Wearable Computers: An Interface between Humans and Smart Infrastructure Systems

Monitoring and inspecting infrastructure systems are tasks as old as construction itself. Depending on the phase in their life cycle, these infrastructure systems have to be maintained, repaired, refurbished, or reconstructed. To ensure current and up-todate information about each piece of infrastructure, inspectors have to go and visit each part of the system to record the condition of each component. Modern sensing technologies allow for constant monitoring and aid inspectors in providing histories of recorded data. This helps a) in receiving alerts directly from sensors at the infrastructure itself that measure unusual behavior, and b) in being able to draw additional data from construction elements as needed during the inspection process. Thus, inspection processes and the frequency of inspections can be adapted to fulfill higher information needs, especially for fracture-critical structures, where sudden failures are a big threat.