美国国家公共电台 NPR Google Glass Didn't Disappear. You Can Find It On The Factory Floor

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Remember Google Glass, the headsets that look like regular glasses but have a small computer on the side that you can talk to and use to access the internet? Google Glass kind of fizzled out. It was discontinued in the consumer market. But now it seems to be getting a second life in manufacturing. Tasnim Shamma of Atlanta member station WABE reports.

TASNIM SHAMMA, BYLINE¹: At one of AGCO's factories, Heather Erickson is putting together an engine before it goes onto the assembly line. She's wearing her red and black uniform over her blue jeans at its facility in Jackson, Minn. And there's something else on her head - Google Glass

HEATHER ERICKSON: Took a little getting used to it. But once I got used to it, it's just been awesome².

SHAMMA: Awesome because Google Glass tells her what to do should she forget, for example, which part goes where.

ERICKSON: I don't have to leave my area to go look at the computer every time I need to look up something.

SHAMMA: With Google Glass, she scans a serial³ number on the part she's working on. This brings up manuals, photos or videos she may need. She can tap the side of her headset or say OK Glass and use voice commands to leave notes for the next shift worker. The company is based in Duluth, Ga., but has factories all over the world where it makes large tractors, chemical sprayers and other farm equipment. Peggy Gullick with AGCO says the addition of Google Glass has been a...

PEGGY GULLICK: Total game changer, yeah.

SHAMMA: She says quality checks are now 20 percent faster. And it's also helpful for on-the-job training of new employees. Before this, workers used tablets.

GULLICK: We had a lot of tablets on our floor. And the tablets were being broken just by being dropped. And tractors are very tall machines when you're climbing on and off. So we were looking for a solution that offered them more information in a more timely manner.

SHAMMA: AGCO has about a hundred employees using the custom glass which is attached to them and harder to lose. Each one costs about $2,000. And Tiffany Tsai says it's one of a growing number of companies, including General Electric and Boeing, testing it out.

TIFFANY TSAI: It was always my assumption that Google Glass was going to go into business for enterprises instead of mass consumers' consumption.

SHAMMA: Tsai writes about wearable technology and was one of the early users of Google Glass when it first came out in 2013. Two years later, it was discontinued for consumers because people were concerned about privacy, how secure the technology was. And it really just challenged some social norms. Tsai says with Google Glass, it may look like you're listening to the person in front of you, but you could actually be in a different world, watching a movie or looking up sports stats.

TSAI: On Google Glass, the recipient⁴ has no idea what's happening, does not see anything that the user is looking at or analyzing⁵. And that creates like this disconnect between people. And I think that that's highly frowned upon, especially with older generations.

SHAMMA: She says millennials may be more open to it in the future. But it still has a long way to go until it's considered more socially acceptable. Meanwhile, at AGCO's factories, Gullick says the company plans to double the number in use by the end of the year. For NPR News, I'm Tasnim Shamma in Atlanta.

(SOUNDBITE OF KETTEL'S "QUICKPIG")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

3 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

4 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

5 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句