The world at your fingertips? Nah. The new tagline of the future could be – ‘The world at your nose tip’.
The way things are moving forward and technology is being developed, the day is not far when you would be able to wear glasses which are equipped with most of your everyday computing functions. For now, it is a company called Vergence Labs’ Social Video Electric Eye-wear, which is working on its new product, the Electric Sunglasses.
Named as ‘The Social Video Electric Eyewear’, the electric sunglasses will have two major functionalities. Firstly, they are a pair of electric-powered sunglasses that utilize “chromatic shifting conductive glass”. This enables the lenses to be lightened or darkened with just the press of a button and the depth of the color can be adjusted according to personal preference. Secondly they contain a tiny camera capable of recording 720p video through the eyes of the wearer. The camera faces the world through a pinhole set between the two lenses, meaning the recorded images should be as close as possible to capturing the world as the wearer sees it. The video is saved to a microSD card and can be used with compatible devices for viewing later. The battery life of glasses is about two hours which means that most important events through the day can be recorded.
Recorded videos can then be shared online via “YouGen.TV”, a video sharing site. The videos shared on the site can be further shared through social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The developers of the glasses feel that it will give the users an opportunity to the memories of their life with others.
The revolution in this field is evident and obvious with the next generation of these electric sunglasses already being discussed wherein Wi-Fi capabilities would be added to allow live streaming to a phone or tablet, and there is also a future plan to incorporate biometrics into the video-sharing site via other wearable electronics and sensors embedded within. This would provide people with a synchronized life memory in which first-person video and data related to a person’s pulse, blood pressure, and body temperature (as examples) are displayed simultaneously.
Other products are also in the pipeline and are being developed. One of them being an immersive reality visor which is already at its prototype stage. This product will allow users to be fully immersed in a 3D environment, so rather than passively watching a video recorded on the first-person camera embedded in the electric sunglasses, one would be able to actively experience it. It does sound like science fiction, but so were mobile phones about two decades ago.
There are various other companies working on innovative products such as these, but the front runner is Google and it is currently working on its ambitious ‘Google Glasses’ project. Once this project gets underway and the product delivered, there will be whole lot of new functions that would be available right in front of your eyes. Get directions on your way, remain in touch with friends, find out about discount sale on products while in a market, translate notes from a different language, and many other such feature, without even picking up your smartphone. Google glasses will be aimed at providing the user with real time heads up display and an intelligent personal assistant software for a truly out of the world and seamless user experience.
Apart from Vergence Labs and Google, there is an entire bandwagon just starting to roll out various pairs of video-capable and augmented reality glasses. Yes, its true that Google is currently in the driver’s seat, but you just can’t take the others lightly. Future seems bright for these devices.