Scandit is getting ready for Google Glass

Following last month’s prediction from Gartner that companies using Google Glass or other wearable devices could save $1billion a year in field service costs within the next five years, Scandit, the developer of software-based enterprise barcode scanning and data capture technology for smartphones, tablets and wearable computing devices, has confirmed that the new version of its Barcode Scanner SDK will deliver highly optimized support for Glass, leveraging Scandit’s unique blurry scanning and dynamic range capabilities to the fullest extent.

Designed to enable powerful applications for both the consumer and business markets, the new Scandit release will be compatible with Google’s new Glass Development Kit, and Scandit is already working closely with application developers to match its wide range of features and functionality to the specific requirements of Glass.

A team of Glass developers has already developed an app called “Crystal Shopper”, which incorporates Scandit barcode scanning technology.

“We’re enhancing our software to support Glass-based barcode scanning so that businesses can fully exploit the potential that wearable smart glasses can bring to the enterprise,” said Samuel Mueller, CEO at Scandit. “We predict that in the enterprise, Glass and similar wearable devices will enable ‘hands free’ inventory management, procurement and asset tracking allowing an employee to look at a barcode on a carton, or a pallet, say ‘scan’ and retrieve associated data, or capture data for recording inventory. ”

In its predictions for wearable ‘smartglasses’, Gartner pointed out that the ‘hands free’ element of the technology would be a major factor in its growth, particularly in industries with employees working off-site, such as field service, healthcare and manufacturing. Whilst less than 1% of companies are using ‘smartglasses’ currently, Gartner predicts that in five years, 10% of organisations with field service workers will have taken up the technology.

“Two of the fastest growing enterprise sectors for Scandit are manufacturing and logistics,” continued Samuel Mueller. “Both of these are heavily dependent on barcode scanning and we are excited by Gartner’s predictions, which match our own expectations and will inform the way that our technology is developed. We also see massive opportunities in other industries, such as retail, automotive, entertainment and the public sector, and we believe that the commercial arrival of wearable computers will herald an entirely new era of innovation and development, which should ultimately result in scanning and image recognition capability being embedded into a whole range of other devices, such as contact lenses.”