KA Connect 2012 Talk
In May 2012, I spoke at the KA Connect conference in San Francisco. I told the story of creating an immersive iPad app for Make Architects that allowed potential clients to experience Make’s design ideas through interactive, panoramic images.
The architecture and real estate industries had been using "virtual tours" for a long time but they were mostly confined to desktop browsers and using a mouse to navigate around. When the iPad come out and browsers started to support the device gyroscope, it opened up a much more natural way to explore panoramas and virtual tours.
The app I built transported the user into the building design and allowed them to experience the concepts and environment at a time before VR was readily accessible.
The first project I built the app for was a competition to design a mixed-use development in central London. The app was used during the final presentation to the clients and Make won the project. The construction value of the project was approximately £1.4bn and Facebook became the marquee commercial tenant.
You can watch the full video in the KA Connect talk archive.
The app
The iPad app was built with Phonegap (now Apache Cordova) so I could use my existing HTML/JS skills. To view the panoramic images in the app, I used krpano, a wonderful library/framework for viewing and interacting with all kinds of panoramic images on the web.
KA Connect
KA Connect is a knowledge management conference specifically designed for the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry.
Here’s how Knowledge Architecture (KA) describe the conference:
Senior and emerging leaders from top AEC firms will gather to learn strategies and tactics for building highly connected practices. Past topics have included:
- Building Long-Term Knowledge
- Orchestrating Digital Communities
- Where is Technology Headed?
- Connecting the Built Environment
- Trends in Web Communications
- Knowledge Management in Practice
- Leading a Connected Practice
- Thought Leadership in the AEC Industry
Check out the KA Connect LinkedIn Group for a wonderful and welcoming knowledge management community.