{"id":17997,"date":"2017-07-19T02:08:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T02:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=303300"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T14:58:12","slug":"alphabets-x-announces-glass-enterprise-edition-a-hands-free-device-for-hands-on-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2017\/07\/19\/alphabets-x-announces-glass-enterprise-edition-a-hands-free-device-for-hands-on-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphabet’s X announces Glass Enterprise Edition, a hands-free device for hands-on workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Glass Enterprise Edition (credit: X)<\/p><\/div>\n

Alphabet’s X<\/a> announced<\/a> today Glass Enterprise Edition (EE) — an augmented-reality device targeted mainly to hands-on workers.<\/p>\n

Glass EE is an improved version of the “Explorer Edition” — an experimental 2013 corporate version of the original Glass product.<\/p>\n

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On the left is an assembly engine manual that GE\u2019s mechanics used to consult. Now they use Glass Enterprise Edition on the right. (credit: X)<\/p><\/div>\n

On January 2015, the Enterprise team in X quietly began shipping the Enterprise Edition to corporate solution partners like GE and DHL.<\/p>\n

Now, there are more than 50 businesses, including\u00a0AGCO<\/a>, Dignity Health<\/a>,\u00a0NSF International<\/a>,\u00a0Sutter Health<\/a>, The Boeing Company<\/a>, and\u00a0Volkswagen<\/a>, all of who have been using Glass to complete their work faster and more easily than before, the X blog reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Workers can access training videos, images annotated with instructions, or quality assurance checklists, for example, or invite others to “see what you see” through a live video stream so you can collaborate and troubleshoot in real-time.<\/p>\n

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AGCO workers use Glass to see assembly instructions, make reports and get remote video support. (credit: X)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Glass EE enables workers to scan a machine’s serial number to instantly bring up a manual, photo, or video they may need to build a tractor. (credit: AGCO)<\/p><\/div>\n

Significant improvements<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new “Glass 2.0″ design makes significant improvements over the original Glass, according to Jay Kothari, project lead on the Glass enterprise team, as reported by Wired<\/em>. It’s accessible for those who wear prescription lenses. A release switch allows for removing the “Glass Pod” electronics part from the frame for use with safety glasses for the factory floor. EE also has faster WiFi, faster processing, extended battery life, an 8-megapixel camera (up from 5), and a (much-requested) red light to indicate recording is in process.<\/p>\n

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Using Glass with Augmedix, doctors and nurses at Dignity Health can focus on patient care rather than record keeping. (credit: X)<\/p><\/div>\n

But uses are not limited to factories. EE exclusive distributor Glass Partners<\/a> also offers Glass devices, specialized software solutions, and ongoing support for such applications as\u00a0Augmedix<\/a>, a documentation automation platform powered by human experts and software, which frees physicians from computer work (“Glass has \u201cbrought the joys of medicine back to my doctors,\u201d says Albert Chan, M.D., Sutter\u00a0Health), and swyMed<\/a>, which gives medical care teams the ability to reliably connect to doctors for real-time telemedicine.<\/p>\n

And there are even (carefully targeted) uses for non-workers: Aira<\/a> provides instant access to information to blind and low-vision people.<\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0Forrester Research report<\/a>\u00a0predicts that by 2025, nearly 14.4 million U.S. workers will wear smart glasses.<\/p>\n