As we approach the 2014 release date of Google Glass, tinkerers and app developers have innovating several apps for the new smartglasses. Even though the wearable computing devices are still in the "explorer" phase, where just a few thousand Google Glass beta editions have been sold to a few lucky developers, technophiles, and journalists, a lot of applications for the smartglasses have been fiddled with.
Here are a few examples of some useful things Mountain View's smartglasses may be able to do when a consumer version is finally released.
Fix A Car
As Latinos Post previously reported, several companies, including Metaio, are working on various interactive "augmented reality" applications. Augmented reality, at least at this stage, basically means superimposing computer-generated images, data, or instructions on top of the user's view of the real world, which makes your interactions with the world richer, easier, or smarter.
Metaio's AR platform was recently used to demonstrate an interactive car manual - one that, for example, recognized what parts of the engine you were looking at and could tell you where to fill the wiper fluid. It's an early form of AR, but imagine having those useful YouTube car repair videos overlaid on your vision, automatically adapting to circumstances as you start working.
Call a Cab
If your car repairs don't turn out as well as you'd hope, you'll probably need a ride. According to the Telegraph, there are taxi hailing services like Hailo or Kabbee that could be ported to Google Glass for a hands-free cab calling starting with "OK Glass, call me car."
Ad View Tracking - IRL
Google has a filed patent for a "Gaze Tracking System," which Latinos Post has reported on before. Basically, the patent for the eye tracking system would follow what advertisements in real life that you paid attention to, and could use a system much like the online pay-per-click model to reward eye-catching billboards.
This application mostly applies to the back-end, business side of Google Glass, and not to its wearers, but imagine it as a first step towards a Minority Report-type world where ads speak directly to individuals.
"Hearting" Things
Google is trying to patent the "heart" hand gesture, along with other hand gestures, for use with Google Glass. According to Mashable, the "heart" hand gesture could be used in real life to "like" things and send an image of that liked object or person to various networks - like Facebook or Google Plus.
Other Forthcoming Applications
Android Police unpacked the most recent Google Glass monthly update, this month called XE10, and found all sorts of interesting commands in Glass's .apk file for voice commands. Here's a brief list of them, from Android Police:
- Add a Calendar Event
- Capture a Panorama
- Check Me In
- Create a 3D Model
- Find a Recipe
- Learn a Song
- Play a Game
- Play Music
- Record a Recipe
- Remind Me To...
- Show a Compass
- Start a Bike Ride
- Start a Round of Golf
- Start a Run
- Start a Stopwatch
- Start a Timer
- Translate This
- Tune an Instrument
The "translate this" is the most intriguing, as it might be a response to Japanese IT company NT DoCoMo's "Intelligent Glass," which is a rival pair of smartglasses that can translate text into other languages.
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