Augmented reality (AR) hasn’t truly permeated the mainstream consciousness yet, but the technology is swiftly being adopted by global industries. It’ll soon be unsurprising to find a pair of AR glasses strapped to a helmet sitting on the heads of service workers, and RealWear, a company at the forefront on developing these headsets, thinks it’s on the edge of something big.
RealWear has worked to ensure its headsets are both well-designed and easy to use. It’s immensely useful technology that can help workers access digital data without using their hands, stream video back to another team member, or receive guidance during training periods.
It’s billed as the first “intrinsically safe” headset — which in layman’s terms means it’s explosion-proof. Perhaps the most important aspect of the RealWear HMT-1Z1 is its design. The HMT-1Z1 is designed for tight spaces — it fits on standard hard hats, and while it does add a bit of extra weight and width to a helmet, it doesn’t extend anywhere close to the wearer’s shoulders — which means it should fit anywhere a human can fit. There’s an arm on the side of the helmet that extends in front of the wearer’s eye, and it can be moved out of the way when it’s not in use.
Safety is a big deal in the industrial world. The headset is completely free from any sparks or micro-sparks that could result in disaster for certain hazardous environments, such as places with flammable gases, for example. Companies can begin to do away with those bulky, ruggedized tablets they’ve been carrying around factories and move to the HMT-1Z1.
What’s most impressive about the RealWear HMT-1Z1 is how you control it. There’s no touch-sensitive gestures you need to learn — it’s all managed with voice, and better yet, there’s no need for a hotword like “Hey Google.” The headset listens for certain commands. For example, from the home screen just say “show my files” to see files downloaded to the device, and you can go back to the home screen by saying “navigate home.” When you’re looking at documents — like schematics — you can say “zoom in” or “zoom out” to change focus.
AR has a place with businesses, and as RealWear explains, this interest will only grow as younger employees who grew up in the information age continue to join the work force. What use cases can you envision for this industrial-focused solution? Let us know in the comments below!
