Smart glasses for industry use? Harvest Technology, Iristick NV join forces to make it a reality

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Image Credit: Iristick NV

Smart glasses for industrial use may soon materialise as Harvest Technology Group Limited (ASX:HTG) announced today an agreement with Iristick NV to further develop industrial smart safety glasses.

The two firms agreed to integrate each other’s strengths — Harvest’s Infinity Wearwolfâ„¢ technology with Iristick’s industrial smart glasses.

Iristick smart glasses feature real-time feedback and information systems provided by a distant expert, allowing remote assistance to workers in various industries — from doctors performing medical procedures to quality assurance personnel perform factory checks.

By integrating Wearwolfâ„¢ into Iristick smart glasses, these industrial glasses can leverage the live secure point-to-point video encryption of Infinity Nordstream (Nordstream) even at poor quality or congested networks.

Prototype testing reached fruition in December 2020 with “successful” results. Harvest Technology and Iristick plan to launch the device by the first quarter of 2021.

Harvest Technology is an Australian-operated group of company marshalling subsea technology solutions for the energy, resources, and renewables sectors.

Based in Belgium, Iristick is a technology company that specialises in the manufacturing and development of industry-grade safety glasses. The company’s competitive edge lies in the smartphone-accessibility of its enterprise wearables.

What are smart glasses and how do they help?

Also known as ‘smart eyewear’, industrial smart glasses are devices that present data from a background information system right in front of a person’s eyes.

In contrast to virtual reality headsets, these smart glasses allow the user to experience the physical and the digital worlds simultaneously. By augmenting the user’s field of view with superimposed information, industrial smart glasses could easily revolutionise (and simplify) complex manufacturing solutions.

Johan De Geyter, Iristick CEO, said that the COVID-19 pandemic “kickstarted the use of remote assistance via smart glasses” to keep business operations despite pandemic restrictions.

Geyter adds that smart glasses could be used when workers are confronted with low or no Wi-FI connection.

“…this collaboration can overcome the issue and make remote assistance available over low bandwidth, at any possible location, ensuring workers stay connected at any time,” he said.