At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a number of companies are demonstrating wearable electronics in a smart glasses form factor. Manufacturers are marketing these glasses as a natural platform for watching movies, playing interactive video games or providing a means for delivering driving directions. They are trying to both riff off and one-up the seminal smart glasses in the consumer realm: Google Glass. (A note on semantics: The smart glasses described in this article are sometimes also called augmented-reality glasses. Augmented reality denotes the overlay of digital information atop a wearer’s field of vision, whereas virtual-reality glasses, such as those made by Oculus Rift, completely alter a wearer’s field of vision.)
Osterhout Design Group (ODG) is one such company. The San Francisco-based company, which was founded in 1999 as a technology incubator but is now focused solely on developing wearable technology, is debuting prototype smart glasses for consumers at CES, which the firm says should be available this year for “under $1,000.” By fashioning them after the classic Ray-Ban WayFarer sunglasses, the company hopes to appeal to consumers who find the Google Glass aesthetically unappealing but still crave the many bells and whistles the glasses provide.
The prototype is a pared-down version of the R-6 and R-6S smart glasses that ODG already sells, and which are packed with an impressive battery of technologies: five sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, altitude and humidity sensors); three communication radios (Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and GNSS receiver); stereoscopic see-through displays; up to 64 gigabytes of storage and the ability to accommodate corrective lenses. According to ODG’s website, the company is selling its R-6 and R-6S (which has more computing power than the R-6, thanks to a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor) to “pre-approved government and enterprise customers and developers.” The ODG glasses run on the Android operating system.
But ODG is one of many manufacturers that are making smart glasses for commercial applications. The glasses’ see-through displays allow workers to toggle their gaze between information displayed on the lens and the environment around them. This can be used for applications that aid workers in repairing specialized machinery. Instructions can be sent to the wearer’s glasses via an Internet or intranet link, and might take the form of both text- and audio-based (via an integrated speaker) audio directives. This allows an employee to keep both hands free to work on the machine.
Atheer Labs, based in Mountain View, Calif., is developing a range of smart glass products and platforms that integrate 3D imaging and gesture-based software interaction. Known as the Augmented Interactive Reality (AiR) platform, it includes glasses built into industry-specific form factors—such as ones that are integrated into a safety helmet for use at construction sites and other industrial zones. Atheer Labs is also developing smart glasses for health-care applications—including glasses designed to help surgeons read a patient’s medical record or view saved scans or other images without having to leave the surgical bay.
Vuzix, which has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States, and which just last week announced a $24.8 million investment from Intel, has developed smart glasses designed for warehouse workers. Designed to track a worker’s location within a warehouse, and integrating that ability with optical data-capture and voice-recognition technologies, these glasses essentially negate the need for handheld scanners and allow workers to interact with warehouse-management software through the glasses only. In October 2014, Vuzix announced a partnership with SAP through which the enterprise software company has released warehouse-picking and technician/repair-service applications for the smart glasses. This video shows how both applications work.
Epson is also looking to capitalize on the nascent enterprise smart glasses industry with its entrant, the Moverio BT-200. This product is different than other smart glasses, as it uses a tethered capacitive handheld touchpad controller as the user interface, rather than relying on hand gestures or buttons on the glasses’ frame. Also built on the Android operating system, the BT-200s include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (version 3.0) connectivity, with a compass, a gyroscope and an accelerometer integrated into both the glasses and controller, while a GPS receiver is integrated into the controller. The glasses also have a binocular function and audio output.
While it is being marketed for enterprise uses, Epson has not yet announced any customers for the BT-200. The company does sell the developer version on its site for $700, and has launched a software developer kit to encourage third parties to create applications for the glasses.
In addition, Qualcomm has created a software developer’s kit for its Vuforia augmented reality software, which Epson and other smart glasses manufacturers are using to develop applications that leverage the software.
Lest we forget the company that put smart glasses into the IoT vernacular, Google is also claiming a spot in the world of enterprise smart glass applications. It has worked with Hewlett Packard (HP) to create a Visual Remote Guidance system, by which HP customer service representatives can share the camera view from a customer’s Google Glass camera to inspect and repair technical problems with HP products (this video shows how).
Google’s Glass at Work program also certifies third parties to market enterprise products based on Google Glass. Two of the companies that Google has certified through this program, French firm AMA Medical and Texas-based Pristine, are developing software designed to enable health-care applications, such as one that allows paramedics (wearing Google Glasses) to capture videos of patients while they are en route to a hospital, and to transmit the images in near-real time to ER physicians. Louisville, Ky.-based Interapt and New York-based Augmate are also developing enterprise solutions for Google Glass.
Last month, Augmate announced that Boeing is testing Augmate’s Skylight smart glass software platform as part of its research into how wearable technologies could improve its manufacturing and assembly systems. Airbus is also researching wearable technologies, including smart glasses that allow assembly workers to communicate with back-end systems to ensure they are using the proper hand tools and tightening fasteners to their optimal settings.
People who work on assembly lines, in warehouses, out in the field or in other potentially dangerous environments are already wearing safety glasses, so transitioning to smart glasses could be relatively easy for employees. That is not to say, however, that learning to interact with the devices will be intuitive, or that they will add value, reduce the incidence of errors, improve efficiencies or boost productivity in all use cases.
Like any new workplace technology, there will be hits and misses—and it is still very early days for smart glasses in the workplace. But when it comes to the Internet of Things, smart glasses are one of the products that hold as much promise (if not more) in the enterprise realm as in the consumer world.