8 ms·

This is so !@%!@ cool. Check out the A/B test of a technician with / without the software referenced in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25

This is so !@%!@ cool. Check out the A/B test of a technician with / without the software referenced in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 Then here's a video that gives a sense of the software's interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 Very workflow oriented with nice communication and lookup features. This is the kind of small optimization stuff that is going to be revolutionary to driving macro productivity. Amazing!

theptip 9y ago
Is there a good reason they don't put that large manual up on a rack by the actual work area?
- sloppycee 9y ago
  The cynic in me thinks they did that on purpose, the further they put the manual from the task the greater the efficiency gain of their software.
  - takeda 9y ago
    Actually if it was next to him, the traditional way might be faster due to possible problems with voice recognition. I would imagine it would be especially bad in loud places.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      If it was right next to him, it might be faster but they might have found that it was likely to cause people to merge steps, and that lead to an overall lesser quality and accuracy in a system where those are at a premium. It's possible that what looks like an inefficiency was a purposeful bit of process engineering to hack human nature for a better overall end result. With step level verification through photographs, it's possible they might get similar results with this system but without the forced inefficiency.
- LeifCarrotson 9y ago
  I've built a few assembly lines for automotive parts. These machines do one job, and probably only handle a couple part numbers: They might press a gear onto a motor shaft at one station, press on the plastic shroud at another, and add the grease and fasteners at the third station. These do have the operating instructions (Graphical, not English) laminated and displayed prominently above the machine. Someone with zero experience can walk up to the machine on their first day, rotate every couple hours to avoid task blindness, and assemble the parts. After lunch they'll be on a different line with new instructions. But the bay pictured looks more like a mechanic's shop than an assembly line. You can't pull a car into a vehicle bay and refer to a big picture of "how to fix car" on the wall - the information is in dozens of 3-ring-binders, vehicle repair documentation, and on the computer. On that stand and for that jet engine, there's far too much information to put it on the wall.
  - theptip 9y ago
    Good info there -- but I think I wasn't clear, I was suggesting moving the ring binder onto a table/rack right by the work-space, using something like a music stand. Seems like if the mechanic just had to turn around to access the ring-binder, instead of walking down a flight of stairs, the efficiency difference would be less.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      Likely because the platform he is on is not static, and is likely a standard part for multiple technicians, and possible with more than one on it at a time. It looks like the engine is stationary, and the station moves to where he is needed. If that's the case, they could use some semi-specialized platforms for different uses, some with tables for manuals and parts, some without to accommodate more people at once. Then again, it's possible this worker needs a different set of tools an manuals for a different job a couple times a day, and having a bunch of work platforms might be less efficient in other ways than having a separate mobile tool/manual bench and work platform. That one isn't relocated on top of the other often might because it causes accidents when people change the loadout of the platform. Or maybe it's as simple as them having determined in the past that making people move to shift tasks makes it less likely that they will attempt multiple at once from memory, and mess it up. Sometimes what looks like an inefficient process is actually serving another need you haven't considered, and is more efficient in the long run. Having technicians document each task as done and take a picture to confirm it might yield the same benefits, without the forced short-term inefficiency.
- batmansmk 9y ago
  When you have one wire in one hand out of a braid of 90 and wonder where to plug it, you don't want to have to get up, flip through the manual, find the right wire reference (try remembering "AX45Y", "45YT5Y" etc all day long), read the corresponding graph and go back to your station. The alternative with Glass is, read out loud the reference you have in your hand and it tells you where to plug it right where you are, hands-free.
maxerickson 9y ago
The article says that a high skill, high knowledge, safety critical task performed on expensive machinery saw productivity gains of 10%. It seems for low knowledge/low skill tasks the gains would be less (because there is likely less need for operator to switch their information context during the tasks).
- tpeo 9y ago
  Low knowledge tasks aren't a bottleneck in contemporary manufacturing though, at least in so far as "low knowledge" correlates with being easily automated. Tightening a screw or riveting a steel frame for example require little knowledge, but on the other hand they're easily automated. Or rather, more easily automated than reassembling and disassembling an engine.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    Yes, that's what I meant. Any productivity gains from a HUD are likely to be in high skill/high information tasks and the article states that so far they were modest.
    - tpeo 9y ago
      Oh, I see. To be fair, there might be some more productivity gains lurking around the corner if augmented reality allows a tighter integration of each process in the factory line. Any time lost involving searching anything in the factory floor could be reduced with augmented reality by peppering the world with "quest markers". Besides the 10% gain on searching which parts of the engine you're supposed to either screw in or unscrew out, there might be a gain when searching your wrench, when searching Joe, when trying to find out where exactly the new parts are and so on.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Human-centric workspaces and robot-centric workspaces are vastly different due to different capabilities of humans and robots. Using those glasses to improve reliability and speed of a worker on a "low-skilled" checklist-following job may be cheaper than redesigning the entire workspace and workflow around industrial robots. This would make sense as an incremental improvement for tasks already done by humans.
bowmessage 9y ago
"What's the wifi password? My torque wrench lost connection again..."
- Graciela54 9y ago
  what Ralph answered I didnt know that anybody can get paid $6830 in 1 month on the > computer . i was reading this>>>>>>>>>>>http://bit.ly/2coUNgf http://bit.ly/2coUNgf
- Hailie343 9y ago
  like Curtis said I can't believe that any body can make $8668 in one month on the internet . > Open this >>>>>>>>>>>https://is.gd/qKRnJt https://is.gd/qKRnJt
losvedir 9y ago
Wait, isn't that the same person in both videos? In that case, this is just a marketing spot demonstrating how it "could" work, not an "A/B test".
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  I suppose if those technicians are meant to go step-by-step through a checklist, and not to just work from memory, then this video still makes sense as an A/B test.
  - dawnerd 9y ago
    You'll still anticipate the next step which will speed things up. Pilots must follow a checklist but they also memorize the steps have have their hands in the right spot when it's time to call off an item.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Fair enough. Though as 'skinnymuch points out, if they're doing this regularly, then memory shouldn't play any role in the speed.
      - dannyr 9y ago
        Yup. If it's an experienced technician, then memory is a factor for both tests.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  Looks like it could be the same person, but wouldn't that make more sense? If it's different people then you're not just changing one aspect, the glasses in this case. The worker presumably has to do the same work many times. So he isn't doing the work in the video for the first time regardless. It's something he does regularly. They could do the work with glasses a couple of times and compare it with non-glass work times. I think this is (as in the video) is the best A/B test way.
bitmapbrother 9y ago
Here's a Boeing video on how they use Glass for their wiring harnesses. Pretty fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTblKJjTadQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTblKJjTadQ
- scott_s 9y ago
  I recommend watching this one - it gives concrete examples of how what the workers user Glass for, and how they access (verbally) and retrieve information (visually).
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  This video is really good for grokking how the tech can help. Showing practical examples with the workers. Better than the other videos linked that are a bit too much marketing, less legit info. Not that this video isn't marketing also of course.
tpeo 9y ago
That was my reaction... about 3 to 4 years ago when I saw the Epson Moverio BT-100 engine maintenance training demonstration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c). It's not as sleek as Glass, but it's in the same spirit. Point being that Google isn't quite breaking new ground by selling augmented reality to businesses. Rather, it seems that they're trying to make the most out their Glass product now that it tanked as a consumer product.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  It wasn't a consumer product it was a dev kit.
  - UnoriginalGuy 9y ago
    Glass isn't a consumer product either, it is just a dev kit.
    - tpeo 9y ago
      I think he meant that Glass was a dev kit, which is fair enough. But it intended to be eventually released as a consumer product. Somewhere along that path, the idea lost it's charm to the execs at Google.
      - xbmcuser 9y ago
        The tech was not ready for consumer glass yet going the business root will keep it alive. in 5 years it has a better camera processor and larger battery. Now I expect it to permeate into a consumer product organically in the next 10 years as the tech keeps improving and it is adopted for other stuff. I would love to have something like this while watching sports in the stadium where I could see live stats. With 5G internet, machine learning/AI it is something that will be possible. Something that you see as the view of a robot in movies like terminator. By then most of the 20-25 year olds will be the facebook generation who have been monitored all their lives in different ways and wont have the same privacy concerns.
sabujp 9y ago
did he do the work for the first time with glass or after doing the work multiple times with the manual ..it looked like he still went to check the manual even with glass at some point?
- Hailie343 9y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14797405#14797722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14797405#14797722
cbhl 9y ago
This is really cool, but when this technology trickles down to burger shops, I would be worried. http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
- ryandrake 9y ago
  Reminded me of the same thing! Came here to post the exact same link, scary.
- tunetine 9y ago
  That sounds very efficient. I worked in fast food and it was always a frantic mess with high school kids trying to spit out custom orders while people pour through for a few hours at dinner.
mpg33 9y ago
after using youtube many times to help with car problems I could see this being helpful....or any instructional video in when you are working on something away from a computer..
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I was expecting something a bit more amazing, like image recognition of what the person is seeing and overlaying holograms over and around what the person is doing to indicate information and next steps. This is why it feels like to me that MS Hololens has more potential than Google Glass.
lwlml 9y ago
Am I the only person who immediately thought: WHY ISN'T YOUR BOOK NEXT TO YOU INSTEAD OF ON THE CART ONE LEVEL BENEATH THE SCAFFOLD? Was this seriously the A/B test?
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  "Watch how much faster a technician wearing Glass is, than one who isn't wearing Glass and is also missing an arm and is hand-cuffed to a hyena."
  - valuearb 9y ago
    and who lost his arm because Glass obscured his view of that bandsaw blade.
pavel_lishin 9y ago
Is there a particular reason the manual and the tools have to be a flight of stairs away from the technician? I'd wager that the comparison would lose some steam if the tech could just turn his head to the right. And as far as the software goes, there's a lot more there on display than just Glass. For instance, there are at least two cameras in this screenshot that are just magically implied to exist - one taking high quality video of the supervisor, and one taking high-quality video of the employee: http://i.imgur.com/qLjCoou.png http://i.imgur.com/qLjCoou.png
- techthroway443 9y ago
  Yea, also notice how in the Glass wearing video the technician brings up the tools he needs and sets them on the floor whereas in the other video he sets each tool back and forth. Pretty lame comparison.
  - dheera 9y ago
    Reminds me of the 401/Windex/etc. cleaning commercials where they compare "other cleaning products" with their own. It's all staged.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - smeroth 9y ago
    Could it be that the glasses also tell you which tools you'll need, allowing you to plan ahead, whereas the alternative is to fetch a tool when you need it?
    - grogenaut 9y ago
      Generally when you're doing shit like this you read the destructions first and grab the tools. That is if your destructions are good and actually list them and sizes which most aren't... Which wouldn't help if it was or wasn't in glass, that's a content problem not a form factor issue. I will say I'd rather bring these hardened devices in than get oil on my smart phone which is what I did last week. I do like sticking my smart phone in holes to take photos there I can't otherwise get. Edit: this is for personal automotive work
nkg 9y ago
Amazing, at least until someone adds Giphy search to the thing! Later there's running and screaming...

theptip 9y ago

Is there a good reason they don't put that large manual up on a rack by the actual work area?

sloppycee 9y ago
The cynic in me thinks they did that on purpose, the further they put the manual from the task the greater the efficiency gain of their software.
- takeda 9y ago
  Actually if it was next to him, the traditional way might be faster due to possible problems with voice recognition. I would imagine it would be especially bad in loud places.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    If it was right next to him, it might be faster but they might have found that it was likely to cause people to merge steps, and that lead to an overall lesser quality and accuracy in a system where those are at a premium. It's possible that what looks like an inefficiency was a purposeful bit of process engineering to hack human nature for a better overall end result. With step level verification through photographs, it's possible they might get similar results with this system but without the forced inefficiency.
LeifCarrotson 9y ago
I've built a few assembly lines for automotive parts. These machines do one job, and probably only handle a couple part numbers: They might press a gear onto a motor shaft at one station, press on the plastic shroud at another, and add the grease and fasteners at the third station. These do have the operating instructions (Graphical, not English) laminated and displayed prominently above the machine. Someone with zero experience can walk up to the machine on their first day, rotate every couple hours to avoid task blindness, and assemble the parts. After lunch they'll be on a different line with new instructions. But the bay pictured looks more like a mechanic's shop than an assembly line. You can't pull a car into a vehicle bay and refer to a big picture of "how to fix car" on the wall - the information is in dozens of 3-ring-binders, vehicle repair documentation, and on the computer. On that stand and for that jet engine, there's far too much information to put it on the wall.
- theptip 9y ago
  Good info there -- but I think I wasn't clear, I was suggesting moving the ring binder onto a table/rack right by the work-space, using something like a music stand. Seems like if the mechanic just had to turn around to access the ring-binder, instead of walking down a flight of stairs, the efficiency difference would be less.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    Likely because the platform he is on is not static, and is likely a standard part for multiple technicians, and possible with more than one on it at a time. It looks like the engine is stationary, and the station moves to where he is needed. If that's the case, they could use some semi-specialized platforms for different uses, some with tables for manuals and parts, some without to accommodate more people at once. Then again, it's possible this worker needs a different set of tools an manuals for a different job a couple times a day, and having a bunch of work platforms might be less efficient in other ways than having a separate mobile tool/manual bench and work platform. That one isn't relocated on top of the other often might because it causes accidents when people change the loadout of the platform. Or maybe it's as simple as them having determined in the past that making people move to shift tasks makes it less likely that they will attempt multiple at once from memory, and mess it up. Sometimes what looks like an inefficient process is actually serving another need you haven't considered, and is more efficient in the long run. Having technicians document each task as done and take a picture to confirm it might yield the same benefits, without the forced short-term inefficiency.
batmansmk 9y ago
When you have one wire in one hand out of a braid of 90 and wonder where to plug it, you don't want to have to get up, flip through the manual, find the right wire reference (try remembering "AX45Y", "45YT5Y" etc all day long), read the corresponding graph and go back to your station. The alternative with Glass is, read out loud the reference you have in your hand and it tells you where to plug it right where you are, hands-free.

maxerickson 9y ago

The article says that a high skill, high knowledge, safety critical task performed on expensive machinery saw productivity gains of 10%. It seems for low knowledge/low skill tasks the gains would be less (because there is likely less need for operator to switch their information context during the tasks).

tpeo 9y ago
Low knowledge tasks aren't a bottleneck in contemporary manufacturing though, at least in so far as "low knowledge" correlates with being easily automated. Tightening a screw or riveting a steel frame for example require little knowledge, but on the other hand they're easily automated. Or rather, more easily automated than reassembling and disassembling an engine.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Yes, that's what I meant. Any productivity gains from a HUD are likely to be in high skill/high information tasks and the article states that so far they were modest.
  - tpeo 9y ago
    Oh, I see. To be fair, there might be some more productivity gains lurking around the corner if augmented reality allows a tighter integration of each process in the factory line. Any time lost involving searching anything in the factory floor could be reduced with augmented reality by peppering the world with "quest markers". Besides the 10% gain on searching which parts of the engine you're supposed to either screw in or unscrew out, there might be a gain when searching your wrench, when searching Joe, when trying to find out where exactly the new parts are and so on.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Human-centric workspaces and robot-centric workspaces are vastly different due to different capabilities of humans and robots. Using those glasses to improve reliability and speed of a worker on a "low-skilled" checklist-following job may be cheaper than redesigning the entire workspace and workflow around industrial robots. This would make sense as an incremental improvement for tasks already done by humans.

bowmessage 9y ago

"What's the wifi password? My torque wrench lost connection again..."

Graciela54 9y ago
what Ralph answered I didnt know that anybody can get paid $6830 in 1 month on the > computer . i was reading this>>>>>>>>>>>http://bit.ly/2coUNgf http://bit.ly/2coUNgf
Hailie343 9y ago
like Curtis said I can't believe that any body can make $8668 in one month on the internet . > Open this >>>>>>>>>>>https://is.gd/qKRnJt https://is.gd/qKRnJt

losvedir 9y ago

Wait, isn't that the same person in both videos? In that case, this is just a marketing spot demonstrating how it "could" work, not an "A/B test".

TeMPOraL 9y ago
I suppose if those technicians are meant to go step-by-step through a checklist, and not to just work from memory, then this video still makes sense as an A/B test.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  You'll still anticipate the next step which will speed things up. Pilots must follow a checklist but they also memorize the steps have have their hands in the right spot when it's time to call off an item.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Fair enough. Though as 'skinnymuch points out, if they're doing this regularly, then memory shouldn't play any role in the speed.
    - dannyr 9y ago
      Yup. If it's an experienced technician, then memory is a factor for both tests.
skinnymuch 9y ago
Looks like it could be the same person, but wouldn't that make more sense? If it's different people then you're not just changing one aspect, the glasses in this case. The worker presumably has to do the same work many times. So he isn't doing the work in the video for the first time regardless. It's something he does regularly. They could do the work with glasses a couple of times and compare it with non-glass work times. I think this is (as in the video) is the best A/B test way.

bitmapbrother 9y ago

Here's a Boeing video on how they use Glass for their wiring harnesses. Pretty fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTblKJjTadQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTblKJjTadQ

scott_s 9y ago
I recommend watching this one - it gives concrete examples of how what the workers user Glass for, and how they access (verbally) and retrieve information (visually).
skinnymuch 9y ago
This video is really good for grokking how the tech can help. Showing practical examples with the workers. Better than the other videos linked that are a bit too much marketing, less legit info. Not that this video isn't marketing also of course.

tpeo 9y ago

That was my reaction... about 3 to 4 years ago when I saw the Epson Moverio BT-100 engine maintenance training demonstration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c). It's not as sleek as Glass, but it's in the same spirit. Point being that Google isn't quite breaking new ground by selling augmented reality to businesses. Rather, it seems that they're trying to make the most out their Glass product now that it tanked as a consumer product.

erikpukinskis 9y ago
It wasn't a consumer product it was a dev kit.
- UnoriginalGuy 9y ago
  Glass isn't a consumer product either, it is just a dev kit.
  - tpeo 9y ago
    I think he meant that Glass was a dev kit, which is fair enough. But it intended to be eventually released as a consumer product. Somewhere along that path, the idea lost it's charm to the execs at Google.
    - xbmcuser 9y ago
      The tech was not ready for consumer glass yet going the business root will keep it alive. in 5 years it has a better camera processor and larger battery. Now I expect it to permeate into a consumer product organically in the next 10 years as the tech keeps improving and it is adopted for other stuff. I would love to have something like this while watching sports in the stadium where I could see live stats. With 5G internet, machine learning/AI it is something that will be possible. Something that you see as the view of a robot in movies like terminator. By then most of the 20-25 year olds will be the facebook generation who have been monitored all their lives in different ways and wont have the same privacy concerns.

sabujp 9y ago

did he do the work for the first time with glass or after doing the work multiple times with the manual ..it looked like he still went to check the manual even with glass at some point?

Hailie343 9y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14797405#14797722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14797405#14797722

cbhl 9y ago

This is really cool, but when this technology trickles down to burger shops, I would be worried. http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

ryandrake 9y ago
Reminded me of the same thing! Came here to post the exact same link, scary.
tunetine 9y ago
That sounds very efficient. I worked in fast food and it was always a frantic mess with high school kids trying to spit out custom orders while people pour through for a few hours at dinner.

mpg33 9y ago

after using youtube many times to help with car problems I could see this being helpful....or any instructional video in when you are working on something away from a computer..

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

I was expecting something a bit more amazing, like image recognition of what the person is seeing and overlaying holograms over and around what the person is doing to indicate information and next steps. This is why it feels like to me that MS Hololens has more potential than Google Glass.

lwlml 9y ago

Am I the only person who immediately thought: WHY ISN'T YOUR BOOK NEXT TO YOU INSTEAD OF ON THE CART ONE LEVEL BENEATH THE SCAFFOLD? Was this seriously the A/B test?

pavel_lishin 9y ago
"Watch how much faster a technician wearing Glass is, than one who isn't wearing Glass and is also missing an arm and is hand-cuffed to a hyena."
- valuearb 9y ago
  and who lost his arm because Glass obscured his view of that bandsaw blade.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

Is there a particular reason the manual and the tools have to be a flight of stairs away from the technician? I'd wager that the comparison would lose some steam if the tech could just turn his head to the right. And as far as the software goes, there's a lot more there on display than just Glass. For instance, there are at least two cameras in this screenshot that are just magically implied to exist - one taking high quality video of the supervisor, and one taking high-quality video of the employee: http://i.imgur.com/qLjCoou.png http://i.imgur.com/qLjCoou.png

techthroway443 9y ago
Yea, also notice how in the Glass wearing video the technician brings up the tools he needs and sets them on the floor whereas in the other video he sets each tool back and forth. Pretty lame comparison.
- dheera 9y ago
  Reminds me of the 401/Windex/etc. cleaning commercials where they compare "other cleaning products" with their own. It's all staged.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- smeroth 9y ago
  Could it be that the glasses also tell you which tools you'll need, allowing you to plan ahead, whereas the alternative is to fetch a tool when you need it?
  - grogenaut 9y ago
    Generally when you're doing shit like this you read the destructions first and grab the tools. That is if your destructions are good and actually list them and sizes which most aren't... Which wouldn't help if it was or wasn't in glass, that's a content problem not a form factor issue. I will say I'd rather bring these hardened devices in than get oil on my smart phone which is what I did last week. I do like sticking my smart phone in holes to take photos there I can't otherwise get. Edit: this is for personal automotive work

nkg 9y ago

Amazing, at least until someone adds Giphy search to the thing! Later there's running and screaming...