Google glasses Ideas

Random Observation/Comment #343: If Google glass gets popular, will designers start to make Google glass frames?  Will the price of lasek decrease? Will Google glass come with a deal to get lasek? Sounds like some crazy synergy is possible there.

see lemons google glass

I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a geek. I’m a big fan of tech in general and I’m always staying up-to-date with products and conceptual ideas to predict the game changers of our future.  In my opinion, Google glass will be one of those game changers. It’ll start off slow and with the early geeky adopters, but like the apple fanboys, we’ll have the google fanboys rushing to get the device.  Most will likely wait for V2 of Google glass before investing money on a nice-to-have/badass device (similar to how long it took for tablets to get introduced into the mainstream).  I also assume that Heads Up Display (HUDs) technology will come into the market in other companies, but Google (similar to Apple’s initial appstore early domination) will have the upper hand on the features.

So what does Google glass technology offer?

  • Futuristic HUD that doesn’t block vision, but easily seen
  • Camera
  • Almost everything voice activation
  • Blue tooth connection to phone (video chat interfaces, messaging, maps, web surfing, etc)
  • GPS (although I’m not sure if the process is run on the phone and just shown in the HUD)

Some obvious coding limitations?

  • Limited screen real estate
  • Limited interactive buttons (single scroll wheel control from the glasses)

Okay, let’s talk about the fun stuff. How would I use Google glass and which apps would I like to see? I’ve broken these down into my main hobbies:

  • Table tennis
    • Training videos. With the camera directly at eye level, you can record how you’re supposed to be seeing the ball connect on forehand and backhand shots. From this you can also use the camera to track the ball.
  • Travel
    • Google translate.  This is the basic babelfish idea.  The speaker and microphone of Google glass will be used as a seamless way of translating in conversation mode. It may take a bit of time, but at least you’ll be able to communicate more easily.
    • Use camera for real-time translations. This can be used when looking at newspapers, ads, menus, or public transportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs
    • Tourist activities in the area. Governments who are supporting tourism in their city, can upload their tourist activities and hours with the HUD overlay. This can also include historical relevance or even connect into real-time events in the area or donation/volunteer opportunities.
    • Weather updates. This will probably be a part of the Google Cards home page version they have the HUD. It’s always good to stay up-to-date on weather patterns. Integration of this into events and calendar would be an easy win.
  • Productivity
    • Ease of saving and recording conversations with Google keep.  I use Google keep for note taking right now (previously used Google tasks), but I do so for the easy interface. It follows the same gestures as the other Google apps and it’s very consistent with UX.  What I don’t usually do, and would like to do more often, is record more conversations and thoughts in a less obvious manner.  I would easily be able to do this if they made headphones that had a more in-depth connection with Android and their applications, but I’d take Google glass as a good stab at this.
    • Time? I had this idea when I was in high school. I wanted to install a chip in my glasses that told me the time whenever I asked “Time?”  I guess I didn’t get into wearing watches yet, but it would be cool to see this implemented the right way.
  • Gaming
    • Interactive gaming with environment.  I don’t play too many games, but I think it would be a cool scavenger hunt game if people upload photos or use Google Goggles in some way to recognize objects, logos, or places around the world. People love competition.
  • Shopping
    • Groceries buddy. When I’m walking around a grocery store, the list in my head of what to buy gets easily distracted by all the pretty colors and large number of options in every category.  It would be nice to have more focus by creating a buy-list beforehand and then showing it on the HUD.  If large grocery stores (or Costco) participates in this, they can take your shopping list and give you an optimized path of where you can get in and out quickly.  Obviously, this isn’t done yet because if you know exactly what to get, then the supermarket isn’t making money off of impulse purchases from people just walking around and picking things that look tasty.
    • Google goggles. Easily look at items and pull up reviews. The ability to pull up the camera function quickly will make the camera feature the spring-point of most applications.  Once the photo is taken, I imagine it will open up on the phone and allow you to pick the application it can use for sharing in different applications. This already exists in the gallery of Android OS where you can search through photo sand start applications based off of them (instead of starting the application first and then picking the photo afterwards). For Google goggles, this could bring forth a lot of information about nutrition, reviews, purchasing, etc.
  • Restaurants
    • Yelp reviews. This is too obvious. I imagine that based on GPS location, you’ll be able to find nearby places to eat. You may even want to know who’s nearby.
    • Taking photos of food and menus easier and sharing. I don’t know why I have an impulse to always take photos of what I eat. I did it for a year while I was in Japan and doing my Masters, so it just stuck with me. I used it for keeping track of my diet, but also just to take advantage of writing more opinions about my passion towards food. I hoped to help others choose where they’d want to go, but I think I just wound up making people hungry when they look at my newsfeed.  I think this feature is obvious as well.

I’m sure there aren’t a shortage of ideas for Google glass. Each industry niche will most likely find the advantages of having a HUD and voice activated command.  I’m excited to see the innovation with this technology in the next few years.

~See Lemons Google Glass