Industrial Smart Glasses Boost Productivity and Reduce Downtime
For industrial workers, smart glasses can provide valuable alerts and recommendations in real time while freeing their hands for work. The devices can also communicate with other employees and even experts remotely, resulting in faster and more efficient decision making.
Companies should assess their functional deployment opportunities to determine if AR-enabled smart glasses are right for their supply chains. They should look for a headset that is easy to use and maintain.
Cost-Effective
Industrial smart glasses offer a cost-effective way for technicians to receive step-by-step visual prompts to help them accomplish maintenance tasks. This helps them reduce the number of service calls and downtime, thereby saving operational costs. Furthermore, the heads-up display lets them check their own work for accuracy and completeness to ensure that all steps were followed correctly.
Augmented reality smart glasses also allow workers to get real-time assistance and guidance from a remote subject matter expert during an inspection or audit. This feature is extremely useful when an operator needs to troubleshoot complex machinery, equipment or structures. It eliminates the need for technicians to travel to the site and saves both time and money.
Some smart glasses include a camera, allowing them to capture pictures or video clips. A single tap records up to 30 seconds of video, and a long press snaps a photo. A small LED situated near the camera illuminates to signal that you’re recording or taking photos. The glasses also have open-ear speakers for listening to audio playing from a phone or handling calls.
As a general rule, the more functionality industrial smart glasses pack in, the bulkier and uglier they are. But for logistics, field service and security operators, a little bit of extra bulk is often worth the trade-off for greater convenience and safety. For example, Iristick’s 3D-printed smart glasses are packed with sophisticated electronics but remain light and comfortable enough to wear all day.
Convenient
In contrast to virtual reality headsets, industrial smart glasses offer users a view of their surroundings without removing them. This allows them to stay focused on the industrial smart glasses task at hand while minimizing context-switching. In turn, this boosts productivity and decreases the risk of errors due to distractions.
Moreover, the smart glasses feature a touchpad that allows for manual operation. This is especially useful in noisy environments where it would be difficult to use a built-in pad on the device. The Visor-Ex 01 can also be attached to a safety helmet and worn as a head-mounted device. Two joints on the variable extension arm of the OLED display allow for flexibly aligning the device close to either eye. The smart glasses are compatible with almost all prescription and non-prescription eyeglasses.
With remote video collaboration capabilities, industrial AR-enabled wearables such as the Toshiba dynaEdge AR Smart Glasses allow technicians to connect with an expert remotely for step-by-step directions, access maintenance manuals and record and capture repairs for audit purposes. This saves time and effort for both the expert and the technician, which helps reduce downtimes and travel costs.
Another benefit of these wearable devices is their ability to help frontline workers quickly find products, tools and other equipment on the production floor. This reduces the amount of time spent looking for items and can also improve quality, as workers will be able to follow accurate instructions.
Easier to Operate
The ability to access remote video troubleshooting, inspections, and audits via smart glasses helps manufacturers save time by minimizing context-switching. This is good news for your budget, as it frees up field techs to take on more jobs – and generate revenue that may otherwise have been lost to rework.
The hands-free nature of industrial smart glasses also makes them more convenient than using a tablet or smartphone. Rather than having to hold a handheld pad in front of their face, workers can simply point at the machine to display instructions directly. This allows them to keep their eyes on the task at hand, avoid distractions and accidents, and work at a pace that suits their natural rhythm.
Another benefit of smart glasses is that they are easy to maintain. They do not require complex wiring or external devices, and are less likely to break or be dropped compared to other solutions such as TV displays or tablets. This is particularly the case with models designed with industry professionals in mind, such as the smart safety glasses from Iristick. These glasses feature a boom arm, fingerprint sensor, hot-swappable battery, and are resistant to harsh environments.
If you’re interested in implementing smart glass technology into your operations, contact us to schedule an introduction. Our Sales Manager Christopher Poelker will be happy to show you how bitnamic CONNECT can help make your maintenance and service processes easier, more efficient, and digitalized.
Versatile
With AR smart glasses software, frontline workers can easily get work instructions, SOPs, and guides without having to leave the smart glasses with ar job site. This helps them finish workflows 37% faster and achieve a higher first-time fix rate. Moreover, they can use the AR platform to connect with experts remotely in a “see what I see” system and resolve complex engineering support issues.
When troubleshooting or conducting inspections and audits, it’s difficult to keep one hand on a handheld pad or device while looking for the next step in the process. With a pair of industrial smart glasses, the wearer can view instructions, log results and more while freeing their hands to handle equipment or conduct the necessary tasks.
Furthermore, using a headset with voice command and integrated chat capabilities enables employees to ask for help from the team. This is a more convenient way of communicating than a phone call, which requires the user to disconnect from their work and pick it up to answer the question.
Finally, some headsets have built-in safety features that detect hazards, such as those with a proximity sensor and a gyroscope. This is especially useful for work environments where the risk of accidents and injuries is high.
