Google Begins Pitching Glass As Tool For Workplace
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- Google has begun working with different business and industries create specific uses for "Google Glass" in the workplace.
Google calls its new marketing push "Glass at Work" and one of the first uses is in the operating room. Doctors across the country are being asked to experiment with useful applications for the heads-up display during surgery.
"What I'm seeing are CT images which are basically cross-sectional X-rays of the patient's chest," said University of California, San Francisco cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Pierre Theodore. "It allows me to operate at the same time I have this critical data right in front of me."
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Glass is also showing up in professional sports, with the NHL and NBA looking for ways to wirelessly send player stats, first-person views, even instant replay to fans in the stands.
Firefighters and other first responders are looking for uses that will improve performance and safety.
When Google first decided to mount a computer and camera on an eyeglass frame, a lot of people were asking 'why?' Privacy concerns over the device have made its test phase anything but smooth.
Currently there are about 10,000 people testing Google Glass, each paying $1,500 to beta test the device.
"Glass seems to be most successful when you can communicate a single focus for it, or a particular purpose," said CNET reporter Seth Rosenblatt.
But, instead of defining that purpose, Google is asking professionals how they themselves might use Glass to make it easier to create supporting technology.
"It's one way of building an App store without even having a marketplace," said Rosenblatt.
They say build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Google has built some kind of trap…and they're asking us to figure out what it can catch.