Google pushes new 'Glass for Work' program to get smart glasses into the workplace

Google is launching a new program to find practical ways to use its Google Glass wearable gadgets in the workplace, the company announced today.

More specifically, the “Glass for Work” program wants to cooperate with outside companies on ways that Google Glass might enhance an employee’s workflow, such as adding it to IT support workers while on calls or giving it to surgeons while operating. The main point of the program is to help make Glass an indispensable gadget in the office in the same way desktops and smartphones are.

For example, “Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, partnered with Wearable Intelligence and is using Glass to increase safety and efficiency for their employees in the field,” Google says.

Right now Glass is only available to those accepted into Google’s explorer program, which is mostly developers that agreed to pay the $1,500 fee to experiment with the device. The majority of applications for Glass have also been consumer-facing, which doesn’t actually help the company’s goal of making it an essential work tool. However, the Glass for Work program may change that.

Via New York Times