A slight glimpse at innovation is all it takes to awaken my sense of wonder, as it is with most of the people that work in our office. Nowadays all we see really is developers building on the same technologies over and over again, relentlessly. Don’t get me wrong, we love all the apps that let us know how long it is going to take to get to work and whether or not to bring our umbrella, where our taxi driver is, when to water our plants, but really, to be frank about it all, i want it to happen more organically; i want to eliminate the need to take my phone out of my pocket altogether. i want the info right “there” when i need it.
This is where the Google Glass comes in. Not that it is alone in its ambition to revolutionize our world, and the ways in which we interact with it. In fact, Google’ most ardent rival, Apple Inc., is also readying their much awaited for I watch that is supposedly being manufactured for a 2014 Fall release.
The Android-powered Google Glass, boasting a 5 megapixel camera built-in to the frame is essentially a wearable computer built into frames the shape of traditional eye glasses (not to say they are glasses) so that you have the ability to peek a display in your field of vision, and record videos, take pictures, get directions, speak to send messages, search and translate, all of these capabilities, on the go, without taking your phone from your pocket. It will also be able to run apps built specifically for Google Glass by third-party developers.
The Glass responds to voice commands as well as taps and gestures on the touch-sensitive bar that runs along the right side of the frame. You can start a search by uttering the word “Ok Glass” and take a photo or launch an app. Glass has the My Glass app it can be paired with using a phone so that the user can set it up, customize it, and much more. Other specs include:
- A rechargeable battery that last for roughly a day
- A 16GB of flash memory built into the device, although only 12GB is currently available for storage
- Bluetooth and WiFi will be built-in
- Five colors namely charcoal, tangerine, shale, cotton and sky
It is with great, but cautious optimism, that we welcome Google Glass as some other topics that would touch privacy, security, etc… are too broad for the scope of this article. As famously quoted by H.G. Wells, “Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe” and the Glass is the catastrophic advent in technology we have been educated all along to be ready for; it is here and we are eager for it.