Hasta La Gadget!

Glass still isn’t quite ready for the consumer, but Google’s wearable platform just keeps getting better and more powerful thanks to frequent software updates. Today’s version bump brings YouTube to your search results and also grants access to those with Google Apps accounts. It also brings the Shazam-like Sound Search from Android to your head-mounted display. Most interesting though, is Vignettes, which allows you to lay your current Glass display over a photo to produce an image like the one you see above. Think of it like a screenshot tool for your real, very nerdy life. One can only imagine that eventually Vignettes will get a video mode, but for now its still photos only. If you’re one of the lucky Explorers you can download the update now. The rest of you will have to live vicariously through the photos at the source.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: Google Glass (Google+), XE9 Release Notes

As anyone who’s stuck Google Glass on their head knows, controlling its UI via swipes, nods and voice commands can sometimes be… awkward. Now you can do it remotely, thanks to an update to the MyGlass companion Android app. It uses Glass’ so-called screencast experience, which is a way of letting other users see what you’re seeing on Glass from their Android device’s screen. Now a Glass user can “touch/swipe/tap to control the Glass UI through the screencast experience,” according to the blurb on Play. Some Google+ users have noted that the remote control part is not working yet and probably requires a matching Glass update. You can grab it at the source, but Google has helpfully pointed out that “if you don’t have Glass, then… it’ll be a waste of time.”

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wearables, Software

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Source: Google Play

To some, Google Glass is nothing more than a notification machine, but there are others who see Glass as an AR headset waiting to happen. OpenGlass is among those looking to give Glass augmented reality powers, and it’s figured out how to implement simple AR in real-time. The trick was accomplished by sampling the imagery pulled in by the headset’s camera and extracting the portion of that feed that corresponds to the size of Glass’s display. That feed is then sent to an OpenGlass server that overlays digital annotations provided by another users onto the video feed to augment the wearer’s reality.

There’s a video after the break demoing the AR functionality, but it’s rudimentary and laggy in its implementation. Essentially, the system serves as a telestrator that superimposes scribbles into your field of view. It’s a good proof-of-concept to show that Glass can do real-time AR, but there’s a lot of work to be done before Glass can become a fully-fledged augmented (or mediated) reality headset.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: OpenGlass

You know what’s not new? Android games. You know what is new? Games for Google Glass. There has been the odd attempt so far, but french-based game developer AMA is porting one of its bonafide titles over to the small screen for real. Escape! is a simple puzzler, the sort that we’re all familiar with on our phones, that is being squeezed into the wearable format. While games on the hardware might be something of an inevitability, we managed to get our eyes inside a pair to take a better look for ourselves. Head past the break to see how it worked out.

Filed under: Google

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Google already has a patent that would let Glass and other eyewear identify what’s in front of you. However, it just received a new patent for a method that could follow your exact gaze. The proposed system would include both forward-facing and eye-tracking cameras, correlating both to determine what’s grabbing your attention. It could gauge emotional responses to objects by watching for pupil dilation, and it could be used to charge advertisers based on how long wearers stare at a given ad. Google may also have an eyepiece upgrade to go along with its gaze detection, we’d note — the company just received a patent for a quantum dot-based eye display. There’s no evidence that Google will use either of these new inventions anytime soon, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they represent what Glass could look like a few generations from now.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables, Google

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Source: USPTO (1), (2)