Boeing To Use Google Glass To Build Aeroplanes

The much-criticised technology from Google will be used to build wire harnesses more easily.

 

Google’s augmented reality (AR) eyewear Google Glass may not have made much of a hit among individual consumers, but Boeing is going to be using the technology to build aeroplanes, according to a report from CIO.com. Google Glass technology will be used to help construct aircraft wire harnesses.

boeing wire harness assembly

A wire harness in the making | Image via CIO.com

“Because planes contain hugely messy and complex webs of wires to connect electrical systems, technicians have to manually build them out, a painstaking process based on PDF assembly guide viewed on a laptop screen,” The report said.

Boeing has long been looking for a hands-free system to reduce production time and related errors. The company experimented with an augmented reality (AR) application and "head-mounted, see-through display" called the Navigator 2 in 1995, according to the 2008 book Application  Design for Wearable Computing. But the device was too bulky and unwieldy for use, so they shelved it and switched to an affordable and more powerful Google Glass.

Previously, "everything was hardware constrained: battery life, screen, weight," said Jason DeStories, an R&D engineer with Boeing Research and Technology. "Now we're in an era where hardware is no longer the constraint."

The company asked APX Labs- manufacturer of a smartglasses software platform called Skylight- to produce a Glass app that Boeing could give to its technicians on the assembly floor, because the initial device was a failure, being unable to pull data from the databases in real time.

The Skylight app allows a Glass wearer to scan a QR code, which pulls the wireless harness software, and then scan another code for the assembly instructions.

The app also supports Glass voice commands and allows users to stream what they’re seeing to another technician in case something unexpected happens.

google glass

Google Glass | Image via CIO.com


TAGS: Google Glass

 
News Corner