Engineers at GE Aviation’s training facility in Cincinnati, Ohio have been testing Google Glass on jet engine inspections.
One of the more futuristic chapters in GE’s recent report on the Industrial Internet concerns applications of wearable displays in the workplace. That future, however, is already starting to feel commonplace.
Engineers at GE Aviation’s training facility in Cincinnati, Ohio have been testing Google Glass on jet engine inspections (as seen in video below). Google Glass is a wearable, head-mounted computer developed by the search giant that features a see-through display and a camera positioned above the user’s right eye.
Using a phone app, GE engineers control the device with voice commands like “Okay, Glass, recognize part” or “Okay, Glass, engine status.”
While Google Glass won’t be available to the general consumer market until next year, GE’s Aviation business is keen to illustrate the advantages of delivering functional data to a head-up display. “The ability to receive hands-free information allows technicians to use it in situations where they might not be able to hold a mobile device,” said Stephanie Arvin, a GE Aviation spokeswoman.
And the move away from laptops to wearable technologies can potentially generate tremendous efficiency savings in any engineering environment.
Arnie Lund, who runs GE’s Connected Experience Labs, agrees. In a recent interview, he told the CIO Journal that workers who have their “hands deep inside a jet engine” find it difficult to stop and check information on a computer. “It’s a big burden to put things down and go where your laptop is to look something up.”
Besides the GE Aviation test, the company hopes to employ Google Glass applications at GE Oil & Gas, GE Power & Water, and other GE businesses over coming years.
GE analysts predict that wrist-mounted computing devices, safety glasses that display performance data on their lenses, and advanced headsets equipped with 3-D displays and cameras that collect real-time images and video “will become increasingly important tools, providing much greater efficiency and effectiveness in the industrial sector.”