A new smart helmet brings VR to the workplace. 

Virtual Reality (VR) and “wearables” are all the rage now, but we expect the hype to subside at some point, and then we’ll start seeing products suitable for real-world applications. Sure, there is Glass and Oculus, but how can such devices move beyond gaming, marketing, (and weirding people out in public) and benefit BIM, surveying, construction, and mapping? SAQRI LLC, a firm specializing in augmented reality solutions, has done just that with the announcement of an amazing high-tech hard hat.

 
The DAQRI Smart Helmet sports an array of sensors and a heads-up display and is designed to connect to the cloud and other equipment, such as a wrist-mounted control unit, your data collector, even potentially heavy equipment—the possibilities are pretty limitless. There are navigation cameras covering 360º, inertial and depth sensors, and the heads-up display—all to provide what they call a true, real-time “4D” interactive bridge between the worksite and the record/design data.

 
Imagine worksites feeding the design directly to the crews, not to mention proximity awareness hazard warnings! You could operate your total station, GNSS rover, UAS, and scanners to map, update, or as-built sites with digital paint.

 
We’re itching to get our heads around, or should we say “into,” one of these high-tech units. You should wear a hard hat anyhow, so why not make it Smart Helmet?