Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/398458
UtILItY WeeK | 17th - 23rd OctOber 2014 | 23 Operations & Assets Market view Enterprising wearables Nitin Bhas explains why industrial applications will drive the development of smart wearables. T he idea of 'wearables' as a market category is still a relatively new one and, given the pace of tech- nological innovation, it is one that is quite volatile and where the expectations of change are high. Low adoption and ostensibly high rejection rates mean that the risks of introducing new devices are high in the consumer segment, so the more risk-averse larger manu- facturers have been slow to enter. However, wearables such as smart glasses, for example Google Glass, have a larger role to play in the enterprise markets, such as utili- ties. The needs of utility companies have also meant that different types of devices have become prevalent and that enterprises have taken most warmly to the potential of wearables with specialised app developments. Research from Juniper noted that the possibilities for wearable technology in the enterprise sector are vast, with more evident use cases and extant levels of adop- tion. The more quantifiable uses for enterprise tech- nology mean that limited use cases are of value to the segment, even if they do not have wide applicability. This makes the enterprise segment the best engine for wearables development. Our research shows that manufacturers are limit- ing their attentions to a few key markets, including the energy industry, healthcare, warehousing and logistics, vehicle manufacture and transport. The technology with an overwhelming case for use across most of these seg- ments is smart glasses. Every smart glasses developer appears to have particular target industries in mind. This should allow the growth of quite divergent smart glasses enterprise ecosystems. Our recent report on smart wearable devices suggests that the enterprise segment will be the driving force behind development of the devices, although it will not lead on volume. This is because businesses can more easily take advantage of the vertically inclined wearables market structure to gain benefits from the technology. For instance, with real-time access to information via visual resources, smart glasses are expected to enhance resource, time and profits for utility engineers. However, for enterprise and industrial sectors, the handling of soware is problematic. The prevalent model is to sell the soware development kit alongside the glasses and allow companies to develop their own apps or leverage existing data systems. This shis the burden of wearables implementation away from the devices and towards data management. Adoption by larger util- ity companies needs additional support from wearables manufacturers, to aid integration with existing systems. Nitin Bhas, head of research, Juniper Research delivery of real-time progress updates from out in the field to Isis. The ability to capture and send hands-free photos and video foot- age from site or within an excavation would deliver new operational effectiveness and efficiency for operatives working in difficult conditions and confined spaces while in full personal protective equipment. Glass also offers a new era in remote col- laboration for any business with nationwide geographic coverage and widely dispersed expertise. The ability to stream live footage to subject matter experts, including engi- neers and planners, regardless of location, would offer instant access to guidance and expertise that could prove vital in averting or solving engineering issues in the field. Another positive feature is its footage playback functionality, which is tailor-made for remote training purposes; surgeons at UCLA have already used Glass to demon- strate the latest pioneering surgical tech- niques to their Brazilian and Paraguayan counterparts. Glass could present similar opportunities for utility companies looking to record the deployment of innovative operational tech- niques and solutions. As augmented reality (AR) continues to gather momentum, there could also be scope for operatives to use Glass to "see" and assess utility infrastructure beneath the ground. AR, the system for aiding operatives in the maintenance, planning or surveying of underground infrastructure, superimposes 3D graphics over the field worker's view to provide "X-ray vision" of underground infrastructure. Operative instruction, outage manage- ment and network planning are among the areas that could really benefit from AR and a Glass device offering a superior graphical overlay and outlining the appropriate trench to follow could present a revolutionary way of working. Finally, we see potential for leveraging Glass to assist with inventory/asset man- agement. Morrison Utility Services' inven- tory control system, launched in 2010, has become an established and key component in managing and tracking inventory on a number of MUS contracts. A Glass system developed to record inven- tory/asset management via barcodes or QR codes would provide operatives with an alternative to existing hand-held barcode scanners, acting as a virtual scanner capable of capturing data for incoming parts from suppliers, parts issued to gangs and parts returned by teams. Andrew Carter, head of business improve- ment, Morrison Utility Services