By AKI FUKUYAMA/ Staff Writer
March 10, 2020 at 08:00 JST
The image shows how smart glasses show information in front of a wearer. (Provided by Laboratory of Hi-Think Corp.)
KYOTO--A startup here has been flooded with inquiries about its smart glasses during the coronavirus epidemic, particularly from Japanese manufacturers that have production facilities in China.
Laboratory of Hi-Think Corp. (LHC) said its glasses enable supervisors to give instructions to factory workers from distant areas safe from possible contamination.
Many businesses were forced to withdraw their Japanese employees from China as the epidemic spread from Wuhan in Hubei province. Many plants in the world’s factory suspended operations for prolonged periods.
The eyeglasses-like devices allow local workers to receive real-time instructions from officials in far-off areas, thereby enabling factory operations to resume in China without skilled Japanese engineers present.
“Procedures essential to restart operations are complex, and Japanese workers are often responsible for such processes,” said Masayuki Tatsumi, president of LHC. “We started receiving many requests for business talks immediately after the product was marketed on Feb. 12.”
A camera mounted on the glasses show the Japanese engineers what the wearers are seeing.
Based on the data, the engineers can send work procedures that appear in front of the wearer and provide oral instructions through computers, according to LHC representatives.
LHC was established in 2016, and 30 percent of its 50 staff members used to work for electronics giant Sharp Corp.
Other companies offer similar services using computer glasses. But LHC prides itself on having many engineers knowledgeable about production lines. They designed the smart glasses so that specifications can be adjusted depending on the equipment and environment of the client’s factory.
The price of the product starts from 3 million yen ($27,300), excluding tax, and a monthly use fee of tens of thousands of yen is also required.
Tatsumi, who has long been involved in the automation of plants, said he expects the smart glasses to contribute to society even after the coronavirus crisis ends.
“I was surprised at the increasing number of inquiries deriving from the epidemic of the new type of pneumonia,” Tatsumi said. “We will commit ourselves to resolving Japanese companies’ long-standing issue of labor shortages.”
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