Software maker Evernote has created a Google Glass note-taking app that can share notes and photos with other Glass wearers. The company’s chief executive officer, Phil Libin, predicts it will be used mostly at work. Glass features such as navigation, speech-to-text transcription, and video calling may be enough to attract corporate clients from health care to manufacturing to trucking, says Roger Kay, president of researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates—even at his projected starting price of $600 to $800. (Google wouldn’t disclose details on pricing.) Supervisors could use the gadget to film factory inspections; technicians could use it to retrieve product manuals. Kay says he expects Google to sell 3 million Glasses worldwide in its first year, with 2 million of those going to businesses and government agencies.
John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins on Google Glass
"New platforms are rare, but can be transformational, when they’re based on great products with robust APIs, powerful distribution and outstanding entrepreneurs. That’s exactly the goal of Glass and the Glass Collective. At KPCB, we’ve done this before, with funds making early bets on new platforms for mobile devices, social networks and Java.
Glass blends real and digital experiences in your daily life. With Glass you can take pictures, get reminders, look up directions, send texts, and update social networks – all without a keyboard or touchscreen. What’s striking is how Glass responds to the most natural input of all: your voice.
Smart phones put the Web in our pockets. Glass puts the Web where we want it the most: right before our very eyes."
Photo of Doerr with Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin with an early version of Glass in September 2011
Fashion meets functionality as Christian Lindholm from design firm, Koru discusses trends in smart watches, armbands with sensors, headpieces, Google Glass (in photo) and other wearable technology for consumers.
In meantime, industrial apps for firefighting and police work with headsets like Golden-i continue to also explode.
The video below shows a nice application for police work. At CES, there was an application for firefighters as CNET describes:
“The lightweight headset, developed by Kopin and Ikanos Consulting, offers a plethora of tech (such as a 1.2GHz dual-core processor) for the wearer that essentially acts as a powerful hands-free computer. The device contains a 14-megapixel camera, GPS, gesture control, speech recognition, and a micro display at the end of the headset stalk that simulates a 15-inch screen. A microSD port allows the user to record images or video during use.
A noise-cancelling microphone, which worked well in the loud halls of CES, corresponds to the built-in speech recognition that enables the wearer to control the software with their voice or speak with others. As for connectivity, the Golden-i features 3G/4G LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. “
Scientists at GE Global Research and at GE Healthcare’s Life Care Solutions unit started developing wireless sensors for so-called Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) about five years ago. Harsh says the two proposed MBAN frequency bands are “sitting right next to” radio spectra used by Bluetooth and ZigBee technology. “The available silicon chipsets today can be pulled just a little bit” to cover the MBAN bands, Harsh says. “That opens up the consumer electronics space and the manufacturers of all the silicon would help us enter the space to really drive the costs down.”
TechnoSensual -- which runs through September 2 at the MuseumsQuartier Wien art and culture center -- features a dazzling array of electronic textiles and wearable technologies from international futurists and haute tech couture designers.
Their smart clothes come equipped with electronic components like sensors, projectors, speakers, and LEDs, and often interact with the wearer or the environment by lighting up, or sounding off, according to biological or external stimuli.
Ready for zippers that work like fader controls used in DJ mixers? Dresses made of artificial skin complete with pulsating veins? Click to our gallery and see what your future closet might look like.
USA Today on health and safety monitoring uses
•Comfort Zone is a Web-based service for remotely monitoring a person with Alzheimer's. The alert device, which is made by Omnilink and sold by the Alzheimer's Association, is about the size of a Tic Tac and can be installed in a car or worn around the neck. Aetrex, a shoemaker, also inserts the device into special shoes.
•AmberWatch GPS uses the same technology but is marketed by the AmberWatch Foundation. School-age children can clip it to a backpack. "If someone leaves a (preset) zone, the loved one gets a text on their phone," says Graff-Radford of Omnilink.
•BioHarness sensors by Zephyr Technology (in photo) are worn as a patch or strap by U.S. Special Forces troops, pro athletes and hospital patients. Information about their health condition is sent to cloud servers, and doctors download it to their computer or phone. "It has to be wearable and fashionable," says Brian Russell, CEO of Zephyr. "Even 70-year-olds don't want to look silly."
•Exmobaby, a line of infant pajamas with sensors that send vital signs (heart rate, temp) and information about the baby's "emotional state" to parents' mobile devices, will be on sale later this year, says David Bychkov, CEO of Exmovere, which makes the product.
“In Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, police officers can decide whether someone is a criminal just by looking at them. Their glasses scan the features of a face, and match them against a database of criminal mugshots. A red light blinks if there's a match.
So far, tech like this is available mainly to governments, but that won't last. Facebook has recently turned on face recognition for its automatic photo tagging. AR software will likely soon interface with social networks, so that you will never again forget a name at a party - but anonymity in a crowd may become a thing of the past.”
New Scientist (subscription required)
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