Google Glass has been facing a lot of criticism ever since the Explorer Edition was released earlier this year. Privacy concerns are the biggest issues surrounding the computerized pair of glasses, getting banned in numerous establishments already, with the most recent banning being Google’s own shareholders meeting. NOTE: Google has reached out to note that
While the official Google Glass team is embroiled in a bit of controversy over which apps will and wont be allowed on the device’s official build this week, the folks behind ClockworkMod Recovery push forward with a new release for hacking the device. As it is on Android, so too does this software allow for
Google has released this month’s software update for Glass, bringing with it a handful of features and improvements, the most notable of which are changes to the camera. In particular, photographs taken with Glass are now more detailed with less over- and under-exposure issues due to an HDR feature, which snaps multiple images and combines them into a single exposure.
According to the update details posted on Project Glass’s Google+ account, the update brings with it a few improvements to the camera, the first of which is a background “rapid sequence of shots”. This feature takes a burst of photos with every photograph that is taken. Those multiple images are then merged together, producing a single image that is more detailed and better exposed than the previous images Glass would take. You can see an example of the quality differences in the image above; before the update is on the right, after is on the left.
This is known as HDR photography, where multiple exposures of the same image are taken so that both bright and dark areas are revealed. Such is likely the same method used by this Glass improvement, although Google doesn’t detail how the process takes place, instead only calling it an auto HDR feature. If a situation is too dark for an HDR image to be taken, the resulting photograph will instead be brighter and sharper than what Glass would offer before the update.
Other camera updates include improved sharpness when taking images of photographs of subjects that are moving, such as children. A captioning option has also been added, allowing users to speak a caption, which is then added to the photograph before it is shared. The folks over at Glass XE have the full change log, which shows that images are also taken faster after depressing the shutter button, increasing the odds of getting that snapshot you’re aiming for.
The camera aside, there are some other small changes and improvements that are included in update XE6, such as a change to the shut down notification sound and Off-Head detection sound. Hangouts produces a ring when connecting, Google Now Sports and Birthdays cards are new and improved, off-head detection is better, and several small fixes have been applied. Have you noticed any other changes? Let us know!
SOURCE: Google+
Google Glass update XE6 brings HDR camera feature is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google Glass has plenty of issues. There’s a fair chance you’ll get laughed at for wearing it, or at the very least stared at. Battery life won’t last you a day, and the list of things you can actually do with the wearable is limited. For all the Saturday Night Live skits and “Glasshole” jokes,
Google Glass presents a lot of exciting possibilities, but a fairly equal amount of concerns, one in particular being facial recognition and potential privacy issues that could result. On May 17, Congress sent a formal letter to Google addressing several privacy concerns, one of which was facial recognition. It has been a couple weeks, and now Google has stated it won’t approve facial recognition apps until privacy issues have been addressed.
In the Congressional letter, which was delivered to Google CEO Larry Page, one question was specifically posed concerning facial recognition: “Is it true that [Glass] would be able to use Facial Recognition Technology to unveil personal information about whomever and even some inanimate objects that the user is viewing? Would a user be able to request such information? Can a non-user or human subject opt out of this collection of personal data? If so, how? If now, why not?”
Google has not yet responded to the letter, and has a day over two weeks yet to do so. It has, however, made a public statement on its Google+ regarding Glass, facial recognition, and privacy, saying that no Glassware with such a feature is going to be approved any time soon. It doesn’t say when such apps will be available, with the issue being dependent on many factors related to privacy.
Google goes on to say that it has had a stance for “several years” that it will not implement any sort of facial recognition technology into any of its products until “strong privacy protections” are established. Such a process will take time, and is multi-faceted. We may get a look into where Google is at now in the process next month when it responds to the government’s privacy concerns, but for now Google simply assures worried voices that the feature won’t be hitting the average consumer any time soon.
Facial recognition isn’t the only area where privacy concerns lie, however. Many cite the camera on Glass as a point of concern, which wearers being able to take images wherever they’d like with a simple wink. Many places have already banned the devices, including a bar in Seattle.
SOURCE: Google+
Google says no to facial recognition Glassware until privacy issues are addressed is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week Google and LG have made the unicorn of the Nexus lineup – that being the White Nexus 4 – a reality. Here at SlashGear we’re taking the time to unbox and have a closer look at the device and its brand new Bumper Case as it makes its way to online stores and eventually into the retail space in the USA. And yes, it’s basically the same package: it’s just white.
One of the only big differences between the original Nexus 4 and this white iteration is the makeup of the band around the edge. While the original Black version has a slightly grippy feel to it, this White is a bit more slippery. This might be just the bit you were looking for if you’re all about the shine over the ability to hold on to your phone.
Otherwise this machine works with the same guts as its Black affiliate: 4.7-inch display at 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, IPS LCD technology covered with a pane of Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Dimensions of the device remain 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm with a weight of 139 grams, and the back works with the same 8 megapixel camera as specified in Google’s own listing of the original Black.
Inside you’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, this just a step down from the Snapdragon 600 found in the Samsung GALAXY S 4 and the HTC One. Android 4.2.2 is here on the device right out of the box, while we do expect updates to Google’s mobile OS sooner than later.
Also in the package we’ve gotten is Google’s white iteration of their own Bumper Case. This case acts as a protector between your Nexus 4 and the ground and acts as a bit of a bonus grip that you might not otherwise have with LG’s preference for slippery, slippery plastic. This device will be available from Google soon, and it’s unknown at the moment whether or not T-Mobile – or other carriers in the future, for that matter – will be carrying this color in stores.
BONUS: As you may have already noticed, the videos above have been filmed with Google Glass – or #throughglass, if you prefer. This adds to a collection of features filmed with Google Glass that will be continuing to expand through the future here on SlashGear, another of which was our 2014 Lexus IS Prototype Test Drive earlier this week – stay tuned for more!
White Nexus 4 Hands-on and Unboxing is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week in an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook had a bit to say about Google’s wearable product: Glass. Having been asked what his take was on wearables by Swisher, Cook responded: “I think wearables [are] incredibly interesting. It could be a profound area.” His reply on Google Glass specifically wasn’t quite so optimistic.
According to Cook, “there are some positives in the product.” Responding to a query on Google Glass, Cook continued,”It’s probably likely to appeal to certain vertical markets, [but] the likelihood that it has broad appeal is hard to see.” Mossberg continued the line of questioning by asking “is wearables a thing? Is part of the post-PC era wearables that go beyond fitness devices?”
“There are lots of gadgets in the space. I would say that the ones that are doing more than one thing, there’s nothing great out there that I’ve seen. Nothing that’s going to convince a kid that’s never worn glasses or a band or a watch or whatever to wear one. At least I haven’t seen it. So there’s lots of things to solve in this space.” – Tim Cook
Cook added that this area was “ripe for exploration,” and “ripe for us to get excited about,” noting that “lots of companies” will be joining in. Pushed by Swisher to say whether or not Apple bill be one of them, Cook made it clear, “I don’t want to answer that one.”
On the subject of wearables, Cook continued by noting how his glasses – non-smart though they were – were not something he’d wear if he didn’t have to. “I think from a mainstream point of view, glasses are risky.” It was clear that Cook’s interest in wearables wasn’t about to be tied directly to Apple products that hadn’t been announced yet, but that the company wouldn’t be left out of the movement.
VIA: The Verge
SOURCE: AllThingsD
Tim Cook suggests Google Glass “broad appeal is hard to see” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
As Google’s introduction of Glass as the premiere wearable face-based computer starts the world thinking about what they’ll be placing on their head in the near future, so too do the creators of these machines begin to consider what forms they’ll come in. When you create a device that rests on the temples of the user, you’ve got to consider more than just the components inside – color, comfort, and everyday usability are real concerns. Lead Industrial Designer for Google Glass Isabelle Olsson spoke up this month on the development of the final (and first) form of Google Glass, specifically on its first five colors.
Isabelle Olsson: We developed five different colors to kind of satisfy different personalities – and also what you look good in. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, a lot of people think “oh Charcoal, that’s going to go with everything, that’s my favorite color.” And me, myself, because I wear a lot of black.
But after wearing it around for almost a year – different colors – we started to see how important color was, and how non-intuitive it was, and how people develop, like, an attachment to the specific colors. So every time we’d do a new prototype, and all the colors were not available, people would come and like, scream at me: “I want my tangerine back!”
We chose five – we didn’t want to overwhelm people, and there is a range. So we have a couple of bright ones, and then we have three, kind of, neutrals.
And I think the cotton one is kind of bold and neutral at the same time. And I think shale looks good on almost everybody and is a little bit less heavy than charcoal. But then Charles rocked charcoal because of the dark skin, so it looks really good.
Colors are much more important than you would ever imagine. If it’s up to me, I would keep on doing cool colors.
One of the benefits we’ve had with the way we’ve developed this project is that we’ve had these monthly prototypes. Every month we’d come out with a new prototype. And everybody on the team has been wearing them.
So what we did, quite early on, was to produce a range of colors – just two of each – and then I basically looked at which colors are people fighting over. It’s kind of a fun indication. So that was kind of a way to see what was popular and what resonated with people.
O: But then also seeing – I mean, we have a very diverse team, so we just, by observing people wearing it around, seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t work. I would force people to try on different things.
So it’s kind of an intuition, and having an eye for it, and just kind of experimenting. And again we wanted a few poppy colors for people who are like, “hey, come and talk to me”, and then a few more subdued for people who kind of want to stand out a little bit less.
Each of the images above come from Google I/O 2012, where the platform was given its first major introduction on-stage by Google. While Olsson spoke there as well, the words shared above come from a fireside chat with prospective developers at Google I/O 2013 – photos below show the fireside chat as it occurred, adding a bit of context to a couple of the comments above, specifically the one about Charles.
From left to right, those participating in the chat were: Steve Lee, Product Director at Glass, Charles Mendis, Engineer on Glass, Isabelle Olsson, Lead Industrial Designer of Glass, and Timothy Jordan, Senior Developer Advocate at Google for Glass. Here you’ll also find a pre-production Glass unit with a sepia tone as well as a frame for Glass without the computer board attached.
Olsson also shared more information on her three design principles central to creating the final Glass product: Lightness, Simplicity, and Scalability. In these, Google created a device that they hope will be easy to incorporate into a user’s everyday life. Color was considered at the same time as social implications.
Is the color of Glass more important than the color of your smartphone? Is wearing glass more apparent to those around you than your use of a smartphone? Consider that!
These articles are part of SlashGear’s Creator Series for Google Glass – please feel free to share what bits and pieces of Glass you’re interested in and what you’d like to know more about while we continue exploring!
Google Glass color choices: will yours be custom coded? is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google’s Glass wearable could soon be able to recognize faces of those around the wearer, thanks to a dedicated service for human and object recognition that could be built into third-party apps. The handiwork of Lambda Labs, the special Glass facial recognition API will integrate into software and services using Google’s Mirror API for Glass, crunching shots from the camera and spitting out the identity of people and objects it recognizes. Lambda Labs expects the system to be used for real-world social networking and person-location services, though also warns that it could eventually fall foul of impending privacy regulation.
Lambda’s service has been in operation – though not in Glass-specific form – for some time, and is already used by around 1,000 developers, according to the company. It works by using a pre-existing “album” of known faces or objects, for instance your work colleagues, against which new captures from the camera are compared.
What the system can’t do, right now at least, is compare those around you to images not in its own album. So, you couldn’t walk into a room and have Glass flag up those you might be friends with on Google+ based on the publicly-uploaded photos they’ve shared. It’s also not a real-time process: images have to be passed over to Lambda’s engine via the Mirror API, and the results then fed back in the opposite way.
That’s going to involve a delay of around a few seconds, the company told TechCrunch. It’s a similar system to what we saw MedRef for Glass, an app intending to make calling up patient records more straightforward for doctors and hospital staff, use, and indeed Lambda Labs’ API could be integrated server-side for future versions of MedRef or apps like it.
Despite the fact that, even with functionality like this, Glass wearers won’t be able to roam the streets having names and personal details of those around them hovering in the air like SIMS icons, the facial identification system leads Google’s headset into even murkier privacy issues. Earlier this month, a concerned US Congressional committee fired off a list of privacy-related questions to Google CEO Larry Page, demanding reassurance by June 14 that the wearable wouldn’t collect personal data without the consent of non-users, wouldn’t be unduly intrusive in ways smartphones are not currently, and how it might be updated and its functionality extended in future.
Currently, Glass lacks native face-recognition, hence the opening for third-party services like Lambda Labs’ to step in. Google’s own stance has been that it would require “strong privacy protections” be in place before it would consider adding the functionality itself; exactly what protections would be considered sufficiently “safe” for the public is unclear.
Members of Google’s Glass team touched on the potential for privacy infringement during the fireside chat about the wearable at Google I/O earlier this month. Among the factors built in to avoid any misuse of the camera is an SDK-level requirement that the camera be active if the headset is recording, Glass engineer Charles Mendis revealed; there’s also, product director Steve Lee pointed out, “a clear social gesture” involved in triggering that recording, whether it be physically pressing the button on the upper side of the eyepiece, or giving the “OK Glass, take a photo” spoken command.
Nonetheless, it’s a young segment of the industry and the rules are likely to be fluid as the “what we could do” urge for progress bumps up against “what we should do” restraint. Parallel developments in Google+ are leading Glass down the life-logging path, giving room – and the organizational tools – to store every moment that goes on around you, even if the hardware and software aren’t quite set up that way today.
Google Glass facial-recognition service likely to stoke privacy fears is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google Glass Explorer Editions are a developer’s wonderland, full of little secrets we probably won’t see – in part, at least – in the regular consumer edition. Some Easter eggs and various hidden features have already been discovered, and now the folks over at Android Police have itemized a whole host of them that are available via Glass’s hidden labs, including a simple change for getting Wink, browser support (kinda) and more.
Using a rooted pair of Glass and some ADB commands, users can get their hands on quite a few features that are integrated into the frames but not available by default. Some of them work well, while others are a bit spotty. One such feature is an easier-to-get enabling of the Wink feature we’ve seen before, allowing device owners to snap a picture with a deliberate eye wink – no sideloaded app necessary. It is said to work very well when enabled via this manner.
Another is “OK_GLASS_EVERYWHERE,” which is a fairly self-explanatory name, letting users evoke “Ok Glass” pretty much wherever they want rather than just the Ok Glass screen, which is limiting. Enabling this means the device is always listening – not in the sense of eavesdropping on your private matters, but in waiting for a command to come its way. There’s no word what having this enabled might do to your battery life, however.
In terms of the more spotty features is the “WEB_BROWSING” line, which – don’t get your hopes up – doesn’t fire up the ability to browse the Web. Instead, it pulls up the ability to complete the desired action using a browser, which you’ll have to install yourself since Glass doesn’t offer one. The folks at Android Police put on Chrome, and report that while it does start to load a website, the Glass user interface takes over again within seconds. What it does show is a potential project for a developer to get elbows-deep in.
Those three aside, there are a host of others, including a peek at video stabilization listed as “VSTAB,” which is interesting in light of Sergey Brin’s statement to us earlier this month that the company will be rolling out a solution to the video shakiness issue that results from head-mounted cameras. The feature, sadly, doesn’t stabilize videos right now, but it does show that digital stabilization is in Glass owners’ future.
SOURCE: Android Community
Google Glass hidden labs give rooted users Wink and more is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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