On Sunday the 12th of October 2014, UAE’s du Telecom will launch a “wearable as a service” solution aimed at enterprises and will be a world-first in the telecom industry.
The solution, called “skylight”, is a collaborative work between du and APX Labs and utilises wearable glasses to increase productivity, safety, and efficiency in the workplace, particularly in complex industries such as logistics, oil and gas, and engineering.
Skylight runs on a very customised version of android. The operating system can be customised for maximum security, effectively disabling everything android except for the skylight app. The software is then uploaded on the wearable glass – either Google Glass or Epson’s Moverio. AbsoluteGeeks got an exclusive sneak peek at the product and we have to admit we were very impressed and the implementations are boundless, but more on that part later.
The solution is highly customisable through SDK using Python and C# add-ons. Customers retain the full intellectual property of the customisations, and these add-ons can be done either in-house by the customer or through consultation from du (the customer will still retain full intellectual property). Customers can also choose to either host the system on their own premises or through du. A full developer’s guide and documentation is provided and the add-ons can be created using either Windows or Mac OSX. The application is then simply side-loaded onto the devices directly.
Specific customer data is programmed into skylight by bridging the connectivity between the device and the customer’s database. For example, manuals, how-to, specific product information, client-sensitive data, marks, points, and anything else that is available in the customer database can be pushed or retrieved by the glass.
The unit we tested ran on Epson’s Moverio, which is a heavy-duty industrial wearable glass with an external battery that also functions as a trackpad. The battery lasts a solid four hours of continuous use and battery packs are swapped in and out on the fly – simply unplug the glass from the battery pack and into the other one. The battery packs are particularly practical for people who are out all day in the field.
The device is then commissioned through scanning a QR code. What this basically does is assign the wearable to a user and that user is linked to the system where, through a dashboard, the supervisor can then keep track, be updated and receive updates, as well as issue commands to the glass to aid the employee such as assigning new tasks, giving directions, taking screenshots of what the user is seeing as well as having either a one-way or two-way live video chat.
Outside the use of the trackpad when necessary though (launching the skylight app), the application is essential hands-free. The user sees a reticule in the centre and all he or she needs to do is tilt their head to the direction of the menus to activate the functions.
The basic interface from the user’s side involves two sections: a ring menu and a task bar menu. The ring menu is triggered by looking upwards and focusing on a circle for a second, and from there the use can access messages, the task history, location services, contacts, and general settings among other things.
The contacts menu brings up colleagues that have been commissioned by the supervisor (including the supervisor) as part of the contacts for that user. So the user can easily and quickly initiate a voice or video call to the supervisor when needed or with other authorised colleagues. Incoming calls and video chats appear at the bottom of the screen and the user simply has to tilt his or her head down and hover the reticule on the “accept” button.
Tasks are updated and sent by the supervisor to the user through the supervisor dashboard. The user then receives a popup of the task at the bottom of the glass and is added to the task history. The user can browse the task history to check what has been completed and what is pending, and can also have a daily checklist of things to do, or have a checklist of what needs to be done at a particular task.
For example, let’s say you’re running maintenance checks on an industrial machine. Instead of having to carry around papers of checklists and manuals, all the information is provided in the glass, and you can check off items by simply hovering the reticule over them. Having this hands-free is certainly useful when handling complex machinery that demand maximum attention.
When we tried both one-way and two-way video calls, it worked flawlessly and the quality of the video was really good. It’s a very useful function where the user can call when in need of the supervisor’s assistance or opinion without having the supervisor physically on premises. It can also be used for tutorials and training. The supervisor has the ability to record the video calls and save them for reference.
The glasses are equipped with GPS and the supervisor can see where the users are at any time, anywhere around the world using the dashboard. Mark points can be pushed to the glass (in lat-long coordinates) and users can see the highlighted points of interest on the field. For example, a group of engineers can be individually assigned wind turbines to perform maintenance checks on. Without the need for the user to know which is turbine ABC-543, he or she will simple see it highlighted with a bubble on the field.
Indoor locations are used with iBeacons which can not only trigger locations of users but also push information. The supervisor in a warehouse will then be able to track where the employees are and can assign specific cargo to specific employees to be taken to different aisles. Employees on the ground will then be able to identify the boxes and follow augmented directions to the correct final destination.
The uses for the “wearable as a service” by du are really boundless. We saw many potential uses in many fields, from medical to engineering to fire and rescue – the sky is really the limit here.
Look forward to the announcement this Sunday at Gitex 2014.
