The Boeing Company is incorporating Google’s Augmented Reality (AR) eyewear Google Glass to help build aircraft wire harnesses. As the aircrafts have very complex wiring that require to be manually installed by technicians using PDF guides viewed on a laptop, making it a very meticulous and time consuming process.
According to the CIO, Boeings research and technology division used the original Google Glass as a substitute for the computer displays and the results proved to shorten construction time for harnesses by 25 per cent and error rates by half.
Earlier AR glasses with head mounted displays and basic software were being used by Boeing since 1995, however due to the weight of the gadget they had to switch to a more inexpensive and powerful Google Glass to complete tasks.
A previous problem with the device was that it couldn’t capture information from Boeings database in the moment. Therefore Skylight, the manufacturer of smart glasses software created a Glass app of higher-quality so that Boeing technicians could use it on the assembly floor.
The benefit of using the Skylight app is it allows Glass wearers to scan a QR code, which inputs the wireless harness software, and then scan another code to download the assembly instructions.
Also another feature of the app is the voice commands, which will allow the technicians to live stream videos to other members or experts, if ever a problem arises.
