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It’s back. Google Glass ist getting ready to conquer the industry sector. The updated data glasses come with an app from the Israeli software company Palatine, which equips the “Glass Enterprise Edition” with an intelligent assistant.
Google Glass: A Brief History
It was a short chapter full of controversy: in 2014, several thousand Google Glass were put into circulation for testing, just to be discontinued in January 2015 due to strong criticism by data privacy activists and an overall negative response of the public.
The public went on a warpath, and Google Glass never made it onto the market. The reason: Google Glass was able to shoot photos and video of the surroundings at any time without being noticed. As if this was not enough, Google Glass was equipped with Face recognition, causing great discomfort in the presence of the wearers later referred to as “glassholes”.
Reboot for Google Glass Enterprise Edition
On July 23, 2018, Google Cloud announced its cooperation with the Israeli company Palatine. The award-winning company specializes in artificial intelligence-based software for optimizing manufacturing processes. The result: “Google Glass Enterprise Edition”.
The AI integrated into the glasses collaborates with Google’s Voice Interface Dialogflow. It understands voice commands and offers voice-based answers. A bit like Amazon’s Alexa for factory floors.
The intelligent glasses offer production-related data, either spoken or displayed in the wearer’s field of vision. This significantly improves the workflow, as the wearer has both hands free and does not have to interrupt his work in order to consult manuals or guides to complete delicate and complex processes. Instead of face recognition, the Enterprise Edition is equipped with an image recognition software, monitoring and analysing every procedural step. Thus, warnings, recommendations and real-time instructions are displayed at the right time. Google Cloud spent the last two years testing the intelligent glasses with companies such as Airbus, Boeing, DHL and AGCO, a US agricultural company. With the help of the Enterprise Edition glasses, the production time of agricultural machinery was reduced by 25%.
Operators of logistics- and production facilities and managers receive AI-based alerts, current recommendations for action and real-time documentation of production progress via the Digital Assistant.
There’s more.
Factory operators and managers can now communicate continuously with Plataine’s Digital Assistant to receive real time, AI-based alerts and optimized recommendations based on the current production progress.
Google officially presents the Google Glass Enterprise Edition at the Next’18 conference in Hamburg, Germany on September 21/22. It is only a matter of time before Google’s large-scale move into this world’s biggest production halls is imminent. The search engine giant has thus established a foothold in the conjunction between online and offline, turning itself an indispensable long-term partner for leading producers.
The original criticism of Google Glasses to unnoticed record and evaluate data of the wearer and its environment remains present – albeit much quieter and limited to factory halls. Ultimately, the attentive eyewear documents and reports activities of factory workers. Besides reducing production time, the introduction of Google Glass into the production facilities of the world also implies a significant increase in workplace monitoring for millions of workers worldwide.