Google Glass Killer App? Making Delicious Sandwiches

Google Glass is being used to help perform surgeries, wage combat, and now ... build sandwiches.

Google Glass is being used to help perform surgeries, wage combat, and now ... build sandwiches. Capriotti's Sandwich Shop has been using the funky new technology to train their employees in the art of sub production. Capriotti's has found a variety of uses for Glass in their stores: It can be used to record and play back part of the training video, works with the point of sales system, and allows management to review performances by recording employees' actions during peak hours.

Jason Smylie, CIO/CMO of Capriotti's, finds this comparable to a coach recording games and having the players review tape in practices. Smylie tells The Wire that he first came across Glass through the #IfIHadGlass contest — which Google held to choose its first "Glass Explorers" — where he earned the opportunity to purchase the device. While he is all for pushing the technology forward, he has run into some snags, saying "The biggest challenge is that the battery only lasts about 30 minutes while recording, which is our primary usage currently."

It looks like most employees are taking well to it, even though most of them have never used Glass before. The Capriotti's staff agrees that its "really exciting and fun to wear — the first time people wear it they either say it's really cool or really weird." 

One of the major hurdles of Glass is just how silly it looks. As Robert Hernandez, a USC journalism professor and technology critic, put it, "Whenever I put on Glass, I'm essentially opting in to answering a lot of questions." Thus far, Capriotti's hasn't alienated any customers with the odd eyewear. There is ample warning, "when we use Glass, we make sure customers that walk in the door are informed that they may be recorded but that it is only used for training purposes."

Right now, Glass is only used in one shop to train employees, though they plan to distribute Glass to the nationwide team and franchise consultants as it becomes more easily available. Also, no one has dropped Glass into a sandwich. Yet.