Android By Lee Mathews Sep. 8, 2014 11:50 am
A room bustling with mechanical activity isn’t the kind of place you want to thumb through a bulky paper manual, and hanging on to a smartphone or tablet wouldn’t be a huge improvement. That’s why a company called Daqri is building the world’s first augmented reality hard hat.
It’s like Google Glass for the boiler room, oil rig, or high steel. Like Glass, the helmet is powered by Android. It’s also packed with sensors and cameras; there are four positioned around its perimeter to provide 360-degree vision. The helmet itself is just taking things in and spitting images out. Daqri’s custom software is what’s responsible for the AR magic.
Daqri’s smart helmet will be able to do things like map jobsites and identify parts inside machinery with nothing more than a look (presumably that means those parts have all previously been cataloged and linked up to Daqri’s systems). It’ll also give workers a hands-free way to browse service manuals, parts lists, trouble tickets, or any other documentation that would normally need to be retrieved on something like a Toughbook or an old-school three-ring binder.
The helmet certainly looks cool, but there are two features that don’t seem like a great fit for industrial settings. First, there’s the wrist-worn control. That’s not always going to jive with safety standards, so hopefully Daqri is looking at other controls methods too — like a Glass-style trackpad on the side of the helmet or voice commands.
Then there’s the slide-down eyepiece. Moving parts have a nasty habit of not moving at the most inopportune times. You wouldn’t want the Daqri AR system failing you while taking a reading from a critical gauge just because the eyepiece won’t budge.
If, for some reason, Daqri’s AR construction helmet doesn’t catch on in industrial settings, at least there’s a backup plan: serving up lyrics to futuristic Village People tribute bands.
More...
It’s like Google Glass for the boiler room, oil rig, or high steel. Like Glass, the helmet is powered by Android. It’s also packed with sensors and cameras; there are four positioned around its perimeter to provide 360-degree vision. The helmet itself is just taking things in and spitting images out. Daqri’s custom software is what’s responsible for the AR magic.
Daqri’s smart helmet will be able to do things like map jobsites and identify parts inside machinery with nothing more than a look (presumably that means those parts have all previously been cataloged and linked up to Daqri’s systems). It’ll also give workers a hands-free way to browse service manuals, parts lists, trouble tickets, or any other documentation that would normally need to be retrieved on something like a Toughbook or an old-school three-ring binder.
The helmet certainly looks cool, but there are two features that don’t seem like a great fit for industrial settings. First, there’s the wrist-worn control. That’s not always going to jive with safety standards, so hopefully Daqri is looking at other controls methods too — like a Glass-style trackpad on the side of the helmet or voice commands.
Then there’s the slide-down eyepiece. Moving parts have a nasty habit of not moving at the most inopportune times. You wouldn’t want the Daqri AR system failing you while taking a reading from a critical gauge just because the eyepiece won’t budge.
If, for some reason, Daqri’s AR construction helmet doesn’t catch on in industrial settings, at least there’s a backup plan: serving up lyrics to futuristic Village People tribute bands.
More...
