You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Facial recognition? Pah. Dahling, the only way to find someone in a crowd is to pick out what they’re wearing. InSight is an app being developed for Google Glass by Duke University that helps you identify your chums, even when they’ve got their back to you, by channeling its inner Joan Rivers. All your pals have to do is submit some self-portraits to the app, which then creates a spatiogram — identifying the colors, textures and patterns with which they’ve adorned themselves. That data is then pushed to Google Glass, hopefully allowing you to avoid the usual “I’m by the store, no, the other store” routine. Then again, maybe your friends will find you first — after all, you’re the one with a computer strapped to your head.
Filed under: Wearables, Software, Mobile, Google
Via: New Scientist
Source: Duke University (PDF)
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.
I want to be excited about Google Glass — I really do. I saw Robocop as a kid and dreamed that, one day, I too could walk around with a HUD that would feed me information on call, receive messages and record the world around me.
But now that years have passed and I’ve witnessed humanity worship the smartphone, make prevalent voice-controlled navigation and perfect self-mounted, POV digital video cameras, I’m not so sure that Google Glass is going to be good for us as a society. There is a dark side to what appears to be a wonderful coming together of complementary technology, and I’m here to poop this party.
Google has been asking prospective Glass owners how they would use the eyewear if they had the chance. The team at JetBlue did more than write a hashtagged post and call it a day: the airline posted mockups of its vision for how Google Glass would work at the airport. Its concept would mostly save passengers from the labyrinthine mess they know today by popping up useful alerts and directions in the right locations, such as flight times at the gate or (our favorite) the locations of those seemingly invisible power outlets. Of course, JetBlue’s images don’t necessarily reflect the final product, if there even is one. It’s not the likely gap between theory and practice that we’re worried about, mind you — we just have trouble believing in an airport where our flights are on time.
Filed under: Transportation, Wearables, Google
Via: Skift
Source: JetBlue (Google+)
Along with a lot of publicity, Project Glass from Google has generated a bevy of approved patents and applications, but the latest one shows that the search giant’s trying to wrap up the whole kit and kaboodle — replete with detailed diagrams and descriptions to back it up. Specifically, Mountain View is claiming the design of the frame itself including the bridge, brow portion, transparent display, input device plus the means for affixing everything. There are detailed descriptions of how the device can be configured — for instance, one claim states that the screen could be adjusted “normal to the focal center of the eye,” and the position of the electronics placed “over a first side of the ear.” It goes on to explain the need for a balancing weight “over the second side” of the same ear in the latter case, such that “a majority of the overall weight is applied” to one side, which certainly jibes with some of what we’ve seen. That’s just for starters, though — head after the break to see more diagrams and details.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: USPTO
If you’ve been wondering what all the Google this, Glass that fuss is all about, Mountain View’s revealed what it’ll be like to actually wear the virtual specs with a new video, now that it’s announced limited availability. In it, we get to see how the search giant’s integrated all its apps and functions in the upcoming wearable computer, how you’re likely to use it, and what the results might be. To activate the device, users say “ok, glass,” then it’s off to the races.
From there, we see a hot air balloonist and ballet dancer initiate video recording and send an email or text with a voice command, which are likely to be jobs one and two for most users. Then, a (hopefully not distracted) stunt plane flyer joins a Google hangout mid-flight and sends real-time video to other members of the group, showing the Google+ and social interaction aspects of Project Glass. Image search is shown off by an ice sculptor, who selects various perspectives of a tiger for some inspiration.
The lost and confused are shown navigating their way through New York streets, the Golden Gate bridge, an airport and a ski hill to highlight Google’s latest Maps and Now goodies, while a tourist all-too-happy with his Thai meal learns the word for delicious in that language using Google Translate. Finally, there’s oodles of first person video from a fencer, horse jumper, trapeze artist, ping pong player and fire juggler, to name a few. All that gives us a sneak preview of the many, many YouTube videos likely to come from the device when it arrives — though we’d hate to drop, burn or stab it by accident, given the cost. You’ll find the video right after the break.
Gallery: Google Glass UI demo
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Google (YouTube)
So when can you get your very own slice of Google future? Perhaps sooner than you thought. The company’s just outlined a competition that will put its Glass device in the hands of non-developer types. Using Twitter or Google+, you’ll need to outline what you would do if you had the device — we’re guessing they want to see some big ideas. Applications need to be less than 50 words and tagged with #ifihadglass. Media-wise, you can include photos and even a short video to support your application. Alas, for now at least, the process is only for those over 18 and is currently US-only. The deadline is February 27th and winners will be made a Glass Explorer — quite the title. Those lucky few will still have to preorder their own Glass Explorer Edition ($1,500 plus tax) but there’ll be special pick-up sessions held in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Until then, Google’s offered up a whole new gallery of images to help you imagine how you might look with its high-tech wearable.
Gallery: Project Glass – Seeking Explorers
Update: Google’s crafted a meatier video for the UI within Glass. We’ve embedded it after the break, but it better outlines how image capture, translation, directions, voice-controlled messages and (naturally) web searches are likely to behave on those frames.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Google+, Google Glass
So when can you get your very own slice of Google future? Perhaps sooner than you thought. The company’s just outlined a competition that will put its Glass device in the hands of non-developer types. Using Twitter or Google+, you’ll need to outline what you would do if you had the device — we’re guessing they want to see some big ideas. Applications need to be less than 50 words and tagged with #ifihadglass. Media-wise, you can include photos and even a short video to support your application. Alas, for now at least, the process is only for those over 18 and is currently US-only. The deadline is February 27th and winners will be made a Glass Explorer — quite the title. The best 8,000 applicants will still have to preorder their own Glass Explorer Edition ($1,500 plus tax) but there’ll be special pick-up sessions held in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Until then, Google’s offered up a whole new gallery of images to help you imagine how you might look with its high-tech wearable.
Gallery: Project Glass – Seeking Explorers
Update: Google’s also crafted a meatier video for the UI within Glass. It’s embedded after the break, but we’ve taken a closer look here.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Google+, Google Glass
Folks, the rather dour line drawing that you can see in the image above is the very first glimpse of Google’s wearable computing project as it swings through the FCC’s underground facility. The Google Glass Explorer Edition hardware, promised to arrive this year, is carrying a Broadcom 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g WiFi radio that’s been paired with a Bluetooth 4.0 + LE module. We’ve seen a reference to an “integral vibrating element that provides audio to the user via contact with the user’s head,” which we presume relates to the bone conduction patent we saw earlier this month. The filing also reveals that the testing laboratory involved used the conduction technology to view video with audio. As the commission is now making the paperwork public, it can only mean that it’s judged the unit, with the product code “XEB,” to be safe for human consumption — which means customers 782 and 788 might be expecting something special in the mail very shortly.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: FCC
As we’ve heard before, Google’s Glass project features are “still in flux” — could one be a bone-conduction speaker? It very well may, at least according to a US patent application published today. The gadget, described as a “wearable computing device with indirect bone-conduction speaker,” appears to be similar in structure to Glass. It includes “at least once vibration transducer,” so it’s possible that this HMD implementation wouldn’t offer stereo sound. This audio solution does seem within reach — Panasonic had functional bone-conduction headphones at CES, and while they weren’t quite loud enough to provide an earbud-like experience, they did indeed work. As with any patent application, the document confirms only that Google was considering such a technology, not that it’ll actually ship a similar device. So, if you’ve decided that your portable audio future will be headphone-free, you might want to keep an eye on Panasonic’s solution, instead.
Filed under: Displays, Portable Audio/Video, Wearables, Mobile, Google
Source: USPTO
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