Photo Courtesy N.J. DOT By reading drivers' Bluetooth signals, New Jersey DOT monitors traffic flows to predict travel times on highways and through work zones. Related Links: TrafficCast A traffic monitoring system that reads Bluetooth signals from mobile devices inside cars is being implemented around Boston and other cities to predict highway travel times through construction zones and on highways.The BlueTOAD traffic-monitoring system was created by TrafficCast, Madison, Wis. "It's very, very accurate," says Taylor Stukes, senior engineer of information technology services with KCUS Consulting, Boston. "We're covering roads from Boston to Cape Cod with it, and MassDOT has aggressive

Photos by Luke Abaffy for ENR The iPhone beeps when its magnetometer, in the upper right of the phone, is near metal. Related Links: Stud Find App on the iTunes Store Stud Find is an iPhone application that uses the device's built-in magnetometer to find metal studs, screws, nails and anything metallic in a wall.The iPhone's three-axis magnetometer is an instrument that measures magnetic forces. Internal Apple software uses the instrument to position the phone's 360° orientation. Stud Find uses the magnetometer as a metal detector.Testing the app on an iPhone 5, we found it works best when moved slowly

Photo courtesy of Bechtel Bechtel and Crossrail are testing mobile-device zones, sectioned-off areas on jobsites that are clearly labeled and removed from safety hazards so engineers and contractors can safely use new apps. Related Links: Better Building with iPad: An Apple Feature on Bechtel Virtual Reality at Intersection of As-Built and Design The largest construction project in Europe leans so heavily on mobile technology that its managers are changing safety policies to protect employees with "mobile-only" zones in which workers also can test new mobile apps for construction."You must have your full attention on the surroundings in order to stay

Related Links: Share 3D Beta Test A 3D communication and documentation software company's new 3D-model viewer and sharing platform enables for mobile sharing, mark up and collaboration of 3D files. It is now open for public beta-testing.Publisher 3D can turn a 3D model from SolidWorks, Inventor and other 3D modeling software into a file that's light enough to be viewable with an iPad or iPhone and sharable in a browser, says Brian Roberts, president and a founder of QuadriSpace, Allen, Texas. “The models can then be made privately available to anyone.”ENR used an iPhone 5 to test the iOS version

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Traders wearing hardhats kicked off Textura's fiery IPO as the firm's share prices rose by 68%. Related Links: Textura Buys GradeBeam, Plans New Bidding Platform Textura Puts the 'Pay' Back Into Paycheck The construction industry's increasing appetite for collaboration and web-hosted tools is playing out on the New York Stock Exchange. On June 7, spirited trading of Textura Corp.'s initial public offering sent shares shooting past their original price of $15: Opening at $24, they hit $25.19 before settling at $20.91.The Deerfield, Ill.-based company makes web-based collaboration software that can be accessed from

As evidenced by ENR’s recent webinar “Making the Most of the Cloud,” more and more construction services are finding their way to the Cloud, including one that provides industry access to construction codes and standards.While the U.S. made a significant advance more than a decade ago when its three model building code-writing organizations consolidated into a single, model building code-writing body—the International Code Council—little has changed with regard to the diversity of codes and standards as they actually are selected, amended, adopted and enforced by more than 35,000 local jurisdictions—where projects end up being built.But since the consolidation of the

By DamWatch DamWatch is a dam-data aggregator that is being implemented nationally to monitor the 12,000 watershed dams across the U.S. Related Links: Dam Watch DamWatch Evolved from ScourWatch Beginning in the late 1950s and for the next 20 years, the U.S. built an average of one dam a day under the Watershed Protection Act of 1954. Most have a 50-year design life. Soon, those dams will start reaching the end of their design lives—also at the rate of one dam a day—for the next two decades.The clock is ticking.Flood-control system managers—such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which represents

Image Courtesy PlanGrid PlanGrid's app update automatically links all detail references (in purple) in a set of plans to their full-size versions by learning to recognize the shapes of the plans' call-out notations. Related Links: PlanGrid PlanGrid App on the Mac App Store PlanGrid—an app for collaborating with project plans, specs and photos on iPads, iPhones or any web browser—is launching an upgrade with a significant new call-out feature.In the current version, available since March 2012, drawings uploaded as PDFs to the PlanGrid cloud automatically sync to every team member's mobile device in real time. Markups, notes, attachments and updates

Related Links: NDToolbox What’s the use of technology advancing at lightning speed if we only use it to develop new digital image filters for our pictures of dinner so we can share them with more people who don’t care in the first place? Sharing information that adds value to the actual world should be the real goal, and that can be plenty exciting. One new, public site that will never net a big-fat IPO or a $1-billion takeover bid is one that is likely to have a very positive impact anyway, by advancing the application of technology to test our infrastructure

Photo Courtesy of HoverCam Related Links: HoverCam Solo Camera Sunglasses Allow Hands-Free Site Documentation The HoverCam Solo 5 is a tabletop document scanner, HD webcam and presentation device. Marketed to schools, the device allows teachers to stream a live, real-time view of textbooks for remote and in-class students. Updated video-recording software and the ability to share large documents make it a good fit for the AEC industry as well.Hovercam, made by Pathway Innovations and Technologies Inc., San Diego, is powered by and communicates through a single USB chord. When plugged into a PC, Mac or most white boards, the internal