3D Printing + Google Glass

Google Glass Challenge:

Google recently posted a challenge for individuals who have been paying attention to their Google Glass initiative. They asked for ideas on how people would use their Glass.  Whether such a product is the shape of things to come or another Google Wave or TV is a good question.  Regardless, I started thinking about how to couple this with another nascent technology close to my heart, 3D Printing. Using the premise that Glass isn't meant to distract you, but release you from our seemingly never ending stream of updates, reminders, and digital cruft, I came up with a couple use cases.  Much of this is enabled by networked queing systems being conceptualized for 3D printers and other machines right now such as BotQueue and untethered printing via Raspberry Pi.  

Status monitoring:

The most obvious thing to do is have the printer networked so that you can get real time status updates such as temperature and completion percentage.  Having a prompt just to know when a job is complete would be fabulous and prevent frequent checking.  Also a printer live video feed is another option depending on your tolerance for distraction.

Augmented fabrication:

Here is where Glass can be separated from other options to connect a 3D printer. By using the printer's known location, display the desired 3D object in the Glass display in the correct orientation similar to augmented reality.  This could be a boon for any kind of digital fabrication both as a general part check and to check for flaws due to the printing process.  By having a visual reference the comparison can readily be done to determine quality of the print.