Google Glass Returns To Target Business And Industrial Use

Google Glass is set to return two years after the search giant canned the first iteration smart glasses, this time with a focus on business.

Google had stopped production of its smart glasses after they received a rather lacklustre reception to the comical appearance and privacy issues the smart glasses threw up, combined with the high price of the wearable put off consumers. 

However, there were use cases for the augmented reality capabilities and the ability to display information in a hands-free fashion in the industrial and business worlds, notably the medical sector in the US.

As such, the Google Glass Enterprise Edition has been targeted at companies flush with logistics, manufacturing and field services workers. 

Google Glass is back 

“Glass, as you might remember, is a very small, lightweight wearable computer with a transparent display that brings information into your line of sight,” explained Jay Kothari, project lead for google Glass. 

“In a work setting, you can clip it onto glasses or industry frames like safety goggles so you don’t have to switch focus between what you’re doing with your hands and the content you need to see to do your job.” 

“Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services, and healthcare find it useful to consult a wearable device for information and other resources while their hands are busy. That’s why we’ve spent the last two years working closely with a network of more than 30 expert partners to build customised software and business solutions for Glass for people in these fields.” 

Kothari noted that through working with the likes of General Electric Aviation, DHL, and Volkswagen, Google has produced a refined version of its smart glasses, now sporting a designed that is better for long term wear and boosted power and battery life. 

And it appears Google has fiurther plans for Glass including making it play nice with other Google services, courtesy of being under the command of Google parent comapny Alphabet’s X research and development division. 

“Now the Glass product team is back at X, and we’ll be collaborating with the Google Cloud team and our partners to help customers across a variety of business sectors make the most of Glass,” said Kothari. 

“Together, we’re looking forward to seeing more businesses give their workers a way to work faster and in a more focused way, hands-free.” 

However, it is work noting that Microsoft is making some progress with its mixed reality HoloLens headset that will be targeted at a wider range of sectors and has the Redmond company planning to create a platform out of it whereby other companies and developers can create headsets and build apps for Windows 10 based mixed reality experiences. 

Silicon recently had a go with HoloLens and were suitably impressed with its augmented reality capabilities and can see the potential for tech-savvy enterprises. 

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