Exploiting Mixed Reality in a Next-Generation IoT ecosystem of a construction site

Ensuring smart safety of workers in large construction sites calls for centralized ecosystems, supported transversely by security, privacy, and trust enablers, to facilitate data sharing and protect the growing attack surface. At the same time, human-centricity has to be a core part of the process. Mixed Reality (MR) applications allow the execution of context-aware applications with advanced interaction interfaces improving decision making, data gathering, interoperability with other services, accessibility, and real-time data sharing. We leverage the advanced features of MR interfaces and interoperability with Internet of Things (IoT) systems to contribute towards a more usable, functional, and perceptive human-centric Next Generation ecosystem in large construction plants aiming to contribute to workers' health and safety (H&S) during inspection processes. In this study, an MR enabler is designed and developed to collect data from various sources of such an ecosystem. The main objectives are to identify workers in large construction sites and their medical and training records, get real-time information regarding their stress and health levels, and alert when dangerous activity is being performed, or a worker reaches an unauthorized location. At the same time, the MR enabler allows the visualization of BIM models, their digital representations and data, as well as the submission of reports. The MR enabler, connected to other components within the Next-Generation IoT ecosystem (NGIoT), will be applied to various construction sites in Poland.