Purpose – Healthcare facility managers work in complex and dynamic environments where critical decisions are constantly made. Providing them with enhanced decision support systems would result in a positive impact on the productivity and success of the projects they undertake, as well as the sustainability of critical healthcare infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual ambient intelligent environment for enhancing the decision-making process of the facility managers. This low-cost data-rich environment would use building information modeling (BIM) and mobile augmented reality (MAR) as technological bases for the natural human-computer interfaces and aerial drones as technological tools. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a scenario for the integration of augmented reality (AR) and building information modeling (BIM) to build an ambient intelligent (AmI) environment for facility managers where mobile, natural, user interfaces would provide the users with required data to facilitate their critical decision-making process. The technological requirements for having such an intelligent environment are also discussed. Findings – The proposed BIM-MAR-based approach is capable of enhancing maintenance related practices for facility managers who are mobile to integrate with their facilities' intelligent environment. This approach is also capable of providing a collaborative environment in which different stakeholders, across geographically distributed areas, could work together to solve facility management tasks. Originality/value – In this paper ambient intelligence will be considered for the first time in the area of healthcare facility management practices to provide facility managers with an intelligent BIM-based environment to access facility information and consequently enhance their decision-making process.
With the facility management industry increasingly adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies, there is a need to investigate where this industry stands in its application. Moreover, studies on efficient and cost-effective solutions to integrate BIM and Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) present an environment where facility managers can experience an intuitive natural interaction with their mobile interfaces to efficiently access their required information. The industry's view on this new approach of accessing information from BIM models should also be investigated and its feedback should be considered for future phases of this avenue of research. This paper explores not only how BIM can be beneficial to facility management practitioners, but also how its integration with MAR and making the data accessible through handheld mobile devices can enhance current facility management practices. An online survey was conducted to assess professional facility managers' characteristics, technology use and working environment as well as the current status of BIM application in their practices. An online video scenario has also been used to illustrate to facility managers how a BIM-MAR integrated environment can provide them with mobile access to their required information. Facility managers' feedback on usability, applicability, and challenges of such environment has also been investigated through a follow-up survey. With this study, industry practitioners as well as academic researchers will be able to understand the current status of BIM and mobile computing application in facility management along with the benefits and challenges of implementing these technologies in an augmented reality environment. INTRODUCTIONBuilding Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of developing and using 3D representations of building objects together with their related properties and relationship with other objects in the building. Advances in Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) point to BIM as the new standard
We present Active Pathways, an active tangible and tabletop system that aims to support collaborative discovery and learning in biochemical modeling. Our work extends ideas from embodied cognition that suggest that interactive systems that support model building by coupling actions made with the motor system to the dynamic properties of external and internal models can enhance the potential for insight and discoveries. We describe the motivation for our work and the design and development of our system. We also present the results of a user study with pairs of novice modelers, which suggest that our system is not only easy to use and learn but also successful at facilitating an understanding of complex systems and supporting collaboration.
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