IBM Transforms Workplace Experiences

A move forward in related capabilities using AI

IBM Transforms Workplace Experiences With New AI Capability For Intelligent Real Estate And Facility Management

IBM Corporation logo. ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced artificial intelligence (AI) into its TRIRIGA solution to help real estate and facility management professionals better utilize office space and deliver a more engaging workplace experience. TRIRIGA, one of the leading Integrated Workplace Management Systems in the world, includes TRIRIGA Building Insights, and combines occupancy data from sources, such as WIFI and/or IoT sensors .... " 

Smarter Offices with IOT

Very much makes sense to integrate further facilities management.  Add more elements of autonomy.

Increasing Business ROI with IoT in Facilities Management
By Michael Georgiou  in ReadWrite / 30 Nov 2019 / IoT
IoT in facilities management
 
Thanks to the advanced technologies, the idea of smart offices is now becoming more trendier than ever. It’s just a matter of time until the majority of businesses will have intelligent offices. As the workplaces are getting smarter, the one thing that remains obsolete is the way facility management companies operate. Here is increasing business ROI with IoT in facilities management.

Keeping various supplies in check is a tedious job for busy offices. That’s why often such non-core tasks are outsourced to facilities management companies. Today’s tech-heavy environment, offices still have to make calls or send emails to their facilities manager to get the issues resolved.

Considering the fierce competition, FM business owners can’t simply afford to keep offices waiting. Enter the IoT (Internet of things). IoT is a network of physical devices that collect and share data over the Internet.

Using IoT, facilities management companies can drastically improve their efficiency, customer relationship, and business ROI. But, how exactly IoT benefits facilities managers to improve their business bottom line? In this guide, we’re going to discuss this in detail, but let’s first understand the concept of IoT ..... "

Including Smart Sensors in Building Design

Pointing to new studies about smart building architectural design.

Using smart sensor technology in building design in TechXplore   by San Diego State University

Have lights turned on automatically when you walk into a room? Does the air conditioner in the conference room turn on when a certain number of people enter the room?

In today's world, spaces with motion and temperature "smart sensors" are common and generally improve our overall well-being. Often times, data is being gathered from these sensors and is stored and analyzed in order to improve future architectural building design processes.

However, research conducted by Dr. Maryam Abhari ( who a registered architect) and Dr. Kaveh Abhari of San Diego State University, indicated that while the information and technology exists to assist architects in designing structures that offer more efficient space and energy management, they seldom take advantage of those available resources. "We've found recent studies showing that smart sensors are frequently added to a building after they are built, rather than being used as a source of inspiration and insight during the design process," said Kaveh Abhari. "We wanted to know why architects and design professionals were not only slow to integrate smart sensor design and data into their work, but why they were also slow to adapt to new technologies as well."

The researchers, both of whom are faculty members in the management information systems department (MIS) at SDSU's Fowler College of Business, initially interviewed 29 architecture professionals to identify why they were slow to integrate technology into their design processes. They interviewed only those professionals who either had experience with smart sensors or have attended educational sessions on smart sensor technology (SST). Their findings were presented at the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. ... ' 

Communications Between People and Smart Buildings

Every interaction between people and machines is a conversation.   And we are starting to be able to sculpt that conversation in ways that it can be most efficient and useful.   Experiments underway are numerous and broad. 

Improving Communications Between People and Smart Buildings    USC News  in ACM
By Gary Polakovic

University of Southern California researchers determined dialogue between people and smart building systems can improve with a virtual avatar representing building management, with social banter key to improving those communications. The researchers exposed several hundred participants to an office setting in virtual reality, followed by an actual office environment for a smaller cohort; participants interacted with a virtual human agent programmed to make pro-environmental requests, to see whether they cooperated. People responded better when the agent was acting on behalf of the building manager, rather than when it personified the building. Having the requests as part of a social dialogue, like small talk, instead of as a monologue, also improved cooperation. The researchers said, "Including a social dialogue may have helped to overcome the difference between person as by making the building persona more relatable." ... 

Offices Getting Smarter

We looked at this, not enough mentioned here about how direct assistance can be inserted.

Offices Grow 'Brains' as Companies Seek to Attract Smarter Workers 
Reuters  By Caroline Copley in Reuters

Property developers in Berlin, Germany, are tapping technology to create more sustainable offices to help employees work both efficiently and comfortably. One smart office under construction, the Cube, has a cloud-connected sensor network to measure everything from motion, temperature, and lighting to humidity and carbon dioxide levels. Such technology is called "the brain," a self-learning tool that analyzes all the data it receives and optimizes building operations. Users access the Cube with a smartphone app that knows their schedules and may suggest seating locations where a meeting is scheduled, as well as booking meeting rooms, ordering food, and navigating the office. Cube offices also feature a "hot desking" system in which workers do not have a fixed desk, but are assigned appropriate workspace for the type of work they want to perform. Smart office equipment like printers follow a predictive maintenance schedule to minimize daily nuisances such as running out of paper.   ... " 

Architecture for Talking Buildings

Smart homes are still built up in fairly unstructured ways.   Mine still has pieces of it fail, and can be difficult to repair or add to if the supplier pieces are not well designed.    Several of those things have struck me recently.   Here,  what seems to be  directionally good:

The Era of Talking Buildings Has Arrived 
UNSW Newsroom
By Wilson Da Silva

The University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW Sydney) and WBS Technology in Australia partnered on the development of reactive and remotely operated smart building ecosystems. The resulting EMIoT wireless platform utilizes light-emitting diode exit signs to run a low-power meshed network that covers 99.9% of a building; each sign or emergency light is a network node, routing data across the building. Connecting other devices to the network facilitates remote control and monitoring. EMIoT came about from UNSW Sydney researchers' effort to integrate different communications technologies to function seamlessly and support a reliable network across myriad locations. The platform combines wireless sensors for healthcare monitoring, an Internet protocol for small devices, and an experimental network protocol for point-to-point communications; to this was added a gateway bridging the different technologies with cellular telecommunications networks, while Bluetooth provides localized smartphone control.  .... "

Human Presence Sensing for Smart Buildings

In  RDMag.

NSF Grant Awarded for Smart-building Sensor Research  by University of Hawai’i

The National Science Foundation has awarded University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers a $750,000 grant to develop a low-cost sensor capable of detecting human presence and monitoring occupants for energy-savings and smart-building applications. The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II grant was awarded to UH Mānoa in partnership with technology company Adnoviv.

Olga Borić-Lubecke, professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering and a co-principal investigator on the grant, co-founded Adnoviv in 2013 with electrical engineering Professor Victor Lubecke. The company focuses on research-driven technology, developing innovative sensors and systems for industrial, medical and security applications, including its centerpiece product, True Presence Occupancy Detection Sensors (TruePODS). Adnoviv is a Phase I graduate of the XLR8UH start-up program and has already hired four UH graduates. ... "