Virtual reality and smartphone apps are the future of housing, says academic report

Academics at Birmingham City University and members

of the Building Alliance CIC have published a report outlining how new technology such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and beyond could revolutionise the housing industry.

Among the findings are the creation of digital 'dashboards' and mobile apps which monitor a house's ageing and repair needs, life span predictions for parts and recommendations for regular 'house servicing' to increase a property's value.

New technology could also allow prospective buyers to virtually place their own furniture or belongings into a yet-to-be-built house and use augmented reality headsets to travel through each room to see how it would look.

The findings could see the process of buying and building a house connected for the first time and homes given annual, certified maintenance – similar to a car's MOT.

Professor David Boyd, Director of Environment and Society at Birmingham City University, led the research project.

He said: "We've seen a push for more digital construction techniques to be used on commercial projects but no one has really looked at what this could mean for the future of the housing industry.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2015-12-virtual-reality-smartphone-apps-future.html#jCp