Over two years after the project was shelved due to privacy and safety concerns, Google Glass has been revived and repurposed specifically for the workplace.
The new version of Google’s high-tech wearable has been christened Glass Enterprise Edition, and will be sold directly to businesses keen to equip workers with a hands-free workplace assistant.
Even though Glass is now targeting the business sector, Google hasn’t nixed the idea of Glass making an eventual return to the consumer market.
That means any game devs out there interested in the future of mixed and augmented reality games may want to keep one eye on the resurgent technology — there were plenty of interesting attempts to turn Glass into a game device when it first landed.
But for now, as explained by Google’s semi-secret research and development division, X, Glass is being pitched as a workflow solution that helps employees “remain engaged and focused on high value work by removing distractions.”
Google says this new iteration of glass can give workers “access training videos, images annotated with instructions, or quality assurance checklists that help you get the job done, safely, quickly and to a higher standard.
“Glass can connect you with coworkers in an instant, bringing expertise to right where you are. Invite others to ‘see what you see’ through a live video stream so you can collaborate and troubleshoot in real-time.”
Although Glass isn’t a consumer product at the moment, Google hasn’t given up hope that, one day, the general public will come around to the idea.
In an interview with Wired, Astro Teller, the person who oversees Google’s X division, said the firm is open-minded about the technology making a gradual return. “None of us have given up on the idea that over time Glass will become less and less intrusive, and that more and more people will use it,” said Teller.
“But we’re not going to prejudge exactly what that path is – that’s where we went wrong last time. We’ll focus on the places that are actually getting value out of that and go through the journey with them, being open-minded about where it’s going to go.”