Customer service workers at Scotland’s Edinburgh airport will be getting some help from Google Glass while assisting travel-weary passengers.
The airport’s check-in hall team will wear Glass as a trial run through the end of this year, The Scotsman reports. Airport representatives will be able to translate documents, look up flight information and answer other questions without toting a tablet or standing near a computer terminal. The goal, chief executive Gordon Dewar said, is to “establish whether this product is suitable for an airport environment.”
Why this matters: It’s another sign that Google Glass’ killer apps are in the enterprise, rather than consumer markets. For customer service representatives, Glass doesn’t need to be fashionable as much as it needs to be useful, and if the software works as expected, it might help outweigh any anxieties customers have about approaching someone with a face computer.
Traveling through Glass
This isn’t the first time the air travel industry has dabbled with Glass. Virgin Atlantic had its upper class wing representatives wear Glass in a six-week trial at Heathrow Airport, and now plans to permanently adopt the technology on a limited basis. Workers at Copenhagen Airport also tested the technology, but cited battery life and sub-par scanning capabilities as roadblocks to permanent adoption.
Keep in mind that all of this is happening with a beta version of the hardware. If Google is working toward a finished product, it might want to put a greater emphasis on business needs, such as a larger battery instead of a svelter frame.