Introduction
Our two blogs this month are about two futuristic developments by Google X Lab, Google Glass and the driverless car. This Google facility thought to be located somewhere in Northern California Reportedly the lab is working on around 100 future technology projects.
Google Glass
The basic concept
Google Glass is is a wearable computer with a head-mounted display built into spectacle frames so that you can perch a display in your field of vision. It is internet connected and includes voice recognition. Hands free, you can take and share pictures and augment your reality by including web search information in what you see.
Google Glass uses display technology to put information in the upper right of your vision using a prism screen. Google say that the display is “the equivalent of a 25-inch high definition screen from eight feet away” and can be seen easily without obstructing your view..
One arm of the frame is fitted with a microphone and touchpad enabling you to select what you want to do with a brief gesture or by talking to the device. Sound is provided with bone-induction technology which vibrates your skull to create sound, which is less cumbersome than traditional headphones. Bluetooth and WiFi will be built in, but no GPS chip - but you can pair the device with any Bluetooth enabled phone.
Google Applications
• Used with Google hangout software to video conference show participants what you are seeing
• After tethering Google Glass with your mobile phone, using Google’s MyGlass application, you could use Google Maps to provide directions
• Potentially Google Glass will also be able to translate the words being spoken to you into your own language. Google has bought voice specialists DNNresearch to support this aspect of developments
Third Party Applications under development
• Identification of friends in a crowd using face recognition
• Dictate an email
• A New York Times app that, when asked, displays hot news: a headline, byline, an image and the number of hours since the article was published
Availability
The first version are now being delivered to 8,000 people in USA who paid 1,500USD for them and had to win a lottery to do so. Apparently terms of service warn users that their device will be deactivated if they try to resell or loan them to another person.
The first versions cannot be used by people who wear prescription glasses, but Google has confirmed that the design is modular and therefore this may be possible later. Market launch is expected in early 2014 and competitive devices are rumoured to be in development by Apple and several other companies.
More Information
Take a look at http://www.google.com/glass/start/