Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital teamed up with the Houston Zoo, located across the street from the hospital, to allow kids who couldn't leave the hospital to visit some of their favorite animals through Google Glass.
Watch the video: Children's Hospital Patients Visit Zoo-Google Glass Explorer Program
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital helped kids to virtually "visit" the Houston Zoo, located across the street and visible from patient room windows, without ever leaving their hospital beds. Through a Google Hangout, hospital patients connected via video chat with the Houston Zoo's own Google Glass. Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital partnered with the neighboring Houston Zoo to produce the "double Glass hangout" – connecting hospital patients with another member of the Glass Explorer program, providing a one-of-a-kind experience.
Six-year-old Jayden was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about a year ago and, since then, has been a regular patient of Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. Every trip he and his mother made to the hospital, he would always beg to go to the Zoo, so we helped him do just that. Zoo keepers provided the kids with behind the scenes access to the animals which included a one-on-one tour of the meerkats, jaguars, giraffes and more.
Another patient, 11-year-old Trevor, was able to link directly with Jonah the sea lion for an up-close-and-personal experience with one of the Zoo's most popular mammals. Sea lion supervisor Brett Posey created an intimate interaction for Trevor and Jonah, even answering some of Trevor's questions while demonstrating just how special the animals really are.
The response was phenomenal. On April 2, 2014 more than 3 million people saw stories on E!, Buzzfeed, Mashable and Fox, leading to a global conversation and international news coverage about Google Glass and healthcare. Many tech bloggers, content curators and other Google Glass enthusiasts continue to share the video throughout social media. A YouTube video showing our pediatric patients getting to experience the Zoo from their hospital beds high acclaim from YouTube users who left such comments as "If this didn't make your day, you should just go back to bed" and "The world should be filled with stories like these."
