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Dynabook to ship enterprise smart glasses to SA

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 08 Aug 2022

Dynabook, formerly Toshiba, a Japanese-based PC maker, is looking to connect South African field workers using smart glasses.

So says Ronald Ravel, director B2B at Dynabook South Africa, in an e-mail interview with ITWeb.

Although the company is still to ship these smart glasses to South Africa, Ravel notes the local market presents a huge opportunity for the devices.

“Dynabook has a solutions team that can immediately provide all support in South Africa for both the technical and commercial aspects,” he says.

The company plans to offer its AR100 and DE200 smart glasses with a starting price of $2 400 (R40 200).

With these devices, field workers can talk to and see experts back in the office, and can show the situation they are facing in real-time.

The company explains that remote experts can respond with training, support and data, all instantly delivered to the field worker.

According to Grand View Research, the global smart glass market was valued at $5.13 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% from 2022 to 2030.

Some prominent players in the market include ChromoGenics, Corning Incorporated, Gauzy and Gentex Corporation.

“Expert knowledge is sparse and is a problem in collaboration in technical work fields on vast grounds,” says Ravel.

“We provide a hands-free solution by connecting field workers with an expert colleague miles away or in different time zones.”

Dynabook notes the ongoing digital transformation of the manufacturing and logistics industries is creating more immersive and engaging work environments, using increasingly sophisticated technologies in a bid to improve processes, connect field workers, enhance safety and deliver training.

“Enterprise smart glasses adoption is not only predicted to grow in the coming years, but that growth will accelerate as spending starts to transition away from mobile augmented reality and towards head-worn, hands-free, augmented reality,” Ravel says.

“Indeed, 67% of manufacturers from our own research said they were likely to deploy smart glasses within the next three years, with improved information sharing and collaboration (48%) and hands-free functionality (47%) being the main reasons behind this decision.”

Ravel explains that smart glasses equipped with “see-what-I-see” functionality can allow an onsite technician or engineer who needs to make a safety or time-critical decision, to connect with a wider pool of remote experts and receive valuable support and guidance to complete a task.

“Secondly, additional capabilities from AR [augmented reality] smart glasses can be accessed wherever and whenever they are needed, without disrupting the mechanic’s workflow.

“Thirdly, the rise of edge computing, the increased convergence of physical assets into digital assets and the integration of 4G/5G connectivity will also play a role in making smart glasses more adoptable.”

He adds that in manufacturing plants, technologies such as AR smart glasses have seen an uptick in adoption in the last two years.

“Incidents which were introduced by lockdowns and reduced global travel meant businesses were forced to evolve at a faster rate. These circumstances resulted in companies looking for increasingly sophisticated collaboration tools to improve communication over the long-term.

“AR smart glasses can enhance the new environment of hybrid working, which is here to stay, by enabling faster and better connections that work within the changing dynamics of a post-pandemic world.”

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