According to GeekWire, the Vancouver, Washington-based startup RealWear has raised another $5 million from Columbia Ventures Corporation to expand global sales and progress development on its augmented reality (AR) headwear. Since 2016, RealWear produces a voice-controlled AR device that provides industrial employees hands-free support out in the field that does video calling, guided workflows, and data visualization.
“We essentially are the tip of the spear of a connected worker program for industry,” RealWear CEO Andy Lowery told GeekWire. “We are able to free a worker’s hands for the work by providing a wearable Android computer that is fully voice-controlled, even in extremely noisy environments. They can pull up documents, connect to other experts, and facilitate learning and problem solving in situ, meaning right there and then.”
The company has shipped more than 10,000 units to 800 customers globally in the past 18 months, including Colgate-Palmolive, Volkswagen, and Toyota. RealWear recently inked a deal to provide their HMT-1 headwear to improve safety and productivity with China’s State Grid, the largest utility provider in the world.
As companies like North and Huawei are working on bringing AR wearables to consumers, RealWear is growing within the industrial market. The future applications of its products could prove as informative use-cases for other wearable ventures.
Thumbnail Source: GeekWire
