The average American spends more than seven hours in front of a screen every day. Most people also drive or take public transportation to work, carry a phone, and cook using a stove–and many sleep on a mattress that is customizable either through a remote or an app while resting in an air-conditioned residential space.
No matter what someone does, almost everyone is using and surrounded by technology all day (and night). Despite the fact that tech advances at a rate never seen before now, people still tend to assume it isn’t everywhere around them.
At least we like to believe it’s far more limited than is actually the case. Some of these areas where we might carry this mistaken assumption include construction, transportation, and sporting events.
Of course everyone recognizes some technology in these areas, but not to the extent that is truly the case. We’ll explain here.
Construction
Building a house or an office used to take a lot longer than it does now, and the structures were not as secure. When people hear about technology in building construction, they probably picture the machines or equipment used in the structural erection.
What may be less recognizable is the maintenance necessary to keep all these machines running. In the past, a tractor or crane would be operated until it ran into a mechanical problem.
At that point, the owner had to decide whether to spring for the costly expense of repairing the problem, or to replace the machine altogether. You might presume this would not affect you at all, unless you happened to be a portion of the small demographic that owns these machines, but here’s where you’re not exactly correct.
If a $50,000 piece of machinery such as a backhoe breaks down, guess who ends up paying for it? It won’t just be the contractor or owner of the machine; whoever purchases the house will also contribute to that cost.
This used to be the case, anyway. That is starting to change, due to the software and apps that monitor the equipment and alert owners when a problem may be starting to develop.
Essentially, software monitors various functions and identifies tendencies, then adjusts to mitigate them and warns the owner. For example, if the backhoe tends to start to have engine issues after 1,000 hours of use, the software program will spot this and let the owner know.
An easy repair or maintenance check may prevent a bigger problem from evolving a little later. As this kind of software is used more often, the overall cost of running machines will go down, which will mean less cost to homebuilders.
Transportation
Everyone knows it takes technology to operate a motor vehicle nowadays. What you may not know is that thousands of data points are being collected from nearly every truck fleet on the road and job site.
Whether it be the speed that trucks are traveling, how often they get pulled over after 11:00PM, or the times of the year to avoid traffic and road closures on particular highways, these data points are constantly being assembled and recorded to assist decision-making on how to perform more efficiently.
In almost every car that’s currently being manufactured, vehicles achieve greater gas mileage and contain more safety software such as blind-spot assistance, emergency-brake activation, and improved airbags.
Sports
Nothing is more traditional than going to a baseball game and watching the mental contest between the pitcher and each batter. Watching the game, you might presume nothing has changed between the game you’re enjoying today and the ones when Babe Ruth stepped up to the plate a century ago.
If you are in this crowd I have to break it to you, but baseball games have changed dramatically. Some of the alterations are more obvious, such as the reviews in the highest divisions and pitch clocks applied to speed up the plays.
What isn’t so visible is other technology behind the game. During every pitch, the ball is analyzed for spin rotation, speed, and breaking velocity. All of this information is forwarded to analysts who break down every possible data point to gain an advantage against future hitters.
Similar technology is being applied in every sport. Most athletic contests are now pulling thousands of data points in the attempt to gain that elusive advantage.
