Toshiba smart glasses could help warehouse staff work more efficiently

New augmented reality smart glasses have been developed to help warehouse and other industrial employees work more effectively by improving how they handle workflows.

The Assisted Reality AR100 Viewer dynaEdge DE-100 smart glasses from Toshiba now come with xPick, a new "pick-by-vision" order picking capability aimed at the logistics sector.

The glasses are designed to assist in tasks from manual order picking, sorting, and inventory management stages, right through to goods receipt and removal processes. Efficiencies are delivered through a hands-free, assisted reality display with instructions transmitted directly through the data glasses into the employees' field of vision. Barcode-scanning, weight-checking and localisation modules can be included to increase accuracy levels and further streamline workflows.

The new capabilities have come about via Toshiba's partnership with wearable computing firm Ubimax. The xPick technology follows xMake, xInspect, and xAssist as the most recent addition to the dynaEdge's suite of assisted reality workflow modules, optimising productivity for businesses operating in the industrial sector.

Maki Yamashita, senior vice president of PC & Solutions EMEA at Toshiba Europe said that intelligent t assisted reality solutions have captured the market's attention over the past 12 months.

"Indeed, our latest study found that 77 per cent of all IT decision-makers surveyed in Germany plan to introduce this innovative technology to their businesses over the course of the next three years," he said.

"We've found that the opportunity to maximise productivity whilst expanding an organisation's suite of connected devices is a winning combination particularly when it comes to manufacturing and logistics-based enterprises."

The new product is available across Europe from this month.

Image credit: Toshiba

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.