Slashdot Mirror
"Augmented Reality" For the Assembly Line
silkySlim writes "EETimes has a short article about a combination data goggles and earpiece device to replace big manuals and reduce training time for assembly line workers. 'In one possible scenario, a technician with data goggles bends over the engine block of a luxury car and removes the covering. He is receiving instructions through an ear piece telling him what to do next while his data goggles mark the screws and bolts on which he must next place his tool.' Apparently, it's already in use by several automotive companies. There's some additional papers also available."
Tank, I need to know how to fix a Lexus IS300, now!!!
This post cannot be rebroadcast without the express written constent of Major League Baseball.
Until they start implanting happy thoughts and images into the system to keep the workers productive. "You love your job."
Talk to most anyone who works on an assembly line and they will tell you that their job is as boring as hell. Some might say that they almost feel like a machine themselves.
Contrast this with a labourer who builds furniture from scratch or a shoemaker and you find yourself in a different situation. While their actions are the same, their efforts have tangible results. If they have their own business selling what they've created the satisfaction runs deeper.
How are goggles shining lights in your face saying "Unscrew this next" going to make you feel any closer to the work that you're doing? It just seems like another level of detachment to me.
Why did the article discuss hardware problems but not social problems regarding the goggles?
Mind you, from a Slashdot geek perspective, the goggles are a cool idea, but I don't feel envious of the people who are going to have to use these things on an assembly line.
I tried one of the AR displays a few months back. The main reason why I thought that particular model was unsuitable for prolonged use, was that the text and other information appeared at a different depth from the object I was observing. The AR information was displayed at a fixed "infinite" depth.This made it impossible to focus on both the text and object at the same time, requiring me to adjust my eye focus everytime I wanted to read something. This constant refocussing caused a good amount of discomfort.
Adjusting the depth of the text to make sure it is exactly superimposed on the object that is being viewed is quite challenging, especially when the viewer moves his line of sight frequently.
An alternate design that some people find easier to adjust to uses a display mounted on a single eye (with the RW showing up in a dimmed background). I haven't tried these, but supposedly they are easier to get used to.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
In the car plant I work at (which will have to remain nameless) the workers learn how to build cars by trial and error.
When a new model comes they start by producing only one a day. The cars that result from the first months of production are so bad that they have to be repaired by experts in a special hall, sometimes taking several days for each car.
The first hundred or so cars are only used for presentations, road tests and crash tests anyway, so it's no big deal if they don't look perfect.
Unfortunately, by the time the car goes into full production most of the workers still don't know what they are doing, and it takes a few hundred defect cars in a row before anyone decide to do anything about the problem.
I guess a system like this would be ideal for the starting phase of production, to train up the workers. The only problem is that whoever sets up the system in the beginning would have to know how to build the car in the optimal way (including all variations). Usually nobody has this knowledge until after the fact.