A road-map to personalized context-aware services delivery in construction

Existing mobile IT applications in the construction industry are constrained by their reliance on static methods of information delivery, which are often not appropriate to meet changing work demand resulting from dynamic project conditions. This paper focuses on a new interaction paradigm i.e. context-aware information delivery (CAID), which promises to make information provisioning more responsive to workers’ changing work demands. A roadmap to personalized CAID in construction is laid out, with a focus on creating a pervasive user-centred intelligent work environment capable of serving relevant information needs of busy construction professionals by intelligent interpretation of their context. Research approach includes use of scenario planning method. Face-to-face unstructured interviews were arranged with 28 industry and technology experts for scenario validation and provided input for the road-mapping exercise. The research demonstrates that the realisation of the CAID vision is within reach and will tremendously enhance the value proposition of mobile information technology in the construction industry. Context-relevant and personalised information delivery will save valuable time and has the potential to improve efficiency and productivity. It can make construction ICT applications and worker’s immediate work environment more responsive to work demands, thereby allowing better management of construction projects. A key challenge is to link various technology enabling elements with methodological, cultural, social and organisational aspects specific to the construction industry. This would require a multi-disciplinary approach requiring input from different fields, including computer science, ergonomics, social studies and the construction industry

Distributed Application as a new application Standard

The constant growth in IT field more precisely the Internet, determines the need of new technologies and applications which can provide new possibilities and accessibility to the contemporaneous information society. The field of construction, isn’t a domain that has not information systems but there is still one way to distribute information for this domain that isn’t enough developed. The way to distribute processed information for this domain can be the Internet. This paper describes the way to develop an application that easy the process of centralization, distribution, and analysis of information gathered from the construction site to the headquarters and then to the final users who signed the contract with the construction company to build the construction. The IT solution implies the use of new technologies for communicating and centralizing the information, that simplifies the way information travels between departments and finally to the end-user, with the benefit of the Internet and VPN.distributed applications, vpn, domains

Context-aware information delivery for mobile construction workers

The potential of mobile Information Technology (IT) applications to support the information needs of mobile construction workers has long been understood. However, existing mobile IT applications in the construction industry have underlined limitations, including their inability to respond to the changing user context, lack of semantic awareness and poor integration with the desktop-based infrastructure. This research argues that awareness of the user context (such as user role, preferences, task-at-hand, location, etc.) can enhance mobile IT applications in the construction industry by providing a mechanism to deliver highly specific information to mobile workers by intelligent interpretation of their context. Against this this background, the aim of this research was to investigate the applicability of context-aware information delivery (CAID) technologies in the construction industry. The research methodology adopted consisted of various methods. A literature review on context-aware and enabling technologies was undertaken and a conceptual framework developed, which addressed the key issues of context-capture, contextinference and context-integration. To illustrate the application of CAID in realistic construction situations, five futuristic deployment scenarios were developed which were analysed with several industry and technology experts. From the analysis, a common set of user needs was drawn up. These needs were subsequently translated into the system design goals, which acted as a key input to the design and evaluation of a prototype system, which was implemented on a Pocket-PC platform. The main achievements of this research include development of a CAID framework for mobile construction workers, demonstration of CAID concepts in realistic construction scenarios, analysis of the Construction industry needs for CAID and implementation and validation of the prototype to demonstrate the CAID concepts. The research concludes that CAID has the potential to significantly improve support for mobile construction workers and identifies the requirements for its effective deployment in the construction project delivery process. However, the industry needs to address various identified barriers to enable the realisation of the full potential of CAID

Critical Management Issues for Implementing RFID in Supply Chain Management

The benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the supply chain are fairly compelling. It has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency, accuracy and security of the supply chain with significant impact on overall profitability. A number of companies are actively involved in testing and adopting this technology. It is estimated that the market for RFID products and services will increase significantly in the next few years. Despite this trend, there are major impediments to RFID adoption in supply chain. While RFID systems have been around for several decades, the technology for supply chain management is still emerging. We describe many of the challenges, setbacks and barriers facing RFID implementations in supply chains, discuss the critical issues for management and offer some suggestions. In the process, we take an in-depth look at cost, technology, standards, privacy and security and business process reengineering related issues surrounding RFID technology in supply chains

A Proposal for the Use of Wireless Technology in Healthcare

The annual healthcare cost in the United States is a staggering $2.6 trillion USD or over 17$200 billion per year. Enhancements in mobile communication devices and networks make them on par or more advanced than some of the standard instruments used in healthcare today. In addition, these devices are available at much lower costs than traditional healthcare devices. Thus, leveraging these devices and wireless networks could significantly reduce the cost of healthcare delivery and expand coverage. Wireless operators have the distribution channels and marketing capability to reach the majority of the population. Wireless operators are looking to vertical industries like healthcare for future revenue growth due to saturation in the consumer market (greater than 103% penetration). Mobile operators have networks that cover over 97% of the total US population. In addition, they have a large employee base to leverage for m-health trials. With their large employee base, mobile operators have influence over large health insurers such as United Healthcare, Wellpoint, Kaiser and others. Since healthcare insurers and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services influence the industry through reimbursements for services, gaining their acceptance is tantamount to success