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Google Glass Enters The Manufacturing Sector (npr.org)
NPR recently profiled one of the 100 factory workers now using Google Glass at the agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
Google Glass tells her what to do should she forget, for example, which part goes where. "I don't have to leave my area to go look at the computer every time I need to look up something," she says. With Google Glass, she scans the serial number on the part she's working on. This brings up manuals, photos or videos she may need. She can tap the side of headset or say "OK Glass" and use voice commands to leave notes for the next shift worker...
Peggy Gullick, business process improvement director with AGCO, says the addition of Google Glass has been "a total game changer." Quality checks are now 20 percent faster, she says, and it's also helpful for on-the-job training of new employees... Tiffany Tsai, who writes about technology, says it's one of a growing number of companies -- including General Electric and Boeing -- testing it out... Companies working in the health care, entertainment and energy industries are listed as some of the Google Glass certified partners.
AGCO plans to have 200 workers using Google Glass by the end of this year.
Peggy Gullick, business process improvement director with AGCO, says the addition of Google Glass has been "a total game changer." Quality checks are now 20 percent faster, she says, and it's also helpful for on-the-job training of new employees... Tiffany Tsai, who writes about technology, says it's one of a growing number of companies -- including General Electric and Boeing -- testing it out... Companies working in the health care, entertainment and energy industries are listed as some of the Google Glass certified partners.
AGCO plans to have 200 workers using Google Glass by the end of this year.
In AGCO's case it looks like they make products that are not assembly-line and not otherwise terribly automated simply because agricultural products are not made in sufficient volume to justify the costs to automate. Too much per-customer customization, too little volume, and the machines are very expensive so it's kind of hard to try to force customers into not customizing.
My biggest concern with things like on-demand lookup is that it may lead to people thinking they're more knowledgeable or capable than they are; that reference substitutes for experience. I've seen it firsthand where people in the IT field think they're all-that but they really don't know what they're doing and are so reliant on reference materials that when the system behaves other than how it's supposed to they are unable to cope.
Hopefully AGCO won't have this problem, especially when they're applying the technology to manufacturing in particular.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Nonsense, a lot of people wanted them. I wanted one.
Privacy concerns helped kill it for one. Because the threat to your privacy isn't the NSA or CCTV cams everywhere or facebook on your phone or the two cameras on it. No no, it's a grainy camera on some tech bro's head evidently.
Also the thing was absurdly overhyped. The video announcing it made it seem like it would be a full view overlay, not like holding your phone up off to the side. But I'd have still maybe wanted one so I could read while walking around without looking down at my phone.
It becomes a problem when you're standing at a urinal in a public washroom taking a leak and minding your own business, when all of a sudden a Ruby on Rails programmer comes up, starts using the urinal right next to you (which is itself a socially unacceptable practice), he looks over at your groin region with his glasses recording, and he makes a comment like, "That's a nice piece of meat you've got there."
As the victim, you've got no idea what he's going to do with the footage he just recorded. Will he keep it for his own pleasure? Will he sell it? Will he put it online?
It's situations like those that cause people to worry about the privacy implications of people wearing such devices all of the time.