In the games industry, Valve is widely known as an innovator – and one of the most beloved organizations to boot. One of their biggest focus of late is bio-feedback: control of digital devices through one’s own body. To that end, they’re toying with some pretty absurd concepts…including using sweat.
On the face of it, it looks like developers can’t make full augmented reality apps for Google Glass. There could be a number of reasons for that, perhaps Google wants to wait before it lets developers do that, or perhaps there’s a concern that running AR apps all the time would severely affect the battery life of Glass. Nevertheless, it has now been confirmed that Google Glass is more than capable of handling AR apps, thanks to its impressive list of sensors, most of which were hidden.
The list of sensors was found by a Google Glass explorer called Lance Nanek, who was combing through the debug mode of his unit. He succeeded in pushing an Android app to the display which revealed the sensors that can allow full augmented reality apps to be run. These sensors include:
Three location providers, network, passive and gps would ensure that AR apps can constantly function without being sidetracked by lack of location determining services. Right now third party apps can only update location once in 10 minutes, however its not impossible to go around the limitation. With Google Glass already being rooted, we can expect many tinkering opportunities once the units are released for public, that is if Google doesn’t plug the exploit used for rooting Google Glass. We’ll have to wait for a new exploit to be found in that case.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 3D Printed Designer Eyewear, Lego NXT Xbox 360 Disc Carousel, 
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![Google Glass Sees Its Users As Big Brother [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/inventorspot.com/files/imagecache/ContentHalfWidth/blog1/Google_Glass_as_Big_Brother.png "Google Glass Sees Its Users As Big Brother [Video]")
Quicker than George Orwell’s ink could dry on the page, "1984"
introduced the world to a whole new level of paranoia that’s kept us
looking over our shoulders for the last sixty years or so. From the "Red
scare" of the 1950s to Presidents justifying unjustifiable wars in the
21st Century, to the Patriot Acts’s reduction of citizen rights — right
up to today’s CCTV cameras surveilling us à la ‘Person of Interest,’ Big Brother has carved out a permanent foothold in our society.
Google Glass is all the talk in the wearable technology industry. The headset, which will be work as glasses and allows users to do everything from get directions to snap photos and capture video, is arguably the most exciting device to be entering the technology space.
Wearables are new to quite a few folks. Although they’ve seen (and perhaps used) pedometers or those wristbands that track their movements, the average customer has never really thought about wearing glasses that would allow for communication and all of the other features Glass boasts. And thanks to some smart marketing on Google’s part, quite a few people are now saying that they’d jump at the chance to buy Google Glass when it hits store shelves.
But I’d ask all of those people to truly consider what they’re saying. Yes, Google Glass appears to be a nice-looking device for those who don’t mind wearing an oddly shaped lens on one eye, but for the rest of us walking around town, doing so doesn’t exactly tell the world that we’re the most fashionable people.
Aside from that, I just don’t see the value in all that Google is promoting with Glass. Sure, it’d be nice to look at directions through one lens, and having the ability to snap a photo or record video is great and all, but I can do that with my smartphone. And when I don’t want to do any of that, I can just slip my smartphone into my pocket and not worry all that much about it getting damaged.
Google Glass, on the other hand, looks like an expensive, broken piece of tech waiting to happen. As those of us who wear glasses know, it’s not that hard for them to get all kinds of screwed up in our pockets or when they fall off the coffee table. When it’s a $100 pair of glasses, that’s not such a bad thing. But if we’re talking about Google Glass, which could be exceedingly expensive, it’s a much, much different story. And I just don’t see how Google is going to sidestep that issue.
“Wearable tech is niche, and not even Google can change that”
Beyond that, I guess I’m not sold on the whole wearable technology craze. Yes, I know analysts are saying that the marketplace will grow in leaps and bounds in the coming years and billions of dollars will be spent, but I’m not convinced. Save for a few products, wearable technology is still very much a niche product category. And I don’t think that even Google can change that.
To me, Google Glass is more a novelty device than something that can truly be groundbreaking in the technology world. It’s a neat idea and it’s something that I can see people getting excited about, but does it really deliver value in practice? Theoretically, it’s cool, but I just don’t see it actually appealing to people who want the latest and greatest execution of wearable technology. On that front, I think Google Glass will fall short.
So, I’m not really sure Google Glass is worth it. I suppose I’ll be able to make a final decision when I know exactly how much Google Glass costs. But until then, I’m not expecting too much value.
Is Google Glass Really Worth It? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s
that time again! Videogame enthusiasts from all over the world will be
tuning in to their favorite gaming websites and video portals from June
11th through the 13th for huge reveals of brand new videogames,
technology and other electronic entertainment related goodies. As
always, I can’t wait!
Mobile games are transcending their screen-only roots. Developers are bringing the action into the real world.
Now that Google Glass is out – at least in its developer edition for those wishing to get in on the party first – it’s time to track mind-blowing uses of this technology as they appear. Two of the examples you’re seeing below are filmed with the Developer edition of Google Glass, showing us what’s possible with some simple experiments. The third is a video that’s not brand new, but should blow your mind nontheless: it includes a talk by Tom Chi showing how you’ll be able to make a very rudimentary Google Glass yourself.
A first-person perspective video is not an entirely new concept for some regions of the sports universe – NASCAR has been live-casting the insides of vehicles for several years, in fact – but with a sport like hockey, this idea is just appearing. What you’re going to see here is developer Joseph Lallouz playing some ice hockey with Google Glass, letting the NHL know that they’ve got some new entertainment possibilities on their hands.
The world of instructional videos are certainly opening up here at the advent of Google Glass and the augmented reality glasses releases of the world. In a video filmed through Glass by musician Henrik Nordberg, you’ll see him and his fellow students playing a song at Sycamore Strings Academy. While this particular video doesn’t act as a set of directions for the viewer, you’ll surely see the possibilities unfolding.
Back at the beginning of this year, Google X (aka Google Department of Science Fiction) Experience Lead Tom Chi spoke at a TED convention about the possibilities blowing up with rapid prototyping, one of these being the ability to create what’s effectively your own Google Glass device with a few simple elements. He also shows some Minority Report technology and its relative simplicity, too.
Google Glass is only in the hands of less than 1,500 users at the moment, and very few of them are sharing their experiences with the public. Once this user experience expands to the general public – and once developers using the units out there today find themselves being a bit more comfortable with sharing their creations and findings, they’ll be pushing videos out like no tomorrow. Stay tuned to SlashGear’s Google Glass tag portal for more as this saga unfolds!
Google Glass: 3 videos that will instigate a major perspective shift is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Are talking tissue boxes coming soon? Research being done by scholars over at Penn State shows that people who were confronted with a talking tissue box, one that made suggestions and blessed them, was a welcome thing by most people. The research is part of a larger project that shows how smart technology can be placed into our homes.
At GDC 2013 towards the end of March, an organization known as Tactical Haptics revealed a rather revolutionary new piece of motion control technology. It’s called Reactive Grip, and combined with tech such as the Oculus Rift, it could very well revolutionize the way we game. Last week, I decided to track down Professor William Provancher, Reactive Grip’s inventor, for an interview about its creation and development.
Microsoft’s IllumiRoom technology, which turns your living room into an augmented reality gaming arena by expanding graphics from the confines of your TV, won’t be baked in time for the next-gen Xbox, the company has confirmed. The projection technology, which uses Kinect to digitally map a room and then digitally overlay dynamically changing graphics linked to the on-screen entertainment, will be shown off in concept form this year, Microsoft Research’s Hrvoje Benko and Brett Jones confirmed to Engadget, but is nowhere near ready for commercial release.
In fact, IllumiRoom won’t get shown to the public until Siggraph in July, missing out E3 2013 in the process. The tech is “working well” according to the researchers, but it’s still in the early stages of development.
Microsoft has been dripping details around IllumiRoom for some months now, after surprising attendees at Samsung’s CES press conference back in January with a demo of the augmented reality system. Currently pairing a Kinect for Windows with a basic projector and a PC, IllumiRoom first automatically maps the user’s living room and then creates a 3D wireframe which can be used to extend play off of the screen and into the surrounding area.
So, explosions on-screen can cause ripples that spread out around your TV cabinet and beyond, while fireballs can spread outside the limits of your screen. Alternatively, IllumiRoom can be used to heighten the mood of the game, creating virtual snow, for instance, that can not only fall within the room but accumulate on shelves and tables.
Microsoft Research’s attentions aren’t just on gaming, however, despite the obvious applications for Xbox. The IllumiRoom system could also be used to make TV and movies more immersive; in a newly released paper for the CHI 2013 conference this week, the team shows a DIY dual-field-of-view camcorder prototype which simultaneously captures the core video and its extended surroundings, the latter to be projected around the TV.
Nonetheless, while it won’t be ready any time soon, IllumiRoom’s primary purpose looks to be extending the immersive gameplay of the next-gen “Xbox 720″, an obvious way to build value into the console in the face of low-cost casual gaming on smartphones and tablets. Considering Kinect followed on after the Xbox 360 had already been in the market for some time, there’s nothing to say that IllumiRoom couldn’t arrive after Xbox 720 has bedded down into living rooms, providing a mid-life refresh of sorts.
Xbox 720 will do without IllumiRoom at launch, Microsoft confirms is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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