By Industry

By Industry

Expected and Unexpected Benefits of Adopting Smart Glasses in Field Service

Case in point: Las Vegas Air Conditioning, a leading HVAC company in Las Vegas For the past few years, the guys over at Las Vegas Air Conditioning have been conducting field studies of wearable technology in the HVAC industry with their program AC Repair on Air. The program involves technicians sporting Google Glass and a few other wearable gadgets while out on calls, and gathering feedback from homeowners/clients as well as the technicians themselves. At the recent Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit in Houston, TX, Las Vegas AC owner Stephen Gamst shared some of the benefits of the AC Repair on Air program, including some clear and expected benefits along with some “very unexpected” ones. Las Vegas Air Conditioning has been servicing homeowners for all their air conditioning and heating repair needs since 1969. Despite having a near perfect record, including very few (if any) negative reviews in the recent years, LVAC is always seeking to better its service. To this end, the company began experimenting with wearable technology, aiming to improve its technicians’ lives while also easing the minds and earning the trust of its clients. Since implementing wearable tech – specifically smart glasses like Google Glass – Las Vegas […]

6 min read

By Industry

Wearables in Logistics: Now or Later?

Written by Special Guest Blogger Gina Chung, Project Manager, DHL Trend Research, Deutsche Post DHL “Is now the right time?” is a question I often hear when talking with customers about the usage of smart glasses such as Google Glass in logistics. At the DHL Innovation Center in Germany where I’m based, we have a variety of different smart glasses on display for our customers to try on and experience “vision picking” first-hand. Most are usually impressed by what the glasses can already achieve today; but when it comes to going full-on productive with the devices at this point in time, there are concerns that it is too early, that the devices aren’t reliable enough, and that they’re too flimsy to last in a tough logistics environment. At DHL, we are certain that smart glasses will be adopted in some form or another in the logistics industry. The benefits that you can get from going hands-free are too great to ignore. That is what motivated us to go ahead at this early stage with our first productive pilot together with our customer Ricoh in December 2014. In the spirit of innovation, we openly shared the results with the rest of […]

2 min read

By Industry

Peter Chai MD Google Glass in Toxicology

1 min read

By Industry

Common Information Model Combines Augmented Reality and EPRI Research For Utility Workers

EPRI is looking at new ways, such as wearable technologies, to make it faster and easier for power plant workers to collect important data and then use software, such as EPRI’s PM Basis Database (PMBD) and Fleet-Wide Prognostic and Health Management Suite (FW-PHM), via a Common Information Model (CIM) to improve operations and maintenance. Helmet provided by Daqri, LLC.

1 min read

By Industry

5 Benefits to Using Wearable Patient Monitors

5 Benefits to Using Wearable Patient Monitors: Fostering Mobility in Elderly Patients to Prevent Pressure Ulcers and Improve Health Care Written by Special Guest Blogger Patrick Reinhard, Chief Nursing Officer, Desert Valley Hospital Pressure ulcers continue to be a common health problem, particularly among the physically limited or bedridden elderly patients. This health and safety issue persists, notwithstanding the imposition of recent Medicare penalties for hospital-acquired conditions like pressure ulcers. A recent study published the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that the 2008 Hospital-Acquired Conditions Initiative (HACI) has had little financial impact on pressure ulcer payment changes on Medicare, other payers, and hospitals. As a nation, we spend more on pressure ulcer prevention and treatment a year than influenza. The cost of pressure ulcers to our health system is more than $11 billion with one in 30 hospitalized patients getting a pressure ulcer during their stay. Yet despite all the resources and innovation applied to pressure ulcer prevention and treatments, compliance to patient turn protocols is shown in the literature to be only between 30 to 66 percent. To effectively reduce pressure ulcers, we need to focus on simple, cost-effective interventions that improve health outcomes. Manual patient turning […]

4 min read

By Industry

Wearable Tech and Your Next Vacation

While a newly released report says that consumer interest in wearable technology is declining fast, enterprise interest in the technology is not slowing down but rather rising (and spreading) fast across the industry spectrum. In this post, we will take a look at two examples of wearable tech in the hospitality industry that have recently come to light. Whistler Blackcomb This major ski resort near Vancouver, Canada recently launched a pilot program featuring wearable technology, with the end goals of increasing efficiency in the resort’s operations and improving the visitor experience. In order to realize the pilot project, WB partnered with Vandrico Solutions, a Vancouver-based software company. So how exactly is wearable tech being utilized in this case? Actually, in a few ways. First of all, some of WB’s lift staff or “lifties” are going to be using smart glasses in order to really customize service at the resort. The smart glass technology will enable staff to recognize an individual getting off the lift and to know such things as whether it is that person’s first day on the mountain. Because the devices show staff real-time data about guests, lifties will be able to engage in a highly personal manner […]

3 min read

By Industry

Future of Wearables in Medicine

Written by Special Guest Blogger Dr. Yauheni Solad, Yale New Haven Health System We live in an exciting time. Evolution of cloud computing coupled with new ways to access and interact with cloud data via Smart Devices has created unprecedented environments. This has ignited changes in the way we practice Medicine and provide care. In this post I’ll try to review future trends and directions where I feel wearable technologies can provide benefits in healthcare. 1) Point-of-care wearable devices Every healthcare provider needs quick and reliable access to patients’ medical records. If you add a transcription service and a reference source with current guidelines and recommendations, you’ll probably save every provider several hours a day. Google Glass gave us hope that a wearable point-of-care device that does not distract the practitioner from the patient is not remote science fiction. As mentioned in my previous posts, Google Glass unfortunately was not ready for primetime. The good news is that Google Glass re-ignited interest and facilitated a road to market of a whole breed of smart devices, from similar Smart Glasses to Smart Watches, Smart Lenses, etc. Therefore, maybe, a good and reliable point-of-care wearable device is not so far away after […]

7 min read

By Industry

Wearable Tech in the Recruiting Industry

I recently came across an article discussing the potential for professional recruiters to use wearables. (Really everyone is getting in on the wearable tech game: first lawyers, then farmers, now recruiters.) The author of the article states that wearables “open the door to a range of new testing techniques to assess candidates and offer additional information to supply to client businesses.” The concept is the following: In the near future, recruiters could provide candidates with wearable devices and then undertake mock interviews and competency tests to determine whether or not an applicant is right for the job. How? By analyzing the data, of course. In this scenario, wearable data (various biometric information) would “objectively” indicate how a candidate copes under pressure; and that info/analysis could then be relayed back to a potential employer, exploited to provide coaching to improve the candidate, or else used to rule him or her out of a job. Imagine being given a smart band or smart watch for a job interview. The concept is a bit unnerving, like employing wearable tech as a slightly less sinister lie detector. Don’t get me wrong, I’m clearly a big advocate for the potential of wearable technology to transform […]

2 min read

By Industry

How to Make Sense of Wearables in Healthcare

Written by Special Guest Blogger Milos Todorovic, Lux Research We are all witnessing the hype – the Apple Watch, Google Glass, FitBit, Samsung Gear — are just a few (almost) household names we are constantly bombarded with by both the mainstream media and technology-specific media outlets. How far can you walk? How fast can you run? Did your baby just turn in bed? How well do you sleep? Is the sunlight too intense today? How about estimating your calorie intake? There is a wearable (and an App) for all of that. And much more. While there are a few high-profile developers and devices, there are literally hundreds of companies developing wearable devices today. And new ones are springing up like mushrooms after the rain. Wearables are an area of increasing attention and interest in healthcare, too, but the value proposition, uses, and devices are still unclear. The first level of confusion arises at the very definition of the boundary between consumer and healthcare – with the increased focus on preventive approaches, this line is increasingly blurred and many argue that monitoring/assessing any human activity that can ultimately affect health and wellbeing should be considered a part of healthcare. Even if […]

4 min read

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Healthcare and Medical

According to ABI Research, medical applications are one of the main drivers of wearables in the enterprise space. The way we see it, wearable tech comes into play in this field in three ways: 1) There are wearable devices worn by healthcare providers. For example, MedEx paramedics in Chicago and doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston wear Google Glass to communicate and check patient information. 2) Then, there are wearable medical devices for managing chronic diseases and for monitoring patients post-hospitalization, including wearable glucose monitors, ECG monitors, pulse oximeters, and blood pressure monitors. These can be used, of course, in hospitals but are also worn by patients – either purchased by them through their insurance or provided by a doctor – with the doctor having access to the data via a smartphone or tablet. 3) The last category comprises wearable devices for health-related uses, such as sports and fitness trackers. These can affect health insurance rates and users or wearers can also grant their health providers with access to the aggregate data. While smartglasses such as Google Glass and Epson Moverio and also smart badges like Hygreen’s and Biovigil’s hand hygiene monitoring systems for hospitals are used […]

3 min read

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Oil and Gas

The energy industry is fraught with challenges today, including declining production rates coupled with increasing production costs; a lack of knowledge and expertise among young workers due to a retiring skilled workforce; and, of course, a host of complications associated with increasingly remote and dangerous mega projects, not to mention the fall in crude oil prices. Is there potential for wearable technology to address some or all of these industry issues? Can wearables improve operational efficiencies; lead to significant cost savings; and/or make the dangerous, messy, and exceedingly complicated jobs in this sector safer and easier? What enhancements can wearable tech deliver in the oilfield? When we talk about wearable technology in oil & gas, we are referring to wearable devices that can both collect and deliver data in the field, including Google Glass but especially more ruggedized smart glasses, such as those by Vuzix and Epson, and also VR (virtual reality) headsets like the Oculus Rift. Other devices include smartwatches and other smart wrist- and armbands, smart helmets, and sensors embedded in clothing designed to detect such things as radiation and/or chemicals. Most promising, however, is the smartglasses + AR (augmented reality) combo, along with the data analytics afforded […]

7 min read

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Retail

Many analysts predict that the main beneficiaries of wearable tech will be those businesses that routinely involve deskless workers performing task-based activities. Retail is a great example—large store environments as well as wholesale warehouses are very mobile and task-driven, and could greatly benefit from wearables to increase efficiency in a range of activities, from receiving inbound deliveries and restocking shelves behind the scenes to creating an enhanced, seamless shopping experience on the consumer front. Some of the proposed applications for wearables in retail bank on shoppers owning their own wearable tech devices, whether Google Glass or smartwatches like the Samsung Gear or Apple Watch. Retailers could then create wearable apps, and send special, targeted offers to connected consumer devices while in the store. Other discussed “applications” focus on how retailers will need to carry wearable tech products for consumers to buy. Seeing as wearable technology is expected to grow to be a $19 billion industry by 2018, it is no wonder Amazon opened its Wearable Technology Store or that much of the discussion of wearables in the retail space centers around the consumer’s POV. But we see even more immediate potential in back-end applications when it comes to WT in […]

4 min read