www.newequipment.com: The age of the connected industrial worker has been a long time coming. It began in the 1990s, the availability of affordable mobile technology that wirelessly linked people across the plant around the world. Gradually, over the last two decades, the Industrial Internet of Things has allowed greater numbers of machines to communicate with each other almost instantaneously. The logical next step for manufacturers is to merge humans and machines.
And that time is now.
4 comments:
This is the kind of technology that I want to see, hear about, make real, and develop the furthest it can be. This technology is exactly what I think of as the predecessor to technology you would see iron man using around his shop, home, and office. It is hands free, it works with your voice, and it is where you want it when you want it. The only thing missing is that it magically appears when you want it to like Tony Stark is able to do. The best part about it is that it is so useful right now and it isn’t even at an actually developed stage yet. It is basically still in Beta form. I also can’t think of an industry that wouldn’t be able to use it. A wearable voice activated device could be used in a cubicle dealing with anything you use your smartphone for now, which is generally anything on the go. Construction and other industries end up spending a lot of time on their feet, so this means they essentially bring their whole office wherever they go and anything important will be put onto that screen when it is needed. There is only one down side I can think of for this technology and that is while it has increased productivity it can also lead to increased unproductivity. Easily being able to watch videos and other things on it means people can check their Facebook without you ever knowing in meetings or during shifts. This could also be dangerous but I am sure there are some easy work arounds for that.
This computer is pretty cool. I like that it is incredibly user friendly, and that the voice recognition command system is functional in a very loud shop floor space. The future really is now. However, I do not see this hands free computer catching on in industrial spaces and factories and shop floors. It reminds of the Google Glass, and we all know that did not last long. Perhaps having your computer hands free is ideal for someone working is a factory so they can hands free, but I do not like how it impairs your other senses. Yes, it is designed to fit around PPE and be attachable to a hard hat or bump cap, but you still have this computer screen in front of your face and a speaker in your ear. Even if they are designed not to be intrusive, and to prioritize the user’s safety, you are still adding a visual and auditory distraction to your workspace. Ben Carter constantly talks about how being 100% aware of the sights, sounds and smells around you in the shop is essential to making sure things are working properly, and perhaps that is not as much the case in industrial workspaces, but I see it as a huge drawback to this product.
This article is extremely bizzare. Technology is such a growing industry, and I can see these headpieces getting more and more complicated. These will vastly change the environment in which these people work, and likely decrease face to face interactions. People will likely receive instructions on a screen, not having to look for their supervisor as they work. I feel this will vastly change the relations in the construction industry. I am very interested into how the worker changes when their supervisor can get a close up monitor on everything the employee is doing. Employing technology to enhance ourselves is going to be a whole new industry. I can easily imagine these being used for theater for live broadcasts of the stage to deck crew members. Having (what are basically) phones which we always look at and don’t need to hold must be used with caution. I will keep an eye out at construction sights to see if I can spot these really in use.
I really appreciate that there are always people out there thinking about the future. To free your hands from holding a drawing and feet from getting it every five minutes is a big improvement. Helping workers to go through protocols about safety and time promptness is the essence part of the management. But the boundary of digital and realistic world can not blur without enormous consumption of materials. The thing always bugs me when I see this kind of advanced wearable equipment is that we are collecting limited resource on the earth to make it happen. In all the sci-fi movies, every thing that moves is floating and anything we need is planted under our skin, which is possible and cool, but how human can make it that far still haunts me in the night. However, I still hold positive attitude about the technology innovations in safety front, if this gadget makes people work safer, than it will be worth to invest.
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