TRUSS: Tracking Risk with Ubiquitous Smart Sensing

Abstract

Abstract-We present TRUSS, or Tracking Risk with Ubiquitous Smart Sensing, a novel system that infers and renders safety context on construction sites by fusing data from wearable devices, distributed sensing infrastructure, and video. Wearables stream real-time levels of dangerous gases, dust, noise, light quality, altitude, and motion to base stations that synchronize the mobile devices, monitor the environment, and capture video. At the same time, low-power video collection and processing nodes track the workers as they move through the view of the cameras, identifying the tracks using information from the sensors. These processes together connect the context-mining wearable sensors to the video; information derived from the sensor data is used to highlight salient elements in the video stream. The augmented stream in turn provides users with better understanding of real-time risks, and supports informed decision-making. We tested our system in an initial deployment on an active construction site.

Review of Wearable Device Technology and Its Applications to the Mining Industry

“…Wearable smart biometric devices have attracted the attention of professional sports leaders in golf, soccer, athletics, racing, basketball, and baseball, and teams and athletes are already benefitting from the application of wearables to monitor the physical condition of players while training, to reduce the number of injuries and enhance team performance [26]. Smart clothing has the potential to be exceedingly beneficial for firefighters [27], at construction sites [28,29], and for transportation [30,31].…”

Towards a conceptual framework of OSH risk management in smart working environments based on smart PPE, ambient intelligence and the Internet of Things technologies

“…This result reflects a relatively low level of advancement of these techniques in the OSH field, compared with the number of similar applications in other domains. Selected examples of context-aware ICT solutions applied in the OSH area are: (a) smart safety monitoring system based on a wireless communication network of smart objects worn by workers on construction sites [125]; (b) real-time automatic monitoring systems, ensuring safety in harsh environments [126][127][128]; (c) a human-robot interaction system that ensures human safety by precisely tracking the body of the operator and by activating relevant safety strategies [129]; and (d) a simple safety system based on GPS and smartphones for monitoring trains approaching for railway track workers. [65]…”

Building Wearables for Geology

“…Commonly user's smartphones with Android OS are used to develop the HIM interface. Also, the data extracted can be submitted for an infrastructure network in a private or public cloud [27,41,37,36,22,18,16,21]. The difference between the first to second approach is shown in Figure 2.…”