MIT spinoff OpenSpace invented automated 360-degree video jobsite capture and mapping. “It’s not exactly an amazing observation,” says CEO Jeevan Kalanithi, “but a picture really is worth a thousand words.”

In the world of real estate development, visual documentation of construction projects is critical. It aids in dispute resolution, prevents mistakes from being compounded, and allows for knowledge capture in case of change orders. Builders are often contractually obligated to document progress. Usually, this means hiring someone to walk the site and take photos of key areas once a month. These photos are then slapped in a binder or uploaded into a cloud storage service.

But the old way is akin to taking a few snapshots of the Grand Canyon — if the natural wonder was a human-made, built environment — and expecting your audience to grasp the totality of the spectacle. We now have drones, smartphones, and 360-degree cameras. But drones can’t be operated safely indoors, and even with 360-degree cameras, you still have to hire someone dedicated to the task of photographing the site while considering how the files will be properly stored and shared with stakeholders. Updated tech, prettier pictures; same old problems, and new costs. Change orders still lead to chaos, and accountability disputes run rampant.

Enter OpenSpace, a company that’s propelling the construction of any built environment into the digital age. They’ve updated an essential idea by attaching an off-the-shelf 360-degree camera to a hard hat, and imbued it with cutting-edge computer vision, artificial intelligence, and data visualization software — not unlike the perception and navigation AI systems used in autonomous vehicles.

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