If you haven’t heard of Sherpa, you’re mostly likely not alone. It’s essentially a new Android app that looks to dethrone Google Now and Apple’s Siri. Sherpa plans to launch on iPhone soon, as well as make its way to Google Glass to take down Google’s own voice command software on the new spectacles.
The company unveiled plans to bring its software to Google Glass, and Sherpa CEO Xabier Uribe-Etxebarria says that their voice command app is much more suited for Google Glass than Google’s own software, which is a bold statement. Uribe-Etxebarria says that voice commands on Google Glass are limited, and “it’s not taking advantage of all the features and the potential of Google Glass.”
What separates Sherpa from the rest of the pack is its ability to understand meaning and intent. The app can build its own metalanguage with rules and semantic concepts mixed in with using Google’s speech API. From that, Sherpa can do a wide variety of actions that you wouldn’t even think it could do.
The app is still in beta, but plans to roll out for Google Glass and other wearables either in late 2013 or early 2014. Sherpa is able to do a handful of neat tricks, including the ability to play music without downloading the tracks first, and automate directions for scheduled events in your calendar. The app can also do things like turn down the volume or toggle the WiFi.
And as Google Now does, Sherpa can also essentially predict what you will want to see and hear about, like score updates from your favorite sports teams or letting you know of some popular restaurants in the area if it’s close to dinner time. As for the kinds of things that the Google Glass app will do, that’s still unknown, but from what the company says, we can expect a lot more features out of Sherpa than with Google’s built-in offering.
As a sort of a “Part 2″ or even “Part 3″ of the Glass chat series SlashGear has appearing this week and last, today’s words with Google Glass’ lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson lend some insight on the device’s road to final hardware. Speaking on how the original Glass prototypes eventually became the device you see today, Ollson shared three principles that allowed the team to solidify their process.
This is only one segment of the extended fireside chat shared with Google I/O attendees earlier this month. Also included in the chat were Senior Developer Advocate at Google for Project Glass Timothy Jordan, Product Director for Google Glass Steve Lee, and Google Glass Engineer Charles Mendis.
Isabelle Olsson: We took a reductionist approach. We removed everything that wasn’t absolutely essential. And then in addition to that, I formed three principles to guide the team through this ambitious, messy process. Those are:
• Lightness • Simplicity • Scalability
And those are not just fancy words: they mean something.
Lightness
O: So when it comes to lightness, it’s fairly straightforward. We are obsessed with weight. Not in the same way the fashion industry is – but we do care about every single gram. Because if it’s not light, you’re not gonna want to wear it for more than 10 minutes. And it’s not only about lightness but about balance. How it’s balanced on your face, and the way we designed it with our construction methods, and material choices, and how we place the components.
It weighs less than most sunglasses and regular glasses on the market. It’s pretty cool.
Simplicity
O: But it’s not only about physical lightness, it’s about visible lightness. We took the approach of hiding some of the largest components on the board behind the frame, so we could create this one, clean, simple appearance from the side.
Scalability
O: When I joined the project, we thought we needed 50 different adjustment mechanisms, but that wouldn’t make a good user experience. So we scaled it down to this one adjustment mechanism.
We make Glass modular. In this stage, this means you’re able to remove the board from the main frame. This is pretty cool. This opens up a lot of possibilities. It opens up possibilities for not only functionality but also scalability.
SlashGear will be exploring Google Glass in each of its software updates up to and through the point at which it becomes a consumer product in 2014. The Glass team have let it be known that upgrades in software will be sent each month – at least – and that the final consumer product may look similar to what we’re seeing in the Explorer Edition that everyone is wearing out in public today, or it could have several modifications in hardware as well by then.
The Meta 1 is a pair of augmented reality goggles that performs some very unique and useful tricks. While they are still in beta stage, the glasses are coupled with a Kinect-like camera to sense objects in real space and allow users to interact with virtual worlds with the swipe of their hand.
“We brought Mann on board because of his expertise in two key areas: miniaturization and mediated reality. Mann has been developing a Google Glass-like device for years but recognized now was not the right time for something of that scale, because of the limitations of such a device. Rather than a phone accessory, Mann is keen to work with us to develop a fully fledged new interface for computers,” said Gribetz.
“His scientific leadership in mediated reality will be a huge advantage for us when delivering an immersive augmented experience. Occlusion (hiding or modifying real world objects) is a key part of full augmented reality and Mann’s experience in mediated reality will allow us to bring the best solution to market in this area.”
Gribetz is a Y Combinator alum and the project, which is still on Kickstarter, is nearly funded with 26 days to go. Users can receive a Dev Kit for $550. Epson will help build Meta’s next-generation VR glasses which will look considerably less DIY than the beta developer version.
“The entrance into consumer wearables needs to be a high powered immersive device capable of fully replacing the computer and more. Heads up notification systems have their use cases, but they won’t be game changers. Mann’s commitment to a fully wearable future is why he chose to join us,” said Gribetz. Considering Mann has been wearing his computing power for most of this decade, it seems like a good fit.
At this years’ Google I/O developers conference, a Fireside Chat with several members of the core Google Glass team proved to reveal much on not just the future of the device, but its origins as well. While earlier in the day a single slide had been shown depicting a set of six original prototypes of what was then called Project Glass, here lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson had one key prototype on hand to show SlashGear in the plastic, as it were.
As Olsson made clear, this device was created as one of the very first iterations of what’s been reduced to a simple skeleton frame and single, removable computer element. What you’re seeing here is a set of development boards attached to two full-eye glass lenses, white plastic, tape, exposed cords and all.
Isabelle Olsson: When the team started working on this, it was very clear that we’re not taking something that already existed and making incremental improvements to it. The team wanted to create something that’s much more intuitive, immediate, and intimate. But to create a new kind of wearable technology, that’s so ambitious, and very messy at points.
In addition to showing how this pair of glasses worked with folding sides and a real, working set of innards (if you can call them innards, of course), Olsson showed one of the prototype pairs of prescription Glass glasses as well. These are seen in the box below, and their design was seen on Google employees here and there during the week as well, live and active.
Olsson: I will never forget the first day on the team and when I walked into a room wearing these CRAZY things on their heads. I brought the prototype so you could see what I walked in to. It comes in a fancy bag…
Olsson: I think like the colors of the board, maybe, fits my hair color, but I don’t know. It’s kind of heavy, though. I think I’m going to take it off now. So – but – how do you go from something like this to what we’re all wearing today?
Olsson: We took a reductionist approach. We removed everything that wasn’t absolutely essential. And then in addition to that, I formed three principals to guide the team through this ambitious, messy process. Those are:
• Lightness • Simplicity • Scalability
You’ll find this particular chat split up across three different features, each surrounding Olsson’s fireside chat contributions. The one you’re in now of course stays within the bounds of the prototype you’re seeing above and below. There are also posts on color choices for Glass, a bit about Modular Fashion, and another expanding on the design of the final product.
Olsson: When I joined the project, we thought we needed 50 different adjustment mechanisms, but that wouldn’t make a good user experience. So we scaled it down to this one adjustment mechanism.
This prototype works with the Glass projection unit nearly the same as what we see in the Explorer Edition of Glass. It’s attached to one of two computer boards, the one on the right temple – here also working with a camera, even in this early state.
This first development board is also connected to the second board, the second presumably reserved for storage space connections and a battery. While tape holds this unit together along with soldered bits and pieces along the board as well as glue, here and there, they do work.
There’s a single button above the camera lens that activates the camera – there’s a similar button (a hidden button) in this area on the Explorer Edition of Glass as well. This original prototype works with essentially every element available in the final release – here it’s just a bit larger, and not really made to look too fashionable for the uninitiated.
Google I/O 2013 also played host to a chat we had with Sergey Brin – co-founder of Google and currently Director of Special Projects for the company. He also gave some insight into the way Glass was first tested, noting that while there were some non-functional bricks used to test form for Glass, it certainly all started with function:
Sergey Brin: We did have some non-functional models, but mostly we had functional, uglier, heavier models. Very early on we realized that comfort was so important, and that [led to] the decision to make them monocular.
We also made the decision not to have it occlude your vision, because we tried. We tried different configurations, because [it’s] something you’re going [need] to be comfortable. Hopefully you’re comfortable wearing it all day? [That’s] something that’s hard to make. You’re going to have to make a lot of other trade-offs.
Have a peek at the photos in a larger sense in the gallery below and let us know if you see anything you recognize – it’s all there, piece by piece.
When Valve‘s first hardware hire, Jeri Ellsworth, tweeted back in February that she was fired from the company, we were disappointed but also intrigued by what she meant by “time for new exciting projects.” Well we finally saw what she’s been up to here at at Maker Faire 2013. It’s called Cast AR, and it’s a pair of 3D augmented-reality glasses that she and former Valve programmer Rick Johnson were working on at Valve before they left.
The model we saw is still in the early prototype stages, but the concepts are already in place. Perched atop a pair of active shutter glasses are a couple of miniature LCD projectors, which bounce images from a connected computer onto a special reflective surface at a 120Hz refresh rate. A camera module sits on the eyewear’s bridge and monitors an array of infrared LEDs embedded in the reflective surface. This allows for quick and accurate head tracking. Join us after the break for our impressions and our video interview with Jeri Ellsworth.
Google Glass made the world at large aware of the existence and potential of augmented reality headsets and heads-up displays. Surely we’ll see more and more similar devices appear. In fact, one such device could launch before Glass. It’s called the Recon Jet, a nerdy accessory for jocks.
Recon Instruments, the company behind the Recon Jet, clearly designed the headset to augment sports and other outdoor-related activities. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and all the other sensors and connectivity technology that Glass has. But instead of projecting its monitor through a prism, the Recon Jet’s display is directly situated at the front of the device. This makes it more visible than the resulting transparent display on the Glass. Recon Instruments placed the Recon Jet’s display below the user’s right eye because according to the company’s research it was the least obtrusive location.
Here’s Mashable’s interview with a spokesman from Recon Instruments:
Without knowing the final specs of both devices, it’s hard to say if the Glass can also do everything that the Recon Jet can. It’s also equally important that Recon Instruments get the support of app developers. One thing’s clear: there’s never been a better time to make prescription contact lenses. Except for the time when there weren’t any prescription contacts.
Google I/O is always full of surprises, and we came across yet another elusive bit of hardware on the show floor today: Google Glass “prescription edition”. No, it’s not actually called that (we made up the name), but what you’re looking at is definitely Glass that’s been neatly integrated with prescription glasses. Unfortunately we don’t really know anything else about this device, but we’ve reached out to Google for comment. Are these a one-off custom design built by combining Google Glass Explorer Edition with off-the shelf eyewear? Is this a Glass prototype that’s intended specifically for people who wear prescription spectacles? Shared your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to check out the gallery below.
We’ve heard several times that Google Glass would be available for those with actual prescription glasses, but details have been a bit slim regarding this. However, during Google I/O this week, prescription Google Glass frames have indeed been spotted on the heads of several Google employees, but it’s said they’re still in the prototype phase of development.
A couple of Googlers were spotted roaming around the floor at Moscone over the week, but from the photos at hand, it looks like Google only has one type of prescription frame that’s out and about, which looks to be the same frame seen in the image above. It’s not said if Google will make multiple frames available, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they offered several different generic options.
As for how the prescription version works, it seems that the Google Glass hardware itself can’t be removed from the frames, which means they probably won’t be your main pair of glasses, unless you plan on wearing Google Glass all the time, but that will sooner or later be impossible, as there are already many places that you won’t be able to wear Glass.
Secondly, just like the regular frames of Google Glass, prescription frames won’t be able to fold up like a traditional pair of glasses, making it difficult to store them somewhere conveniently if you need to take them off in certain situations. However, this information is slightly different from what the company said back in March, where the Glass design would be “modular,” meaning that you could attach glass to any (or most) pair of glasses or sunglasses. The “modular” word was also thrown around during a Google I/O session this week.
Then again, you’ll obviously still be able to get custom lenses to fit into prescription Google Glass, so if you don’t happen to like any of the frames that Google will release, you’ll at least be able to get the right lenses fitted into them. Now, if only we could get better-looking detachable sunglasses for Google Glass, it’d be perfect.
Google has just announced a slew of new apps that are coming to Google Glass. In an effort to expand Glass’s abilities, a handful of different apps will become available to users, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, CNN, Tumblr, and Elle. Previously, only Path and The New York Times were available as apps on Google Glass.
Each of these apps will have their own unique twist in order to seamlessly work for Google Glass. For instance, Twitter will allow users to tweet to their account, and every tweet you send through Glass will be automatically tagged with the #throughglass hashtag. You can also receive notifications for mentions, messages, and replies.
As for the Facebook app, it too will feature so Glass-centric abilities, including the ability to take and upload a photo using Glass straight to your Timeline, and even add a description to the photo using Glass’s voice dictation feature. Tumblr will also let you do the same thing, by posting a photo to your blog right through Glass.
Evernote’s Glass app focuses on two main actions that you can perform. You’ll be able to take a photo or video and send it to your Evernote account from Google Glass. You’ll also be able to choose specific notes from your Evernote account and send them directly to Glass, so that you can bring it up on the HUD when needed. A great example of this is a grocery shopping list — no having to fish your phone out of your pocket to see what the grab next off the shelves.
CNN’s app is a little self-explanatory, but it goes a little further than just being able to swipe through headlines. You’ll be able to pick the types of alerts you want, such as sports scores or breaking news at certain times. You can also have articles be read aloud to you, as well as the ability to watch video.
Of course, it’ll be a while before Google Glass will be in the hands of the mainstream public, but it’s nice to know that Google is already building up a repertoire of apps that people will be able to take advantage of right away.
Recon Instruments is launching this futuristic-looking heads-up display, which is integrated to sunglasses. The idea is pretty much the same as Google Glass: to deliver information in an integrated way and the sunglasses integration may be just a little bit […]
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