When Google Glass debuted, it was almost immediately a disaster. It quickly became a symbol of the idle, clueless rich, and even Google was forced to admit some of its fans could stand to knock it off. When Google finally admitted the obvious and pulled Google Glass from the consumer market, we speculated that it would return as industrial technology. And sure enough, it has.
Google has yet to acknowledge publicly that Google Glass Enterprise Edition is on the way, but it’s coming. Google has filed the necessary documents with the FCC, and it’s built to be used at work. There’s a bigger “prism,” an Intel Atom processor, they’re waterproof, and they even have a folding hinge now, so you can easily put them away.
It’s not a huge leap to realize that everyone from waiters to police could use something like Glass. One of the few useful ideas that came out of the Glass “beta” was a firefighter designing an app that put a home’s layout and useful information in the corner of their eye. And it’s easy to see how having a screen handy while also having your hands free can be useful in all sorts of jobs; waiters could take your dessert order while clearing your dinner plates, police can pull up useful information without looking away from a suspect, and office workers could ignore their bosses while pretending to pay attention at meetings.
Google doesn’t yet have a release date for these, but when they come out, expect a heavy push. If it doesn’t catch on here, Glass might be shattered for good.
(Via Wired)