Wearables, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Integrated Project Delivery, and Artificial Intelligence

• Author: By Jessica E. Courtway
• Pages: 25-34

THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER 25Fall 2020

Published in The Construction Lawyer, Volume 40, Number 4, Fall 2020. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Wearables, Augmented and Virtual Reality,

Integrated Project Delivery, and Articial

Intelligence

By Jessica E. Courtway

RISK MANAGEMENT

Jessica E. Courtway is an associate with Greensfelder,

Hemker & Gale, P.C., in St. Louis, Missouri. She would

like to thank Anthony Colonna of Rugo Stone, LLC,

for his assistance in presenting the paper from which

this article was adapted at the Forum 2020 Midwinter

Meeting.

Technological advances

over the past two decades

have touched nearly every

aspect of day-to-day life.

Whether it’s self-driving cars,

drone-controlled same-day

package delivery, or facial

recognition technology, the

impact of technologies such

as articial intelligence and

virtual reality is immeasur-

able. Unsurprisingly, these

technologies have also

made their way into the

construction industry. Cutting-edge technology such

as sensor-equipped boots and vests, augmented reality

goggles, and modeling assisted with articial intelligence

promise to shape the industry’s efciency and safety stan-

dards as they are currently known.

In an industry as competitive as construction, keeping

up to date on the latest technological offerings can be criti-

cal. Equally important, however, is understanding the risks

and liabilities associated with each of these offerings. This

is important both from a risk management and insurance

standpoint and from a compliance standpoint because

many new technologies implicate regulations like OSHA,

FLSA, and the ADA. This article will discuss new devel-

opments in four distinct genres of technology—wearables,

virtual and augmented reality, articial intelligence, and

integrated project delivery—and provide a broad overview

of the risks and challenges presented by each.

Wearables

One emerging technology already having an impact on

the construction industry is wearable technology. The

key elements of wearables are that they (1) are carried

or worn on—or even embedded in—the person of the

user and (2) track and store data about the user. The

ways in which wearables measure and monitor users and

their environment are potentially innite, but the most

common sensors employed in wearables include GPS,

accelerometers and gyroscopes, electrodes, thermometers,

and proximity sensors.1 The data from these sensors can,

in turn, be used to measure things such as location, move-

ment, heart rate, and weather.2 Many wearables allow the

user to interface with them directly, commonly through

a touchscreen, speech, or haptic feedback.3 Some wear-

ables, however, are purely tracking devices, and the data

they gather can only be viewed and analyzed using other

devices.

Wearables are now ubiquitous among consumers.

Over 60 million Americans over the age of 18—nearly

a quarter of the adult population—are expected to use

wearables regularly in 2020.

4

As the number of people

using wearables grows, so too does the sophistication

of the wearables themselves. While early growth in the

wearables market was centered around simple, relatively

affordable tness trackers, consumers are now turning

increasingly toward smartwatches, many of which offer

nearly all the capabilities of a smartphone in wearable

form. More capable devices mean new applications. In

addition to counting steps and tracking bike rides, wear-

ables can now measure air quality, display information

in augmented reality, and even detect early signs of can-

cer.5 Wearables are taking hold in the workplace as well,

with nearly 70 percent of employers with more than fty

employees offering wellness programs,6 most of which

include wearables as a component.7

As wearables are put to increasingly sophisticated uses,

truly commercial applications—ones in which wearables

are employed as specialized tools in the company’s core

business—are on the rise. The construction industry is

ripe for commercial application of wearables. Many of

the issues that consume the time and attention of manag-

ers in the construction industry, such as safety, personnel

management, and compliance, are areas where wearables

can shine. For example, wearables can be used to detect

and warn of safety hazards in dangerous environments,

track personnel at hectic construction sites, and provide

data that can demonstrate regulatory compliance (and

identify areas for improvement).8 It should be of little

surprise, then, that many in the construction industry

are already turning to wearables.9

Jessica E. Courtway