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Smart Bricks to Monitor Buildings of the Future
Roland Piquepaille writes "Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a "smart brick" which can monitor a building's health and report its conditions wirelessly. "This innovation could change the face of the construction industry," said Chang Liu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois. "We are living with more and more smart electronics all around us, but we still live and work in fairly dumb buildings. By making our buildings smarter, we can improve both our comfort and safety." Built into a wall, these bricks could monitor a building's temperature, vibration and movement. Such information could be vital to firefighters battling a blazing skyscraper, or to rescue workers ascertaining the soundness of an earthquake-damaged structure. These researchers also think these devices could help monitoring nurseries, daycares and senior homes. You'll find more details in this summary."
Will it shoot out gas when someone graffitis it?
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This could be a very expensive and useless technology. The proposal for it and the quote by the professor who apparently invented it are reflective of the brick's function as more of a "black box", as in an airplane, rather than a useful tool. If the brick says the buildings about to fall, what can the owners do? The excuse that it helps firefighters is totally ridiculous, firefighters aren't going to have time to jack in to a network plug when they're trying to save lives. The other touted use it to sense vibrations. I don't know about you, but I know when there's an earthquake and when there's not, I don't need a brick to tell me.
In short, useless waste of money marketing FUD. Per norm for slashdot stories.
Hello.
I guess i cant use "Dumb as a half pile of bricks" anymore.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
how long it'll be before the paranoid slashdotters come in and say "and they'll monitor your every move with it!" Happens when every story about technology like this is posted.
Now if we could just monitor the people inside the building for intelligence...
Such information could be vital to firefighters battling a blazing skyscraper...
Finally, a solution for all of those brick skyscrapers.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
"Smart bricks" invented this technology! I can just picture the board meeting where they sat around talking about how they could sell bricks for $220 USD ea.
Joking asside, construction material that provides feedback is likely better than construction material that does nothing but watch the paint flake.
The problem with technologies like these are that they're simply form factor adjustments of existing technologies.
Currently you can very easily put temperature sensors (or even seismic detectors) in a building, but this project wants to put these items into a brick with a wireless connection. Is this really a story? Sure, such a brick might exist in every new building in the future, but you could have this in your home right now, in a small box containing the same gadgets. Putting it in a brick just doesn't seem that exiting, y'know?
This is like the 'building a PC without a case' stories we see from time to time, but without the humor value of seeing someone mount a motherboard in a cardboard box.
First we give buildings the ability to feel. Then we let them think. Twenty years from now houses are eating families after they don't get the foundation fixed quick enough. Stop the madness!
...Central Brick Control receives a flurry of messages from several bricks in the same building:
"Ewwww! I'm being peed on!"
The more technology takes over peoples lives the happier I am. Things like this mean that there will always be jobs for us geeks no matter what.
Fuck the recession, there is no recession!
These researchers also think these devices could help monitoring nurseries, daycares and senior homes.
Beep, Beep, Beep.
Baby #63 needs a diaper change.
You have beaten me to the punchline. I am dishonored. I must now commit seppuku.
how long before they are in ALL homes by law?
it's biblical. remember that bit about no one being able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast?
it was a bad translation, they meant mark of the brick - the one that says "quality bricks designed to last"
john
are you a weapon of male destruction? you need one of these snazzy t-shirts
All I Want For Christmas Is My Constitutional Rights
Bricks can last for literally hundreds of years with little to no maintenance. Anyone want to put bets on the lifetimes of these worthless gadgets?
See that "Preview" button?
Let's see....IPv6 should give us enough IP addresses so every brick can have their own address. Hope the building doesnt stop you from moving from one area to the other if you set your subnet wrong.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
THis is a B.S. marketing piece.
Wow, it's gonna suck upgrading all of those when new a kernel comes out.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
I wonder how one would go about changing the batteries in such a device.
I am an oragami folding ninja.
Do you really believe this rubbish ?
At a decent fire or after a serious earthquake or your fine logic in the bricks will be fucked up and of no use at all.
However, there is use for such logic in bricks. But not when earthquakes are there.
It's rather simple to reprogram the sensors to wiretap people and communication devices. If you are really clever you can get even 3D low-res infrared images from the rooms. Not good for face recognition, but enough for monitoring the location of people. And, hey, you can even couple this with RFID tags. These thing will be on anything you purchase in a few years and they fit prefectly into this setting.
Guess why US Army and NSA are sponsoring research in nanotech.
Only fools believe this "helping building" nonsense. But, hey, these chains are just there to protect us from running away and harming us...
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
...and built into a wall, there's no way to fix the 'brick' when it breaks down and stops working. All of the above functions can be performed by sensors ON the wall,floor, ceiling, etc- or post-construction inside the wall, accessible via an access panel. Or you can make a brick that's not completely 'built in'- ie, you make a place for it, a box or something- and the sensor can still be serviced, you still get advantages of easy installation, etc.
So maybe you put a slew of them in-I suppose ease of installation counters the increased cost of deploying more of them. But still, that's great- now you've raised the chances that one of them will fail(since there are more of them)...and they're possibly more unreliable, and accuracy or precision will be worse since, well, you made 'em cheaper.
Please help metamoderate.
That's the one that throws itself through your enemy's window automatically!
Why not just add sensors to the existing power and/or data infrastructure? Like the safety device vendors are already doing? Bricks could be used to supplement that, but using these bricks in place of existing technology seems silly.
Adherence to the truth is a form of disloyalty.
I love it when a techi suggests somthing will be revolutionary to a discipline that they know little about.
I'll be more impressed if an architect likes it.
I guess i cant use "Dumb as a half pile of bricks" anymore.
If the bricks end up running "Microsoft Windows for Brick Computing" as their OS, you still might be able to.
I can't actually be sure I'm insane.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
If they were really smart bricks, they would escape from the construction site before getting laid in the wall. But I guess you should still stop using this expression, as you're probably overusing it anyway.
Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
I soviet russia kgb have used vibration monitoring in the walls for ages, monitoring the "health" of the buildings and as a side effect the "health" of the people inside as well.....Brilliant technology.
3. If a smart brick comes crashing in through the window, don't duck....it will veer out of the way to avoid hitting you.
2. Oh yeah, how 'bout wrapping that sensor around THIS finger? [Take your pick which anatomical region you prefer.]
1. Huh? You mean central Illinois has buildings, let alone any actually made of brick?
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
"In the gaming industry, wireless sensors attached to a personâ(TM)s arms and legs could replace the conventional joystick and allow a âcouch potatoâ(TM) to get some physical exercise while playing video games such as basketball or tennis."
I get it. Sort of like if they got off the couch and played the actual sport. Uh...
"Help I've fallen and I can't get up!"
... I'm feeling shaky."
The problem is the micro scale versus the macro scale. While you think having bricks with humidity sensors would help you find a leak in a wall, just find the first brick that reported wetness, they wouldn't work in the rain.
What's a brick going to tell you during a California earthquake? "Dude
Unless a brick can report its actual position and orientation in 3D space along with any delta since is was laid (better be none) you can't tell anymore about "settling damage" than with a visual inspection. But GPS down to the fraction of a centimeter is beyond what the military has access to.
Its one thing to have sense organs as part of a structure but they have to be extremely cheap, utterly reliable and infallibly interpretable.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
so not a hacker or the government can egt inside out homes and monitor our activities.....and law enforcment does not even need to bug a house they can just hack into the bricks.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
"Man has always loved his buildings, but what happens when the buildings say no more?"
("When Buildings Collapse" on Non-Stop Fox)
It's called a curtian wall. It's not structrually bearing, but cinder blocks might be the cheapest way to do it. When you put them around a fire escape, they can keep you from cooking as fast.
I'm not sure I want "vibration" sensors in my walls for the local police department, nosy neighbors or anyone else to listen to. My voice is a "vibration" and what I say in my house and place of work is for those around me, not big brother.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
God that was a classic episode. When they showed that old house with "The House of Usher" sign on it collapsing, I thought I was gonna piss my pants laughing.
forgot to mention about the smart door, and the smart toilet and the smart window, so when someone who's feces really stinks, the building can open up a window, flush the toilet several times and lock the doors so this guy can never get back in. Sorry, I have to go and poop.
Mmmm, an intelligent piece of drywall would probably be more usefull in the typical american lumber and cardboard construction :-).
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
Who knew - the old girl was right.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
in soviet russia, smart bricks monitor yoU!
"The meek shall inherit the earth, the rest of us shall go to the stars." Isaac Asimov
My girlfriend transfered there and then broke up with me!
Erm, that's the way I like to remember it, anyway...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Only one problem with cinder blocks ..... they are actually somewhat inflammable. The value of the energy in power plant ash is less than the cost of recovering it {though one would expect newer plants to make a better job of getting all the heat out of the coal} ..... but if you heat it up hot enough, it will start to undergo a chemical reaction with air ..... in other words, go on fire .....
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
- Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of those things!
- Dude, its called a *wall*
So will it tattle on me if I shatter somebody's window pane with it? :)
The real development out of this is the application for ad hoc networking. A building full of sensors must be managed. Managing millions of bricks (or any trivial item), where each brick is effectively a base station will be a challenge. Overcoming this challenge will be very beneficial to our networking theory(not necessarily IP). This is step one for sensor networks.
I applaud the effort however, I don't beieve this particular product is good but it is a start. Slapping a sensor onto the side of a brick doesn't seem like any real invention. THe sensor must be inside the material and completely unnoticeable (small). The sensors of the future will be extremely cheap and mass produced. It should add nothing to the cost of the material and should also have lots of developed applications to drive its deployment. This is a nice idea but shows how Universities (and academia) have no idea how to amke a sellable product.
Which, I might mention, I love. It's so bad.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
If you look at the vibrations coming out of a building that is burning there is a huge jump in the amplitude of certain bands right before the building collapses.. there's basically a shift in the fundamental frequency of the building. A brick to detect this is gonna save alot of firefighters.
Basically, any structure like a bridge or a building can be characterized pretty well by its frequency response. You stimulate it with an impulse and transform the output to the frequency domain. A burning building is being constantly stimulated, so detecting the vibrations with a brick in the wall is going to let you easily determine the frequency response.
As you can imagine (this is a generalization) if there's a large spike in certain frequencies, the structure is unstable. When you engineer structures, you try and keep the frequency response flat.
"In the gaming industry, wireless sensors attached to a personâ(TM)s arms and legs could replace the conventional joystick and allow a âcouch potatoâ(TM) to get some physical exercise while playing video games such as basketball or tennis."
/. crowd, anyway.
Not happening... same problem as with the power glove and DDR-type home game systems. Dancing around is great for strutting your stuff at the mall/arcade, but at home 90% of folks would rather just sit on the couch and use a joystick... at least 90% of the
Unless a brick can report its actual position and orientation in 3D space along with any delta since is was laid (better be none) you can't tell anymore about "settling damage" than with a visual inspection. But GPS down to the fraction of a centimeter is beyond what the military has access to.
What about relative deltas. IE, you have 1000 bricks stacked up, and you monitor all of them. The wall starts bowing inward. If the bricks are capable of communicating with neighboring bricks and measuring how they are moving relative to each other, the problem is solved.
If you add up all of the individual deltas, brick to brick, you end up with a curve which represents the total movement of the wall.. You wouldn't even need a fixed reference, although that would be useful to relate your new data to other external objects, like the earth, or another wall, or the roof..
Cool! Amazing Toys.
I'd hate to be the maintenance guy when the batteries start needing replacement...
Or do the inventors presume that the cost of wiring every brick into the electrical system will be worth the potential benefits?
-j
Maybe those airlines could save a buck on their smart seat plans and shove one of these smart bricks under each chair. Might even make them a tad more comfy.
Brickinator 3 rise of the bricks
The problem with all the "big brother watches everyone" theories is, that this kind of system isn't efficient. Even if the "sheep" themselves pay for the bricks, it would still cost a lot of money and time to gather and analyse all this information - but the US federal agencies are already having trouble with information overload. It's not as if the Al Quaeda were not monitored before 11.09.2001, but the information was overlooked. They can tap you now, too, if they need to. No reason to panic.
Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
I didnâ(TM)t mean for the brick to break the window. I was applying an update and I placed the patch in the wrong directory.
I may be slightly paranoid but doesn't this mean that we can now expect the FBI applying for wiretaps on buildings during construction?
SO it would be rather easy to monitor conversations in buildings.
Especially when there is more then one brick, then you could triangulate the speaker, and filter out noise. And report back any 'suspicious conversations, even in a private home.
Then add the ability to track the chips that will eventually be implanted in people, then you got instant 'undesirable' tracking in every building.
I feel so much safer now. Don't you?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Didn't Edgar in Electric Dreams already invent these?
It will automatically home in on the police when thrown by violent demonstrators.
What are the odds that, 50 years from the time the bricks are installed, the technology will still be around to access the data from the brick? The information will probably be most useful once the building really starts to decay -- if this technology had been around 50 years in the past, we'd all still need room-sized mainframes in order to access the data our buildings are providing us -- or, failing that, we'd need to rip out all the smart bricks and upgrade them with new ones. Either way, $$$... The wireless technology alone will be obsolete within 3-5 years, I'm sure.
Just a thought...
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The idea of measuring temp and loads in a brick structure may be useful in some buildings but not all. Perhaps this technology may be applied to other building materials on site, as the structure is being built. A weekly log or journal could be loaded into the "chip" recording the weeks events: the architect and general contractors' meetings, workers names and thoughts, subcontrators present at site for the week, etc. This would record a history of the building for historical purposes and future troubleshooting. Major construction sites ( well, say a building by Frank Gehry) would have an "real time historian" on site recording daily activities. Fast forward 100 years later, tours of the building are given by a hand held docent. As the tourist makes his or her way through the building he/she receives the weekly logs at each point where applied. Or the building has roof problems, before repairs are made one may view info from the "chip" near the roof, listening or reading the meeting between the contrator and architect. Journals or history recorders could be applied to an object for any activity. Imagine visiting a city and as you drive or walk around you could pick up freqencies of the past. You see the structure/object and then it's life appears on your hand held.
What is the average life of a building? Now, what is the average life of electronic components? And what is the average life of data formats or transmission protocols?
Btw, who really uses bricks anymore for skyscrapers who would need it most anyways?
In order for this to be useful wouldn't there have to be multiple 'smart bricks' on a single wall. Measuring the stress of a brick wall at one focal point isn't very useful. What about having multiple smart bricks on each wall. The bricks should communicate with each other in order to create a total assessment of the wall's integrity. eniacx
One possible use for these things is supposed to be "ascertaining the soundness of an earthquake-damaged structure." But, as anyone who has ever lived in San Francisco can tell you, you just don't build with bricks and masonry in earthquake zones!
I think this engineer needs to get out of the lab occasionally.
This is an extension of the old Soviet "bug" brick used for the U.S. Embasy in Moscow.
Or was that the U.S. "bug" brick used in the Solviet Embasy in Washington.
Both sides did this kind of thing so much that I lose track.
...terrorists who are trying to figure out which part of the building is already under the greatest stresses. How about cyberterrorists who hack into a buildings bricks and convince them to report failures, causing expensive and dangerous repairs, or premature demolitions.
Some things are better left dumb.
So "You're as dumb as a brick" loses its meaning as an insult?
Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
What will happen to that old favorite saying "dumb as a brick"? I think we'll have to revise this (for some people) to "dumber than a brick."
Blatant self-promotion: Jerek.net
now on top of noisy neighbors i gotta deal with know-it-all bricks chattering away all hours
They're normally called Project Managers!
[Connection closed by foreign host]
...smart landlords! So now I can live in buildings that are smarter than the people who own them... *sigh*
The world won't end in darkness, it'll end in family fun, with Coca-cola clouds behind a Big Mac sun.
Isn't anyone else just a bit worried about other things that could be built into the walls with these bricks? Maybe some type of motion sensor? A high-sensitivity microphone? A pinhole camera in the fireplace?
Now, I'm not usually paranoid or a conspiracy theorist, but it's been my experience that if the gov't can use something to better monitor/control its citizens... it will. Having one's walls wired to send wireless signals has dangerous potential for invasion of privacy... maybe my future home will have an emp generator attached to the bed to ensure "private moments."
The next thing is to put cameras in the bricks. :(
Very cozy!!
They will mandate that all new buildings be constructed using these bricks; that the bricks be addressable by law enforcement and have built-in surveillance capabilities.
And then they will charge us, the dweller, for the cost.
Definitely not just another brick in the wall.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Now with smart brick technology, we can write a whole new ending to that slimy tale, and turn it into a TV series.
Why not? No matter which grimy hole in the wall our hero gets stuffed in, there will be a smart brick complete with ssh (or maybe a dumb brick equipped with AOL Instant Messenger) and so the chode gets rescued, every single time!
Or, use the tale as an advertising gimmick. Show the "Can you hear me now?" guy getting bricked in the vault, but with a Sprint smart brick.
Or maybe not.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
RDRR! And if it runs lunix it will 0WNZ0R!!11!!uno!
HEY YOU GUYS!1!ichi!!11 SLOTH LUVS CHUNK!1!one!11!
What's up with the mass paranoia going on here on /.? If they wanted to put in listening/monitoring devices in your walls, they already could have done so long ago using age-old technology.
Stop it with the tin foil hats and start appreciating this new innovation. I for one think this is a great invention. Now we'll know if a building is at risk for collapse. Firefighters will know whether to enter a burning building or not. The positives go on and on.
eTrade SUCKS
[and I read slashdot. go figure!]
The industry would adopt these things when you force it into our cold, dead fingers! Nobody who builds/owns commercial buildings wants the building to do any 'reporting!'
Suppose my neighbor gets a new subwoofer. Suddenly, my 'smart bricks' are dialing out to the building inspector, fire dept and my insurer, saying "code red! seismic event!"
If they designed a *stronger* or *flexible* brick, the trades would beat a path to the door. As for 'smart', it's mostly information I don't want to know!
... an even smarter brick, which listens to all communication within 5 meters, and automatically logs who said what and uploads it to the homeland security dept.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Well, it's been done with people, animals...
Now comes a new wave of pr0n were bricks can feel and enjoy love too.
-MobileBadBoy, who can't log in.
The worst name for your idea.
Frost pist! wOOt! Suckee it down, fuxOrs. Suck my goatse hole!
Oh, yeah, that's great. If the technology in this brick is so great, how come they can't just make the entire building out of fireproof materials and not have to worry about battling the damn thing in the first place???
I don't know. Fireproof Christmas trees have been around for a long time. They didn't have to put a computer in every brick to make buildings the same way.
Jesus Christ, most people can't even afford enough regular bricks to build a house. You know, the kind that are basically made out of dirt. Maybe more people would be better off if we concentrated on affordable housing than if we concentrated on making this kind of stupid shit.
You know, there's a solution to buildings falling down. It's called structural engineering. Tempered by a dose of common sense. Like if you don't want your house to fall on your head don't build it on a fault line or next a sandy ocean cliff.
Darwin will take care of this idea just like Darwin takes care of the people who would benefit from these stupid things.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
This technology could be very useful, let's say we implement varius sensors in a skyscraper in an earthquake prone area, if a earthquake occurs, the building may have points where the metal is fatigued or a piece of the internal structure has become loose. We could get a glimpse on the damage in a matter of minutes to determine if an evacuation of the nearby premises is needed. It could provide useful information that may prevent injuries and death.
While the bricks itself will most likely not be able to provide much benefit, I imagine that they are important for any upcoming intelligent building infrastructure. Not only in the already mentioned area of detecting damaged building parts, new services might be built with these bricks. Who would have thought in 1980 that IP might some day be used for sharing music and video files by end users?
"This innovation could change the face of the construction industry,"
By raising the price ridiculously.
The average brick costs about 5 cents, or $500 for every thousand.
I am guessing since, they slice, dice, and cook dinner too, the bricks should be about $99.95, or $99,950 for every thousand.
but...does it run linux?
Error 407 - No creative sig found
As a graduate of UIUC, I hope there's more to these than it looks like in the summary. Commercial buildings already have sensor networks installed- how do they think the HVAC systems work? New construction, which seems to be the target here, would have controllers that can be accessed from a PC. People doing research in this field all already know how to get the data, research is now being done in different ways to use the data. The "info to firefighters" aspect might be useful, but there are already other efforts much more advanced.
One feature which does potentially look useful is that these would be battery powered, so if the main building power went out these would still work- if only over a short range. But even then the firefighter wouldn't know where the sensor was, which makes this only minimally useful.
The non-building uses mentioned seem to have much more potential.
Or there could be more to this than appears from the summary. Hopefully a lot more.
LOL IM REPLYING TO AN 8 MONTH OLD STORY, GOOD JOB CMDRFUCKO!
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