In its drive to deliver safer and smarter ways of working, Morrison Utility Services (MUS) is constantly looking for real world applications that can improve the efficiency and quality of its customer service.
As part of this drive, the company’s business process and systems team is looking at the ways in which MUS field workers could use Google Glass to access data and feed it back to improve operational efficiency and health and safety.
Google Glass is the latest example of wearable technology: clothing or accessories that incorporate computer technologies and electronic device functionalities. For most of us, the most obvious early example of wearable technology would be the calculator watch of the 1980s, but it’s fair to say that things have moved on since then – a good example being the increasingly popular smartwatches featuring all manner of mobile apps as well as phone, GPS and camera functionality.
Google Glass, however, is a little different. It doesn’t sit on your wrist, but is worn on your head. Google is pitching its Glass as a hands-free, easy-to-use alternative to smartphones and the technology clearly shares an element of its design and function DNA with smartphone devices. By connecting wirelessly to a mobile phone, Glass users can access and send email, browse and post online and capture and upload photos and video footage.
Google Glass is worn as a pair of glasses but with one distinct difference – an optical head-mounted display that sits above the right eye. This projects a transparent display that creates the illusion of a 25in screen floating approximately 8ft in front of the user’s right eye, which can be used to show information from apps.
A built-in, hands-free camera enables the capture of 5MP photos and 720p HD video footage, while the device can also play back audio by sending vibrations through the wearer’s skull using a bone conduction transducer, or via conventional headphones.
Glass is controlled either by voice command or a thin strip known as the “touchpad” located on the right-hand side of the frame. Swiping through a timeline-like interface displayed on the screen enables users to view “current events” such as GPS navigation and weather, as well as “past events” such as call history and photos. Prescription lenses can be fitted for Google Glass users who already wear spectacles.
Google’s stance is that Glass delivers “information when you want it, how you want it, without having to disengage from life”.
As with any emerging technology, there are strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, the design is slick and comfortable to wear and the hands-free functionality has the potential to deliver new levels of practicality. On the downside, battery life is poor and the number of available apps is limited, although this will change. It’s also expensive.
Of course, experience tells us that an early version of any new technology should be judged not on what it offers today, but rather the possibilities it can present tomorrow. Although the potential for Glass to flourish is considerable, its real potential will be unlocked only as more apps are created.
At present, with only around 50 apps available, the Glass ball is bouncing firmly on the developers’ side of the court. This, undoubtedly, is where Google needs it to be – in the hands of the people capable of developing the apps to make the Glass experience bigger, broader and better.
Google is actively encouraging developers to create Glass enterprise apps aimed at specific industry sectors. Somewhat predictably, the healthcare sector has been among the frontrunners looking to explore the opportunities that Glass could present.
Work is underway to assess how the system could be used to record surgery from a first-person point of view for training purposes and to provide surgeons with hands-free access to critical clinical diagnosis information, including a patient’s vital signs throughout a surgical procedure.
The leisure industry has also moved fast to embrace Glass, with several museums and cultural institutions looking at how the head-mounted display could act as a virtual tour guide.
The big question for the utility sector is whether Glass has the potential to revolutionise the way we work. The feeling at MUS is that it could prove instrumental in introducing new operational innovations and efficiencies that will enable smarter, safer working practices.
The MUS business process and systems team is already exploring a number of possible applications for Glass. An interface between Glass and the company’s work management system (Isis) has already been established and the team is optimistic that the emergence of Glass will make the capture of real-time work updates, including photos, barcodes and critical job information, even easier.
Glass could emerge as a viable alternative to the rugged laptops, tablets and smartphones deployed by Morrison Utility Services since 2011.
With 3G and Wi-Fi functionality, as well as built-in cameras, the use of mobile devices has proved a huge success, enabling access to centralised business applications and delivery of real-time progress updates from out in the field to Isis. The ability to capture and send hands-free photos and video footage from site or within an excavation would deliver new operational effectiveness and efficiency for operatives working in difficult conditions and confined spaces while in full personal protective equipment.
Glass also offers a new era in remote collaboration for any business with nationwide geographic coverage and widely dispersed expertise. The ability to stream live footage to subject matter experts, including engineers and planners, regardless of location, would offer instant access to guidance and expertise that could prove vital in averting or solving engineering issues in the field.
Another positive feature is its footage playback functionality, which is tailor-made for remote training purposes; surgeons at UCLA have already used Glass to demonstrate the latest pioneering surgical techniques to their Brazilian and Paraguayan counterparts.
Glass could present similar opportunities for utility companies looking to record the deployment of innovative operational techniques and solutions.
As augmented reality (AR) continues to gather momentum, there could also be scope for operatives to use Glass to “see” and assess utility infrastructure beneath the ground. AR, the system for aiding operatives in the maintenance, planning or surveying of underground infrastructure, superimposes 3D graphics over the field worker’s view to provide “X-ray vision” of underground infrastructure.
Operative instruction, outage management and network planning are among the areas that could really benefit from AR and a Glass device offering a superior graphical overlay and outlining the appropriate trench to follow could present a revolutionary way of working.
Finally, we see potential for leveraging Glass to assist with inventory/asset management. Morrison Utility Services’ inventory control system, launched in 2010, has become an established and key component in managing and tracking inventory on a number of MUS contracts.
A Glass system developed to record inventory/asset management via barcodes or QR codes would provide operatives with an alternative to existing hand-held barcode scanners, acting as a virtual scanner capable of capturing data for incoming parts from suppliers, parts issued to gangs and parts returned by teams.
Andrew Carter, head of business improvement, Morrison Utility Services