Tag Archives: Google AR & VR

Bringing more of Google’s productivity apps to Glass Enterprise

Imagine translating instructions into a colleague’s native language in real-time. Or instantly crossing off daily tasks as you complete them. That’s part of our vision for augmented reality (AR), which has the potential to transform how companies and their frontline workers access information and make informed decisions while collaborating with their teams. We’re working to create a more natural and intuitive way to seek, interact with, and use information in the real world through AR.

Today, we are revealing a new early access program focused on bringing more of Google’s productivity apps and collaboration tools to the Glass Enterprise platform. Companies interested in Glass Enterprise most often request AR features that help people communicate and complete tasks. Starting today, we're introducing the opportunity for Google Workspace enterprise customers to partner with us in testing features focused on task completion, communication, and collaboration.

A more connected and efficient workforce with Glass Enterprise

Since 2017, Glass Enterprise has helped companies utilize AR to help employees work smarter, faster and hands-free. Working with software publishers that create bespoke solutions for companies, Glass Enterprise has helped customers like DB Schenker increase warehouse efficiency by 10%. Wendy's used Glass Enterprise to support food safety, quality practices and oversight of suppliers and distribution centers, as well as remote training and education for restaurant team members.

In 2020, we announced Google Meet on Glass Enterprise to give teams a first-person view of the wearer’s perspective — enabling real-time collaboration and problem solving. Since we launched Meet on Glass, remote team members have stayed connected for more than 750,000 minutes. Meet on Glass is generally available to anyone with Glass Enterprise.

Testing new features within our early access program

As part of this program, we’re expanding our productivity and collaboration offerings to include three new features across Google Tasks, language capabilities and photos:

  1. See step-by-step instructions: Tasks capabilities on Glass Enterprise provide hands-free access to step-by-step instructions to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Using any supported device, a warehouse manager can create a workflow on Tasks and share it directly to a teammate preparing a shipment, who can see and cross-off tasks in real-time on the Glass Enterprise display.
  2. Enable natural communication: Language capabilities like translation and transcription on Glass Enterprise help a global workforce understand, train and collaborate, regardless of language. This feature currently supports 15 languages with plans to add more in the near future. With Glass Enterprise, an employee who doesn’t share a common language with their manager can see direct translations in their line-of-sight.
  3. Collaborate securely: Glass Enterprise can now save images directly to your Pixel phone so you can seamlessly capture photos and share them across teams with Google Photos. Wearers can easily back up and share images and videos to check inventory, audit for quality, or diagnose and review equipment while being hands-free.

These capabilities are made possible by a new phone-enabled platform that uses the computing power of Google Tensor silicon on Pixel. This platform delivers more powerful and unique AR graphics and features on the Glass Enterprise display. It’s controlled by the Glass Enterprise Companion App, making it easier for workers to set up and manage settings out of the box.

  • A woman with black hair touches her Google Glass Enterprise Edition eyewear while standing behind stacked cardboard boxes. She selects the Tasks function on her device, with an image popping up in her vision.
  • A video shows two people in white construction helmets and green vests talking about their work in different languages while wearing their Google Glass Enterprise Edition to translate into their native language.
  • A video shows a man with a white construction helmet and an orange vest picking up his black phone to edit the brightness settings within the Google Glass Enterprise Edition companion app.

We look forward to expanding access as we learn alongside our partners in the coming months, and to the release of more helpful AR features in upcoming programs.

If you are a current Workspace customer interested in testing how these new AR tools can benefit your team, apply to join our Glass Enterprise early access program.

Building and testing helpful AR experiences

Augmented reality (AR) is opening up new ways to interact with the world around us. It can help us quickly and easily access the information we need — like understanding another language or knowing how best to get from point A to point B. For example, we recently shared an early AR prototype we’ve been testing in our labs that puts real-time translation and transcription directly in your line of sight.

However, testing only in a lab environment has its limitations. So starting next month, we plan to test AR prototypes in the real world. This will allow us to better understand how these devices can help people in their everyday lives. And as we develop experiences like AR navigation, it will help us take factors such as weather and busy intersections into account — which can be difficult, sometimes impossible, to fully recreate indoors.

We’ll begin small-scale testing in public settings with AR prototypes worn by a few dozen Googlers and select trusted testers. These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras — but they’ll have strict limitations on what they can do. For example, our AR prototypes don’t support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating the menu in front of you or showing you directions to a nearby coffee shop.

It's early, and we want to get this right, so we’re taking it slow, with a strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them. You can read more details about our limited public testing efforts for AR prototypes in the Google Help Center. As we continue to explore and learn what’s possible with AR, we look forward to sharing more updates.

Source: The Keyword