get built in between different studs then is modeled. But you'll find all kinds of things, once you put your model into the site. From there, you're just walking and observing, it is loading the model around you, if we're going to go back to nerdy stuff, we can talk about Mario and a 3d world, the video game space doesn't really run out and the model won't either you're able to walk vertically, you're able to walk distances, and all of that loads intelligently around you. Because it's relying on the human to set it you can set it wrong or badly, I find that this happens more often with myself, when I'm going into site to do a demonstration than it does with the actual workers on site. They tend to know the grid lines, or they know what's there. So they've aligned faster than I do oftentimes, just because of their site familiarity. That's

Brian Skripac  16:42

not even just an AR thing. But that's a BIM thing about model quality model standards. Whether it's geo referencing something or having a common dark point for a model, bad planning equals bad outcomes. That's also an opportunity for a design-builder, who's leading that team in that project delivery structure to be able to take advantage of setting those expectations and knowing what they're going to use the bin for later down the road. I think one of the bigger wins that we've experienced for AR over VR is the accessibility to use this you're out on the jobsite, right. I remember, years ago AR You had to have a big computer and you were hardwired to something and the ability to get immersed in something, you couldn't go take it to the job site, you didn't take it to the owner site. So you're going out and you're being immersed in the job site. And it doesn't matter if you're on the first floor or the 10th floor, you're walking down a hallway, while there's challenges. There's also an ease of opportunity of use and integration on project. So

Erin Looney  17:40

what are some things you can do? Brian, I'm gonna direct it to you first to overcome some of these challenges that we've just talked about.

Brian Skripac  17:46

You talked about best practices for DDA is having a VDC leader involved in the project. So they can set these expectations from the outset, you know, hey, we're going to work with Mayor Argyle, we're going to integrate this technology on the job site to make sure that we do this properly, how do we engage with her team to make sure that these are the expectations that we need to be meeting and then you know, for me as VDC leader, making sure I flow that down to the entire project team and having those quality checks on a model to make sure that we're integrating them and the whole team knows that that's an expectation for you. So we're not over modeling things that don't need to be modeled. We're not dealing with all the minutiae that then leaders and BDC leaders are experienced and saying, you know, don't do this, this best practice, and having that checklist of best practices. So the team's following it.

Erin Looney  18:34

There. What about you from your side, which is a little bit different from Brian's, huh? Getting

Maret Thatcher  18:38

the right stakeholders to the table early, we love it when there's a great BIM person on the team who knows their files and just can keep the site team updated. That makes our life a lot easier. And I think just being willing to try different things. What has surprised me and surprised my customers is they'll have an idea of what they want to use augmented reality for, or they'll have the idea that they don't, then they try it. And they realize that the applications are incredibly broad. It's not a one and done thing. It's just so relevant at so many stages of the project, and is now a tool in the tool belt.

Erin Looney  19:17

Let's assume a perfect world for a moment. A world where there are no challenges, there are only benefits. And you'd also have 100% buy in on implementing something that is highly highly likely to improve the project outcomes, but we we live in the real world. You know, not everyone is ready to accept the robot overlords Maret. You said sometimes somebody might not want to implement this technology. So how might you address somebody who does push back against implementing technology that could be seen as potentially replacing the work of actual people kind of like your lawyer job, or could be cost prohibitive or any other pushback you run into?

Maret Thatcher  19:54

We don't hear as much about that's going to take my job because there's so little workforce to Do the site jobs that we are upskilling them. And I think that if there is a cost concern, like, Oh, I'm gonna have to buy another, you know, essentially another computer, when you're talking about the headsets with that layer of glass that show the augmented reality, that's the solution that my customers are using from install all the way back to design for iPad solutions, I'm seeing a little bit less than the installation, figuring out what your use case is picking the right hardware for that use case, and then realizing that this stuff is going to save you 10s of 1000s of dollars on your first error, it's going to save you time and money so fast that the initial cost of the software and hardware on these things is pretty minimal.

Brian Skripac  20:41

It's all in the name, right? It's augmented reality, these are tools that are augmenting your production and efficiency efforts. It's just like you hear what AI is going to take my job. But maybe we worried about this. But I don't know who said it wasn't me. I've heard it, you know, multiple times it's not AI that's going to take your job. It's a person who knows how to utilize AI for the work that's going to take your job. This is another way to become more efficient. Design and construction teams are trying to find ways to become more efficient, do more with less. This is another opportunity that allows us to do that and increase our work productivity, increase efficiency, increase quality, increase safety on the job site. And those are all wins if we can do better any of those things on a daily basis.

Erin Looney  21:25

So another potential area of resistance could be in the actual implementation and mastery of an augmented reality solution teams, for instance, who work together really well, they might worry the addition of something new could gum up the works, or they might have to take an extensive amount of time learning how to use it. So how do you allay those concerns?

Maret Thatcher  21:45

Again, it's going to be the most variable on that model stage after you get the hang of putting your model into AR, the sight piece of it does play out more like a video game than like programming the implementation of it for the site, we don't want to add to the process, we would like to minimize the amount of cognitive load that this person has to do. For example, let's take one of the use cases quality assurance, the traditional way of doing quality assurance was full of human error. We saw this time and time again that the same assumptions that were made during the layout process would be made during the quality assurance process. But if you have a tool like augmented reality, you can verify against the actual model in the real space. That's where we see just such a huge benefit in that one case,

Erin Looney  22:32

how would you describe Maret the learning curve for AR solutions for design-build professionals,

Maret Thatcher  22:37

the the learning curve in AR is much less difficult than the learning curve of reading plans, or learning how to model or even really learning how to navigate a 3d model inside of traditional tools. Augmented reality, once you've got your model in there, you will need to do a setup. So you'll refer to existing points that you know, are solid. And you'll basically hook the model to those points. After that you walk the site, the stuff loads around you, you can push buttons to turn off and on parameters are pretty user friendly, what we find is that it takes away some of these jobs that used to be really tedious quality assurance done in a visual format on an augmented reality solution is going to be so much faster and more pleasant and less prone to human error than doing that with just a traditional checklist or looking at your plans and saying yeah, I think I put all of those in the right spot and didn't miss any of them. So it's just an intuitive way of working, it's always going to be the model. Step one, if you've got the clean model, you're looking for really easy onboarding.

Erin Looney  23:41

So what you're saying is we're not looking at a South Park style, they're going to take our jobs, we're looking at it, they're going to make our jobs way more interesting.

Maret Thatcher  23:48

Actually. Yes. That's my new line. Argyle, we make your job more interesting.

Erin Looney  23:53

You're welcome. Well, my consulting rates, by the way, are $100 an hour? No, you're

Maret Thatcher  23:57

funny. What I hope we can provide for folks is to be the best reference on the job site, one that's really easy to use, that's giving them the information that's relevant to their location. And that's game changing.

Brian Skripac  24:09

You know, we talked about how does this impact design-build teams start having the right people on the team at the right time. So you know, who's going to be the person working alongside Maret and the Argyle team to implement this, right, somebody's going to spearhead that effort and lead the conversation, I think it's probably that anxiety is like construction manager think they're the one that has to do this, oh, there's gonna be somebody on the project who's doing this. They're setting the expectations. They're bridging the gap between Maret's team who's providing this amazing technology of augmented reality and the how to, and they're translating that back to the masses and being able to work with them. So that's that trust, communication, collaboration. It's all about having the right team at the right time.

Erin Looney  24:50

So far today. We've talked in hypotheticals. We've talked big picture. Let's do something a little different and grounded the discussion now in success stories. Maret, I'll start with you talk about a couple of success stories, projects, firms that you've worked with. You don't have to name teams, people projects. orgs. Please don't do that to anyone. But talk about some success stories I love

Maret Thatcher  25:10

you said let's ground the discussion. And it actually came up recently that we were going to use Argyll less for the design, the design was really simple, easy to build, but the soil was difficult. And so Argyll was able to help them envision how the building the simple building interacts with a difficult site, where they're going to need to put in more Phil, how it's going to impact like, what billboards that are going to be on the it's like a highway, adjacent property. So all of that can be solved visually, much faster than just poring over some drawings, in terms of grounding. That's my favorite ground story, we have had so much success with the MEP customers, the mechanical, electrical pipe fitting folks who are also designing, you know, like they have to design their own pipe routes, and then build them and install them. What Argyl can do in those situations is help them preview before manufacturing type of path, it can help you preview a bunch of conduit racks and make sure that your prefab on those is correct into the model. All of that has really helped enhance the MEP process. And then we're seeing on the owner side, they have just so much more clarity and confidence in the design and what's happening and what's to come and how they're going to feel in the space. And that the space will be what they need it to be. It's going over really well with the ownership team, who then want to refer back to the models that you're creating, and say, Oh, I can trace this exact line of pipe because you've made me a model for it. Thank you.

Brian Skripac  26:44

Man. One of the things you mentioned there was pipe rack, you mentioned prefabrication. How big of an opportunity do you see AR being in the prefab space because that's something that we're seeing a lot more of at DBA. A lot more conversations are a word program we're seeing prefabrication coming in or it members are talking more about it. What's the opportunity to integrate AR and prefab,

Maret Thatcher  27:07

it's a huge opportunity. There's the stuff you can do just out there in the fab shop where you're comparing the models of whatever rack or skid you've got. But then you can also take things that are prefab to a job site to help determine whether they're actually going to fit in the building on their way into being installed. For example, that's come up before a lot of previewing on site before fabrication to ensure that what you are designing is going to actually fit

Erin Looney  27:36

to close out I often like to speculate wildly. So let's do it. Now could we possibly see advanced AR systems like our 2d teams hologram or the Stark Tech hollow table? Should we expect Hydrus framework to show up where we'd enter into completely new simulated realities? Or if we want to be more realistic? What are some realistic advancements you foresee for tools like Argyle?

Maret Thatcher  27:59

Goodness, well, I'm pretty I'm pretty into my roadmap. Right now we have the best outputs, you can see the augmented reality space, you can see the real space. But then you also get photos and videos of the Building Information Model overlaid on the real space. And we're finding that this is an incredibly valuable output. So we have coming up in our pipeline integrations to send that to locations that our customers are asking for, like their project management software. That's not wild speculation. That is very exciting to me. In terms of more wild speculation, I don't know if we're going to have the full holodeck All Star Trek Next Generation. I think the VR cave was maybe as close as we got to that. And I think maybe what we have instead is a little better, and it's always going to get better. It's the form factor that's going to improve, you're going to get much more lightweight glasses, and they're already pretty lightweight, but they're going to be something that you're going to see on a fashion show they're going to be pretty, that will be exciting, because that will mean more use.

Erin Looney  29:03

You know thus far, wearable tech has been largely super awkward. Beyond the simpler stuff like headphones and earbuds and what have you watches and fitness trackers really only recently became the exception. And one of the things I always picture is that person using a big bulky headset, knocking over the TV, stepping on their dog's foot falling out a window, or just looking super goofy. So talk to us about the reality of wearable tech and how it looks in real space.

Maret Thatcher  29:30

When I put on my headset it becomes marketing because people see you on site and they're like what you do in there PAL and I say oh it's this and then I just hand it over them they go oh yeah that you're you look like a dork but it totally makes sense. And because that is so cool. That is awesome. I'm gonna tell my friends so I kind of have embraced it especially with the new form factor the Magic Leap to I find that really lightweight and very comfortable. I can wear it for a while. But yeah, I think it's just going to be form factor. It's going to get cleaner and easier. I think there's gonna be New wearables I've heard I was thinking about brooches. So maybe not something that you have on your eyeballs all the time, but something that is capturing the space around you. There is just, it's gonna be cool.

Brian Skripac  30:10

She's got the she's got the wow factor. He comes on with the, with the glasses on people like, what's that? I know what that is? Why don't I have those that I guess that level of envy and interest, right, let's go on, well, what am I missing? Right? You know, you have that fear of missing out sort of mentality. I think the more that we talk about this, the more accessible it becomes people get more interested. And they find those use cases. And as Mark said earlier, it's not a silver bullet. It's not, this is the only thing that you can use. And that's where innovation comes from, right, you experiment with something, you try it out, you see what other people did, maybe that's your start point, then you start finding out your own unique use cases. And, you know, as the technology becomes more accessible, it becomes faster, it becomes more lightweight, you're gonna see more and more people having this on the job site, because the opportunities for success are there. And those stories are being told now. And we're gonna continue to learn more about it and see more people using it on a daily basis. So it

Erin Looney  31:03

looks like we're not really on our way to you know, learning if androids really do Dream of Electric Sheep, but we are rather well on our way to greater efficiency. And as Maret said, upskilling not replacing people. So with that Maret Thatcher CEO of Argyle, let's give you the last word.

Maret Thatcher  31:20

If our customers have tried augmented reality, a year or even ago, there have been significant advancements, even on hardware, you may have already tried like the HoloLens two, I do understand if folks have come to this and said nod, I've tried it, I've done it. For me, the promise was too big to let go of. So we did spend years and years and r&d to make this better for you to help fulfill the promise of having an augmented construction site. And we're always getting better alignment. We have improved latency we've improved and we're really excited for especially the folks who tried AR before to give it another shot with us.

Erin Looney  32:02

Whether you were a technophile, a Luddite or somewhere in between, you can probably agree that Maret and Brian made some compelling points and hopefully cleared up some gray areas related to augmented reality and construction. For more information, Argyle can be found at Argyle dot build and DBIA can be found@dbia.org. And as we've been doing all of 2024 We'll be bringing you some of this conversation that didn't get into this episode in our design-build delivers podcast bonus content brought to you by us CAD. Learn more at us cad.com/dbia Thanks to our guests, Brian and Maret for sharing their time. Thank you to Fred for producing the show. And thanks to you for listening for now. I will leave you with this. How do you know when you're in love with a robot? You feel a little spark? Not even sorry.