Google's Project Glass continues to get even more sci-fi, with a new company-funded app that will allow the device to recognize and point out specific people in a crowd.
Instead of using facial recognition technology, the app will allow the glasses to find people based on their clothing and accessories, allowing it to locate individuals who are turned away from you or otherwise obstructed.
The app is called "InSight," and is being developed by students in North Carolina, with financial help from Google itself. The app will work by taking a person's "fashion fingerprint," and analyzing their clothes and accessories. It then builds a "spatiogram" containing the outfit's "spatial distribution of colors, textures and patterns."
The technology sounds like something out of Minority Report, and the creators are reporting that the app has so far had a 93% success rate. When in use, InSight will display the names of people it finds over their heads through the glasses.
Of course, it will require that you upload a photo of yourself to the app, and then send it to your friend. Thankfully, strangers won't be able to pick you out of a crowd without your consent. Although, one can imagine that the police would love to get their hands on this technology (and since they generally don't have to ask permission for your photo, it shouldn't be too far-fetched).
Still, the technology is certainly intriguing, and just one more reason why Google Glass is going to be one of the most talked about gadgets in the coming years. It's been promised to release before the end of the year (although early prototypes are already making their initial public beta rounds), but only time will tell whether it's sure-to-be high price tag will catch on with the public.
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