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What one piece of technology would most improve your working life?
Chances are it wouldn't be a glove. But car workers in Germany are now using smart gloves that not only save time but prevent accidents as well.
It is an example of how tech-enhanced humans are fighting back against the seemingly unstoppable rise of the robots.
At BMW's spare parts plant in Dingolfing, for example, which employs around 17,500 people, hand-held barcode readers have been replaced by gloves that scan objects when you put your thumb and forefinger together. The data is sent wirelessly to a central computer.
The hi-tech gloves allow workers to keep hold of items with both hands while scanning more quickly. While this may only save a few seconds each time, BMW reckons it adds up to 4,000 work minutes, or 66 hours, a day.
It's not just gloves; the article gives several examples of cool technology that help workers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @04:58PM
I actually had a similar idea to the story. Having my shopping list on a smart watch (Pebble in my case) is a big improvement because you can push the cart and pick up items without having to hold your list. Scrolling through the list and checking off items is convenient enough with a relatively short list of 10-15 items using the buttons on the Pebble. Previously I was using my cell phone instead of paper and this seemed like the next logical step so I ended up writing my own very simple app. This is one of the best uses that I've found since I bought this watch.
It's interesting to see the story about someone at BMW having the same idea to free up one's hands when picking things from shelves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday December 21 2016, @06:25PM
Can't tell if you are being sarcastic or if you seriously believe that is a good use of such a complex resource. Given the intelligence level these days I fear you are serious.
Excuse me while I save a lot of money, skip learning a complex device, avoid poisoning future landfills, save time not having to recharge a gadget, preserve my privacy, and avoid feeding damn Chinese by using a scrap of frikking paper. Oddly somehow I can usually even remember what is on it so I don't spend much time "having to hold" my list.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @08:02PM
I'm being serious. I expected the watch to be a toy for the most part. There are a few nice things like having easy-to-set set vibrating alarms that don't annoy people around me, the shopping list, and a couple other things, but I very much expected it to be something to experiment with.
Look, I'm not a fanboi for every new shiny either, but I like to be open to something new and try it for myself. Maybe you have a photographic memory but I will often forget an ingredient needed for the week and I have better things to do than to go shopping every other day. I write things down, I have phone with me all the time, so it made sense to use my phone years ago. The watch was just the next step to try since I already have it on my wrist already, and it worked better that I thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @12:20AM
Your app would be the first item on my shopping list, were I able to make such a list. Alas, it's the old chicken-egg problem...
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:21AM
Wow. So, you have your shopping list in electronic form and you think that the most efficient use of this is to transfer it to a portable device, physically move yourself to a shop, walk around the shop, put things into a trolley, and take the things home? Sounds like bad 1980s science fiction.
If I have my shopping list in electronic form, I paste it into a text field on my preferred supermarket's web site. It then populates a virtual trolley for me, given me searches for things that don't have exact matches. My weekly shop takes me a total of around 10 minutes and it's delivered to my door at a time convenient for me (within a one-hour window). It comes in a refrigerated van, so frozen stuff is not partially defrosted by the time I get it home, even in the middle of summer. The van has a route that delivers to a load of people, so it's far more energy efficient than all of us going to the shop and back. If I order a few days in advance, it's integrated with their inventory management system, so they are never out of stock of anything that I want (they sometimes are if I order the day before delivery).
sudo mod me up