Google Glass to make a faster than expected return for the Shop Floor

by Sonny Jones | Technology

When Google glass's roll-out was rolled back two years ago, many thought it was the end of the expenses product, but a few people wondered what that represented for Google after the team had met their target.

The Google Glass was withdrawn from the market following
hash reviews and negative remarks. (Credit: via Wiki)

But when a seating system and mechanisms manufacturer in Michigan, successfully relied on Google Glass to run parts of its floor more efficiently, it seemed natural that a rethink was imminent.

Part of the reason google glass was withdrawn was because the public `mocked, lampooned and dismissed' it.  It also good stern reviews by technology websites like TechCrunch which described its early testers as “glassholes”.

"A writer for The New Yorker was told he looked like he had a nervous tic and a lazy eye while wearing a pair, "The Simpsons" and "The Daily Show" railed against its invasiveness, and The New York Times wondered earlier this year what went wrong after Google temporarily appeared to have shuttered the product," according to Matt LaWell of Industry Week.

But Google Glass is still useful say Matt LaWell especially in medical and manufacturing industries in which the use of an eyeglass could help increase productivity.

So in ST. CLAIR SHORES, Michigan, which manufactures engineered seating systems and mechanisms, when a number of employees recently started to wear Glass in an effort to operate more efficiently and, perhaps in the near future, more safely, too, google glass quickly came to the rescue. No wires, for starters. and it comes with better technology partner, too. 

Scott Tollafield, director of information technology for Fisher & Company said: “Our initial motivation was that we were looking to improve the process of scanners getting lost, left behind, and run over,” adding , “and moving it all to wearable.”

The Fisher family has owned and operated the company for more than 50 years and has “always been fairly progressive,” Tollafield said, which has meant a steady stream of new technology. “In the early ’90s, we looked at a wrist-mounted scanner wired to a pair of glasses with built-in information. There was just too much extensive programming required to make that do anything we needed it to do. (Glass) is leaps and bounds beyond that, obviously.”

Can you follow their lead and turn a formerly chic product into a useful tool?

To read the full report, visit: www.industryweek.com.