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Australian eHat to transform field work
VICTORIA-BASED startup eHatsystems Pty Ltd is leading the way in the new sector of ‘industrial strength wearables’ with its unique eHat product.
The eHat is worn by staff on job sites to communicate through video and sound in a live link with supervisors and expert instructors. 
By using the eHat, staff have their hands free to conduct work while advisors watch the process and provide advice utilising the common vision and sound link.
This real time interactivity offers a common vision of the job at hand and improves safety, according to eHatsystems inventor and founder, Terry Lancaster.
“This improves the quality of the job, speeds up decision-making and avoids unnecessary re-work costs,” Mr Lancaster said.
“With the eHatsystems platform, we want to empower field workers and will change the way they work with the inclusion of augmented and artificial intelligent systems.”
The eHatsystems operational space is part of a new industry being called Industrial Strength Wearables, Mr Lancaster said.
“We have a specific interest in using this class of wearable in the application of knowledge transfer services,” he said.
“The problem we are solving is brought about because of increasing skill shortages.This problem is well documented as an emerging one and is already having an effect on productivity.
“This is particularly true for ‘in-field’ operations. A job cannot be completed due to lack of specialist knowledge; a completed field job does not meet quality expectations; or, a job in the field takes longer to complete than it should,” Mr Lancaster said. 
“The resultant costs are enormous: extended repair and maintenance downtime, dispatch of senior technicians or experts, missed opportunities for junior staff to learn on-the-job, and sometimes, unfortunately, accidents.”
The eHat solution to this problem allows field staff to communicate with a ‘live’ link, hands-free with supervisors and experts, at the work face. It allows both parties to engage interactively and safely with a common vision of the job at hand.
“This improves the quality of the job, speeds up decision-making and avoids unnecessary re-work costs,” eHatsystems acting general manager Benjamin Jacobs said.
“With the eHatsystems platform, we want to empower field workers and will change the way they work with the inclusion of augmented and artificial intelligent systems.”
Mr Jacobs said the eHat was a certified, lightweight and balanced hard hat with integrated video camera, lights, headphones, microphones, batteries and a control panel, 
The eHat communicates through a dedicated smartphone app and is embedded in a private cloud-based network that enables live streaming of video and audio over thousands of kilometres.
“Knowledge transfer is therefore made easy,” Mr Jacobs said. “We intend to produce another model, which will be developed with all the smartphone facilities built-in.”
As an application developed within the Internet of Things (IoT), Mr Jacobs said the value of the eHatsystems offering was enhanced further by services generated from storing job information, visual analysis and environmental server data.
Examples of such services include video recording and analysis, the transmission of documents, as well as alerts for workers.
In the future, he said, eHat would be used to provide ‘augmented visual assistance (AVA).
“Eventually, we believe an eHat wearer will receive live instructions from an intelligent machine in the cloud through visual analysis and storage data techniques,” Mr Jabobs said.
“We are an Australian startup company in process of commercialisation of its product and with the help of further investment, will have an international product very soon,” he said.
The eHatsystems team is an executive member of the 2018 Victorian Leaders group, part of the International Leaders organisation that is helping to develop Australia’s next generation of leading companies..
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