Office workers often assume that tracking progress and collaborating digitally is standard practice. However, for those whose work happens in physical environments like construction sites, project management presents unique challenges that traditional digital tools can't easily address.
Construction professionals, including general contractors and real estate developers, typically require physical presence at job sites to verify work quality and timelines. Many still rely on photographers or smartphone images to document project progression. These outdated methods frequently result in accountability gaps, costly change orders, and significant project delays.
Enter OpenSpace, an innovative startup that's bridging the gap between physical construction and digital management through cutting-edge technology. Their solution leverages 360-degree cameras and advanced computer vision to create comprehensive, time-stamped digital replicas of construction environments.
The implementation is remarkably straightforward: users simply walk through their job sites wearing a small 360-degree camera mounted on their hard hat. The OpenSpace Vision Engine then automatically maps these images to project plans, creating a Google Street View-like experience that enables stakeholders to virtually tour construction sites at different stages as if they were physically there.
Beyond simple visualization, the company has developed sophisticated analytics solutions that help customers track progress metrics and locate specific elements across their job sites. To date, OpenSpace has successfully mapped over 1.5 billion square feet of construction projects, ranging from bridges and hospitals to football stadiums and large residential complexes.
This revolutionary technology is empowering construction industry professionals to enhance accountability, minimize travel requirements, reduce operational risks, and streamline project management workflows.
"Our core product offers a simple yet powerful concept: it provides customers with a complete visual record of any space, whether indoors or outdoors, enabling them to inspect conditions from anywhere at any time," explains OpenSpace co-founder and CEO Jeevan Kalanithi SM '07. "They can virtually teleport to the site to examine current conditions, but they can also review what was there yesterday, last week, or even five years ago. It establishes an authoritative ground truth record for the entire project lifecycle."
Illuminating the Future of Construction Sites
The OpenSpace founding team first connected during their time at MIT. At the Media Lab, Kalanithi and David Merrill SM '06, PhD '09 developed a gaming system using small cubes equipped with LCD touch screens and motion sensors designed to foster critical thinking skills in children. They later transformed this concept into Sifteo, a company that produced multiple generations of these innovative toys.
In 2014, Sifteo was acquired by 3D Robotics, then a drone company that eventually shifted focus to drone inspection software for construction, engineering, and mining firms. Kalanithi remained with 3D Robotics for over two years, ultimately serving as the company's president.
During the summer of 2016, Kalanithi departed 3D Robotics with plans to spend more time with friends and family. He reconnected with two MIT acquaintances, Philip DeCamp '05, SM '08, PhD '13 and Michael Fleischman PhD '08, who had researched advanced machine vision and AI techniques during their doctoral studies. Fleischman had previously founded a social media analytics company that was later sold to Twitter.
At that time, DeCamp and Fleischman were exploring applications for emerging machine vision technologies with 360-degree cameras. Kalanithi, who had helped steer 3D Robotics toward the construction industry, recognized the perfect opportunity.
Photography has long been used to document construction projects, with many large-scale contracts requiring photographic evidence of progress. However, traditional photos rarely capture the entire site comprehensively and aren't taken frequently enough to document every construction phase adequately.
Initial iterations of the OpenSpace solution required setting up a tripod in every area of a construction project. A breakthrough came when an early user—a direct-speaking project manager—provided the founders with crucial feedback.
"I was demonstrating our product's output, which looked similar to today's version, and he asked, 'This is impressive. How long did it take to create?' When I told him, he responded, 'That's cool, Jeevan, but there's no way we'll be able to use that approach,'" Kalanithi recalls. "I initially thought our concept might not be viable after all. But then he offered the solution. He suggested, 'What would really work is if I could simply wear that small camera while walking around. I'm constantly moving through the job site anyway.'"
The founders embraced this suggestion and redesigned their solution to work with commercially available 360-degree cameras and slightly modified hard hats. The cameras capture images every half second and employ artificial intelligence to determine the camera's precise location, even within indoor environments. Once a few site tours have been uploaded to OpenSpace's platform, the system can map images onto site plans within just 15 minutes.
Kalanithi vividly recalls the founders' excitement when they first saved a customer money by helping resolve a dispute between a general contractor and a drywall specialist. Since then, they've received numerous similar calls, in some cases saving companies millions of dollars. Kalanithi believes that reducing construction costs helps the industry address critical challenges related to aging infrastructure and housing shortages.
Empowering Non-Digital Workforce with Technology
OpenSpace's analytics solutions, marketed as the ClearSight product suite, haven't been fully deployed to all customers yet. However, Kalanithi is confident they will deliver significant additional value to construction site managers.
"When someone is continuously walking through a project site, we can begin classifying and analyzing what they're observing," Kalanithi explains. "This allows us to quantify framing and drywall installation rates, track progress velocity, and measure material consumption. These metrics form the foundation for payment structures in the construction industry: compensation is based on work completed."
Kalanithi views ClearSight as marking the beginning of a new phase for OpenSpace, where the company can leverage AI and computer vision to provide customers with unprecedented insights into their job site activities.
"While the current product experience—visually exploring the site—will remain a feature that users occasionally utilize, they may increasingly spend more time examining productivity charts, accessing OpenSpace-verified payment approvals, and only occasionally drilling down to view the actual images," Kalanithi predicts.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated some companies' adoption of digital solutions to reduce travel requirements and minimize physical contact. However, even in regions where construction has fully resumed, Kalanithi notes that customers continue to rely on OpenSpace, demonstrating the fundamental value it provides.
Indeed, the vast majority of information captured by OpenSpace was previously inaccessible, and it carries the potential for transformative improvements not only in the construction industry but across numerous other sectors.
"While the previous decade was characterized by cloud and mobile technologies as the primary enablers of innovation, I believe the coming decade will be defined by innovations that impact people in the physical world," Kalanithi reflects. "With cameras and computer vision technologies continuing to advance, we now have opportunities to address the needs of workers who have been overlooked or underserved by previous technological developments. We can finally create solutions that will genuinely improve their daily work lives."
