Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality, 2nd Edition

371Recent Advances in Augmented Reality for AEC Applications

In the United States, an underground utility is hit by an excavator every 60 s causing

billions of dollars of damage each year (Spurgin etal. 2009). From a safety, produc-

tivity, and economic perspective, excavation damage to buried utilities is thus a sig-

nicant national problem. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

(PHMSA) statistics from 1990 to 2009 identify excavation damage as the single big-

gest cause of all reported breakdowns in U.S. pipeline systems, accounting for about

35% of all incidents. Hits to utility lines cause interruption to daily life and com ...