10 ms·
Google Glass is getting a second life in the manufacturing industry
- ansgri 10y agoI wonder, how does one approach Google for such business tech? Or do they only find customers themselves? I couldn't find the landing page for prospective enterprise Glass customers, though there's Glass at Work partner list with companies which do have real contact address. https://developers.google.com/glass/distribute/glass-at-work https://developers.google.com/glass/distribute/glass-at-work
- Veratyr 10y agoAfter having a quick look at the site, my understanding is that you don't approach Google directly for this, you either approach a Glass Certified Partner to do the work or you become one yourself. There are no apparent links for becoming a Glass Certified Partner though, so my guess is you simply can't right now.
- delinka 10y agoA colleague recently interacted with Google in an attempt to acquire Glass. The takeaway I got was Google was only interested in selling if the project was "cool" (no definition in sight) and if the quantity was substantial (minimum 100 units I think.)
- Apocryphon 10y agoThere's something ironic and lovely about the much-maligned Google Glass becoming a blue-collar tool.
- dwringer 10y agoI think this was part of Google's long game all along. Although it seemed to be marketed initially as some sort of lifestyle or social media device, there are striking parallels between the Glass and some of Vannevar Bush's concepts - and really as a very rough prototype. We still have some way to go, I think.
- username223 10y agoIf this was the original goal, they sure took a roundabout way to get there. MS's hololens is/was aimed from the start at this kind of market. Snapchat's glasses are at the other extreme, as illustrated by their marketing campaign featuring mostly attractive naked people: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=snapchat%20spectacles&tbs=imgo:1 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=snapchat%20spectacl... I'm not sure Google had a plan at all: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=google%20glass&tbs=imgo:1 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=google%20glass&tbs=...
- digi_owl 10y agoIt kinda was, but then Sergey Brin happened...
- mondoshawan 10y agoFollowed by Ivy Ross and Tony Fidel...
- dunderdunder 10y agoIt's funny, I'm an industrial electrician and my smart phone is my handiest tool. I can take pictures from awkward spots like up a pipe behind some bus bars, even thermal, download a manual and keyword search my issues. Video chat with more/less experienced employees to problem solve. Use my phone to trouble shoot cellular issues (m2m iot). Remotely configure network systems. Use OTG cable to serial interface with rs232/485. Scan a barcode of existing hardware,compare it to new hardware and order it online. A LOT of mobile technology is wasted on company's thinking I want this to snap a highlight reel of my weekend and other trivial shit ....When what I really want to do is take a picture with my device, save the location of picture and send it to all parties concerned and document my time.
- taneq 10y agoThese are all hugely underrated uses of mobile phones. Having drawings and documentation to hand, downloading manuals for random pieces of equipment without leaving the field, being able to stick your phone in behind equipment to get photos of stuff you can't see, talking to network equipment... This stuff can save days of wasted messing around. Also just quickly recording things. Terminal block wiring inside the case of a VSD or other equipment (so when later you think 'oh wait, what was wired in to X5' you don't have to isolate the damn panel again to get in and check). Mark up drawings and take a photo to document it. Take a photo of that scribbled-over page of the manual that the client's been using for 10 years to configure their product and that's not recorded anywhere.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoI think it's a lot easier to sell a consumer experience than an enterprise device. And you can tell a consumer how to use a product, whereas an enterprise expects the product to meet their needs. I wanted my Glass to help me with my business flow (namely, being on call at work), but it wasn't built to do things like... Connect to a non-Gmail account. And Google's requirement of uploading every photo I took meant I couldn't securely take work photos with it. I have one of my best pictures of my chinchilla because of it though... Only way I've ever been able to hold something with two hands and take a picture.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- glitcher 10y agoSeems like a great opportunity to use video capture from all employees' GG cameras in order to train their robot replacements.
- sand500 10y agoGoogle Glass is nothing compared to real AR like Microsoft Hololens. And for Enterprise solutions, 2k for these glasses vs 3k for a hololens Dev kit is nothing.
- baby 10y ago> Google Glass is nothing compared to real AR like Microsoft Hololens You can't wear Microsoft Hololens outside of your office, far from your desktop. Also I'm saying that, but it's a bit silly to entertain this discussion as they are two completely unrelated products. Mircosoft Hololens is AR as in Augmented Reality while Glass is a UI floating on your face.
- deanclatworthy 10y ago> You can't wear Microsoft Hololens outside of your office, far from your desktop. Yes you can assuming wifi is in range. The Hololens is great. There is no cable. The battery life is reasonable. The field of view is awful but usable. We have been using one at the office and I'm very impressed with how accurately and quickly it maps out a space. I don't think they are so different. In fact anything glass can do hololens will do better.
- Sologram 10y agoGoogle glass is a remote display on ur eyes. Meaning a screen attached to your glasses. They are entirely different. Hololens is an entirely new beast. Comparing them because both can play youtube is every journalist's mistake and uneducated journalists created that mistake. Hololens can not be used outside in a bright day light. Hololens can be used any where. WiFI is not needed all time for Hololens. WiFi is needed only for the APPs which needs them as in some APPs in phones. You can connect the Hololens to wifi(hotspot) in any smartphone.
- H4CK3RM4N 10y agoMy impression was that the Hololens kits ran W10, albeit an embedded version, natively. The fact that you need to spell out the difference between full AR and glass also seems to show how poorly Microsoft has communicated the potential of AR.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- benjaminjackman 10y agoThis reminds me of the Manna story by Marshall Brain: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
- zem 10y agothat was my first thought too! but this does genuinely seem assistive rather than controlling
- digi_owl 10y agoNo surprises there, Vuzix have been selling a less stylish version of it in the same market for years. Frankly i see little use for the likes of AR and VR in civilian life. Hell even the smartphone of today is something of a bleak shadow of the business tool it once was, thanks to every OEM trying to cater to consumers that barely message and access social media.
- figers 10y agoI develop on the Vuzix M100 and M300, not nearly as good of a user experience as Glass. Also develop for Hololens... it's in another league from glass and Vuzix.
- captainmuon 10y agoI can see a lot of uses for AR. - A killer feature for me would be (pedestrian) navigation. Highlight the road I have to take with a subtle color. That would even work on a very low-res display. Or at the train station, highlight the part of the train were my reserved seat is. - If you have a higher-res screen, you could add additional information to the walls of places, like restaurant ratings etc.. Making it look just like a physical sign is key. - One thing that is controversial, but would be huge for me, is face recognition. I sometimes have a hard time remembering what face belongs to what name. A option to show name tags for people I've seen before would be really convenient. - How about an app that shows plans when fixing a bike or a car? Or one that tracks where you left your screws? If you have a very good camera, it might be able to even find screws you lost :-) - Of course AR/VR games could also be a huge thing. Time will tell if that really catches on or not.
- mondoshawan 10y agoGlass didn't die because of privacy -- it died because the teams walked out after being threatened with their jobs.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 10y agoDo we have to worry about the wifi antenna being right next to ones head for a full shift?
- pharrington 10y agoNo, and certainly not when you consider all the significantly higher power gigahertz spectrum light we're already filling the air with.
- 4258HzG 10y agoIt's kind of clear that their quoted expert Tsai didn't interview anyone while they were using Google Glass. "With Google Glass, it may look like you're listening to the person in front of you, but you could actually be watching a movie or looking up sports stats." Unfortunately the problem is the opposite and more offensive. It's very obvious if you're having a conversation with someone while they're using Glass while looking at you from their eye movements, and it makes the user look really weird ignoring any fashion issues. I found the experience quite a bit more offensive than having someone reading emails on their laptop while you talked to them. Unlike the laptop case, with glass you get a very clear direct view of their eyes as they scan whatever glass is showing them, while there is the obvious false pretense of giving you their full attention. I think one of the big problems with glass was that they picked the wrong sort of people to be early public users that then set the tone for the product. A process that ensured only super-enthusiastic users would bother applying is also the sort that would select for the least willing to notice how other people might find certain uses of it rude and annoying.
- trevyn 10y agoSnap tried pretty hard to set a different tone for Spectacles, but they don't seem to be doing very well either.
- sillysaurus3 10y agoThey aren't? I thought their glasses sounded pretty cool. What are they like?
- npunt 10y agoNeed to separate the product from the business. Spectacles, the product, is widely considered to be a hit and has received near universal praise. Snap's business meanwhile isn't as strong.
- trevyn 10y agoSnap did a good job limiting supply and building hype for the rollout. Now that Spectacles are generally available, I have reason to believe that sales are below expectations.
- saycheese 10y agoBeyond me why Google just simply did not add a red LED on the consumer edition to show if the camera was recording in an attempt to address the privacy concerns many people had.
- detaro 10y agoWhile I'm not sure how much it actually was the case with the apps that were available, a lot of the ideas around it seemed to be things that require the camera running, so the LED would be on in a lot of situations where creating a recording would be inappropriate. (And making a trustworthy indicator that only shows if a recording is actually being created is basically impossible, so "camera running" is the only thing they could show)
- saycheese 10y agoRight, which is why it failed, Google tried to be sneaky, it was inappropriate, and instead of realizing they needed to figure out a way around the issue, they abandoned it. Another option and even more trustworthy would have been a camera cover that was usable & durable and clearly & visibly expressed the status of the camera.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoThis was never really a reasonable or valid concern... The camera was never on when the screen wasn't, and the screen was very visible when on. And the recording capabilities of the device were way overstated. Not just because of battery life, but heat. Trying to record video with it felt like putting yourself at risk of setting one side of your face on fire. In fact, considering recent concerns with exploding batteries and the size of Glass and how hot it could get, perhaps the biggest marvel is that Google avoided even one Glass exploding.
- rwallace 10y agoDid people (in general, not users of the device) know that? I think people got the impression that everyone wearing Glass was always recording everything all the time. So what you're saying is all the more reason why a recording indicator LED would have helped.
- hkmurakami 10y agoAnd medical offices.
- goatsi 10y agoAnother area where Google Glass has shown to be very useful is in medicine. You can put a pair on and have a specialist walk you through a interview or examination. The poison review toxicology podcast had an interview with a who had significant success using glass in this manner. http://www.thepoisonreview.com/2016/03/19/tpr-podcast-episode-11-google-glass-and-the-toxicologist/ http://www.thepoisonreview.com/2016/03/19/tpr-podcast-episod... Obviously it needed to be de-googlified to make it HIPAA compliant
- arkades 10y agoAccording to that page: "Google Glass has the potential of giving us a new perspective on telemedicine. However, the use of this device presents several problems, especially involving data security, patient privacy and HIPAA compliance." "Using Google Glass, the consultants were also able to send and receive high-quality pictures of EKGs, pill bottles, etc." "Although it is possible to send and receive photos using cell phones, computers, and tablets, Dr. Chai made the point that such technology is not HIPAA compliant." So, they used it to Skype with their attendings, and it has the same compliance issues as ... normal cell phones, computers, and tablets - which absolutely are HIPAA compliant, if you're using secured hardware provided by the hospital (like all the laptops and blackberries used by insurance company employees carrying around identifiable patient data). Hospitals cheap out, though, and make you BYO - which is not a problem I envision Google Glass being a solution to. Going to the cited publications didn't show any additional benefits.
- goatsi 10y agoMost of those issues are discussed in the podcast. The real advantage of it seems to be the head mounting and voice control, allowing the doctor's hands to be free (and washed/gloved) at all times.
- ryanmarsh 10y agoHIPAA compliance is not some unacheavable data security standard. It's so basic that probably all industries should follow it. The problem is that it's surrounded in verbose policy-speak so it just looks completely opaque. There used to be a table on the HHS website that gave a concise explanation of the rules. It's things like what PII is, that it should be encrypted at rest and in transit, how to get explicit permission to transmit it, authorization and authentication is required for viewing the data, and there must be an audit log. Having worked in the financial sector this is all basic stuff.
- nojvek 10y agoIs there an affordable Google Glass like floating screen. With the number of people walking looking at their screens, it makes sense to just gave a floating screen in a nicely design spectacle. No camera, just a ui to see your phone screen and something to track finger movements and tap. We already have people who have Bluetooth speakers, no reason to also not have a tiny screen near the eyes.
- mimming 10y agoThis is the best option I've seen: https://www.vufine.com https://www.vufine.com
- taurath 10y agoWhatever happened to their big cargo ship docked in the bay?
- kovacs 10y agoI'll be expecting my RSUs from Google for telling them this exact strategy in my PM interview 2 years ago when I was asked "What would you do with Google Glass?". Then again enterprise is a fairly obvious answer even before they tried the consumer angle. But, if they offer Gmail for people that colonize the moon, (another interview question I got), then I'm definitely going to need some retribution for telling them how to do that too :-P
- NamTaf 10y agoThis is where it always should've been. The ability to look at engineering drawings, etc. as you work on something, or being able to look through work instructions without having to down tools and clean off your hands is invaluable. This is always the dream product I had for something like Glass.
- delbel 10y agoa similiar idea is romanticized in the 2008 mexican sci-fi movie sleep dealer, only the concept was exploiting cheap labor in full immersion controlling remote robots.
- jerryr 10y agoUsing Glass in a factory environment surprises me. Factories are notoriously loud, so unless Glass is really good at filtering out background noise, I'd imagine that voice commands wouldn't work very well. My experience has mostly been consumer electronics factories in Asia, but I also see the following problems that may or may not apply to domestic factories: * Equipment with clear resale value has a tendency to "walk away". We worked hard to avoid using consumer electronics such as PCs or phones on the line. When we did need to use them, we had to establish strict policies and secure storage for when the equipment was not in use. Glass seems like it'd fall in this category. * Even dedicated, laser-based, handheld barcode scanners could be finicky with part labels. Camera-based scanners were unusable due to poor accuracy and latency. * Internet connectivity is poor or non-existent. WiFi coverage is usually terrible due to physical and electrical interference from factory equipment. AR work instructions would be a dream--especially if the technology could flag errors. The environment just seems especially hostile for consumer-oriented technology such as Glass. I don't have firsthand experience with Glass, but I'm really surprised this company is reporting success with it.
- awqrre 10y agoIsn't noise cancellation a solved problem when using multiple microphones?
- jerryr 10y agoThe Amazon echo has a pretty good microphone array, and it still has a hard time picking up my commands if there's background noise. And the background noise in factories is extreme. Notice that in the article's photos, the operator is wearing earplugs with Glass.
- justin66 10y agoIt should be a lot easier for a microphone that's right next to your head. Face one or more microphones away from the user, that gives you the environmental noise. Point one or more microphones at the user's mouth (or use some other method). That gives you what you need (signal much louder than the environmental noise, with the right microphone), along with some of that same noise. Apply some noise subtraction magic. It's actually pretty different than an Echo, which needs to pick out the user's commands via complex signal processing alone.
- xbmcuser 10y agoI am not surprised Google Glass was a product way ahead if it's time. It can still be useful in closed environment like a factory floor. To be really successful in the consumer market it needed an AI capable of identifying every object it sees which we haven't reached yet. I am personally of the opinion that augmented reality is the future of computers rather than virtual reality. People keep pointing towards privacy as the reason it was not successful which is I feel is wrong. They don't have the tech yet of making it truly useful in the consumer market.
- dannylandau 10y agoI wonder how this compares to Lumus -- https://lumusvision.com/ https://lumusvision.com/?
- MarkMc 10y agoThe only problem with Google Glass was that it was ahead of its time. I fully expect Apple to release a 'revolutionary new product' in 10 years time which will essentially be Google Glass with more advanced tech and better styling.
- kkoomi 10y agoMore like premature. The display was too low-res as to be useless for anything other than reading 9 or so words at once.
- toodlebunions 10y agoMedicine still seems like the best use case to me
- gkanai 10y agoSame thing with the Segway. Remember that device which was going to revolutionize how we travel? Now it's for park police and airport staff and whatnot. Segway is now owned and made in China iirc.
- fencepost 10y agoI could be misremembering this, but haven't head-mounted displays of one sort or another been used in industrial settings for something like 20 years? I don't remember when it was, but I seem to recall something with monochrome (and lower-resolution) displays like this being used in things like airplane repair[1]. [1] After a little searching, I may be remembering reading about the 1996 Boeing conference: https://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/timeline.html https://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/timeline.html, or it could be any of the other late-90s systems listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_head-mounted_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_head-mounted_display that got press at the time. Edit: Looking at another page, I may actually be remembering something from computer magazines back while I was in college or shortly after - the Private Eye from Reflection Technology (1989) (https://glassdevelopment.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/hmd-history-and-objectives-of-inventions/ https://glassdevelopment.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/hmd-histor...) - which would fit, because that plus the Twiddler chorded keyboard became part of the MIT Wearable Computer stuff and I remember wanting one of those keyboards.....
- std_throwaway 10y agoWas Google Glass ever actually meant to be a big success in the short term? It looks like typical Hen-Egg-Problem where you first have to build it in order for them to come (slowly). Then you have to wait it out until the actually useful applications arise from the dust. While the smartphone has established its place in everyday life (after years and years of trying and mostly failing with similar approaches), the glass probably will be a tool for a thousand niche applications mostly in the corporate world who need a finished solution before they start acting.
- captainmuon 10y agoI'm a bit disappointed that Google didn't continue Glass as a niche product. If I had money, I'd maybe buy one :-) Does anybody know if there are any "inconspicuous" AR glasses (meaning that they look like e.g. sunglasses and not like the Borg)? Preferably full visual field? And are there any glasses that work on holographic / light field principles? (AFAIK Hololens doesn't, despite the name!) A few years ago at university, I looked into computer generated holograms. We generated holograms of simple objects on the CPU, printed them out, and shone a laser throught them. Viewing them at a slight angle (so you wouldn't be blinded), you could see the object floating in space - as if the hologram was a window. Back then, we thought maybe you could use a GPU to generate the holographic pattern, and a LCD matrix to display it - but the technology was not there yet. Now you have shader GPUs, and high-DPI LCDs, I feel it's almost just a matter of combining the pieces and you'd have immersive glasses, or a holographic screen.