Google glass

                            Google Glass

Google Glass is a wearable, voice-controlled Android device that resembles a pair of eyeglasses and displays information directly in the user's field of vision.

Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project.

Google Glass offers an augmented reality experience by using visual, audio and location-based inputs to provide relevant information. For example, upon entering an airport, a user could automatically receive flight status information. Users can also control the device manually through voice commands and a touchpad located on its frame.

OHMD and AR

Optical Head-Mounted Display (OHMD)

An OHMD is a wearable display that has the capability of reflecting 

projected images as well as allowing the user to see through it.

Augmented Reality(AR)

Augmented reality (AR) is a live, copy, view of a physical, real-world 

environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by 

computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS 

data.

E.g. Nokia City Lens

Development 

•Glass is being developed by Google X, which has worked on other 

  futuristic technologies such as driverless cars.

•Around August 2011, a Glass prototype weighed 8 pounds (3,600 g).

•Glass was initially projected to be available to the public for "around the 

  cost of current smartphones" by the end of 2012.

•The Explorer Edition is available to testers and Google I/O developers in 

  the United States for $1,500, starting in April 2013.

•The product began testing in April 2012.

•In May 2012, Glass was demonstrated in the first test video shot with the 

  eyewear, demonstrating the 720p HD first-person video recording 

  capabilities of the device.

•The new models were to be available to testers before the end of 2013.

•In October 2013, speculation emerged that Glass will be marketed in stores 

  located on floating barges that will be towed from city to city.

Features:

•     Wi-Fi

•     can tether via Bluetooth to share data connection

•     does not have built-in GPS or SMS messaging

•     can access these services through Bluetooth connection to Android devices.

•     supports Bluetooth headset profiles for use in making & receiving voice calls

What it does ?

•Accept/Reject a call

•Read/Send Text Messages and e-mails

•Take a Picture and share it.

•HD video Recording.

•GPS tracking and Navigation

•Shows reminder

•Display the weather

•Upload, View and Share Files

•Online Games

Technical specifications

•Android 4.0.4 and higher

•640×360 Himax HX7309 LCoS display

•5-megapixel camera, capable of 720p video recording

•Wi-Fi 802.11b/g

•Bluetooth

•16GB storage (12 GB available)

•Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 SoC 1.2Ghz Dual(ARMv7)

•682MB RAM

•3 axis gyroscope

•3 axis accelerometer

•3 axis magnetometer (compass)

•Ambient light sensing and proximity sensor

•Bone conduction audio transducer

Applications

Google Glass applications are free applications built by third-party 

developers. Glass also uses many existing Google applications, such 

as Google Now, Google Maps, Google+, and Gmail. Many 

developers and companies have built applications for Glass, 

including news apps, facial recognition, exercise, photo 

manipulation, translation, and sharing to social networks, such 

as Facebook and Twitter.

MyGlass

Google offers a companion Android and iOS app called MyGlass, which allows the user to configure and manage the device.^[

Voice activation

Other than the touchpad, Google Glass can be controlled using 

just "voice actions". To activate Glass, wearers tilt their heads 30° 

upward (which can be altered for preference) or simply tap the 

touchpad, and say "O.K., Glass." Once Glass is activated, wearers 

can say an action, such as "Take a picture", "Record a video", 

"Hangout with [person/Google+ circle]",

In hospitals

Augmedix developed an app for the wearable device that allows 

physicians to live-stream the patient visit and claims it will 

eliminate electronic health record problems, possibly saving them 

up to 15 hours a week and improving record quality. The 

video stream is passed to remote scribes in HIPAA secure rooms 

where the doctor-patient interaction is transcribed. 

 How it works

Technical specifications

•Android 4.0.4 and higher

•640×360 Himax HX7309 LCoS display

•5-megapixel camera, capable of 720p video recording

•Wi-Fi 802.11b/g

•Bluetooth

•16GB storage (12 GB available)

•Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 SoC 1.2Ghz 

  Dual(ARMv7)

•682MB RAM

•3 axis gyroscope

•3 axis accelerometer

•3 axis magnetometer (compass)

•Ambient light sensing and proximity sensor

•Bone conduction audio transducer

Advantages

•Glass is sleek, light and easily wearable and you won’t require 

keeping it on and off your pockets, like mobile phones.

•No Bluetooth or camera needed when Glass is on, it’ll do all for 

you.

•Glass will provide you detailed information and satisfactory 

results on your queries.

•Make phone calls, sms, emails though Google Glass, no 

smartphone required.

•Keep your calendar events, information, contacts updated on 

Glass.

•Easier navigation and maps will be provided through Glass.

•Glass will make you look hi-tech and updated on technology and 

create an impressive impact on people.

Disadvantages

• No indication while clicking pictures (like pointing the 

  camera) which almost sounds like a hidden camera trying to 

  capture a non-ready subject.

•No public privacy concern so the worry of leaking out

  information still remains.

Conclusion

Google Glass is a lightweight hands free device thashould

be worn as eye glasses. It is the next face changing

challenge to technology.Unlike smartphones or tablets

 you  don’t require putting it on and off your pocket all 

the time. Your eyes and voice is enough to operate it all 

the way.

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Definition - What does Mobile Application (MobileApp)mean?

A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Mobile applications frequently serve to provide users with similar services to those accessed on PCs. Apps are generally small, individual software units with limited function. This use of app software was originally popularized by Apple Inc. and its App Store, which offers thousands of applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

A mobile application also may be known as an app, web app, online app, iPhone app or smartphone app.

Techopedia explains Mobile Application (Mobile App)

Mobile applications are a move away from the integrated software systems generally found on PCs. Instead, each app provides limited and isolated functionality such as a game, calculator or mobile web browsing. Although applications may have avoided multitasking because of the limited hardware resources of the early mobile devices, their specificity is now part of their desirability because they allow consumers to hand-pick what their devices are able to do.

The simplest mobile apps take PC-based applications and port them to a mobile device. As mobile apps become more robust, this technique is somewhat lacking. A more sophisticated approach involves developing specifically for the mobile environment, taking advantage of both its limitations and advantages. For example, apps that use location-based features are inherently built from the ground up with an eye to mobile given that the user does not have the same concept of location on a PC.

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What’s the Difference Between a Mobile Website and an App (Application)?

Before you can evaluate the benefits of a mobile website vs. an app it’s important to understand the key differences between the two. Both apps and mobile websites are accessed on a handheld devices such as smartphones (e.g. iPhone, Android and Blackberry) and tablets.

A mobile website is similar to any other website in that it consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the Internet (for mobile typically WiFi or 3G or 4G networks). The obvious characteristic that distinguishes a mobile website from a standard website is the fact that it is designed for the smaller handheld display and touch-screen interface. Increasingly, responsive web design is becoming the new standard for websites that are not only mobile-friendly, but that can scale to any sized device - from desktop down to tablet and handheld smartphones.

Like any website, mobile websites/responsive sites can display text content, data, images and video. They can also access mobile-specific features such as click-to-call (to dial a phone number) or location-based mapping.

Apps are actual applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device, rather than being rendered within a browser. Users visit device-specific portals such as  Apple’s App Store, Android Market, or Blackberry App World in order to find and download apps for a given operating system. The app may pull content and data from the Internet, in similar fashion to a website, or it may download the content so that it can be accessed without an Internet connection.

Which is Better – an App or a Mobile (Responsive) Website?

When it comes to deciding whether to build a native app or a mobile website, the most appropriate choice really depends on your end goals. If you are developing an interactive game an app is probably going to be your best option. But if your goal is to offer mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience then a mobile website is probably the way to go. In some cases you may decide you need both a mobile website and a mobile app, but it’s pretty safe to say that it rarely makes sense to build an app without already having a mobile website in place.

Generally speaking, a mobile website should be considered your first step in developing a mobile web presence, whereas an app is useful for developing an application for a very specific purpose that cannot be effectively accomplished via a web browser.

Advantages of a Mobile Website vs. Native Apps

If your goals are primarily related to marketing or public communications, a mobile/responsive website is almost always going to make sense as a practical first step in your mobile outreach strategy. This is because a mobile website has a number of inherent advantages over apps, including broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness.

Immediacy – Mobile Websites Are Instantly Available 
A mobile website is instantly accessible to users via a browser across a range of devices (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc).  Apps on the other hand require the user to first download and install the app from an app marketplace before the content or application can be viewed - a significant barrier between initial engagement and action/conversion. 

Compatibility – Mobile Websites are Compatible Across Devices
A single mobile website can reach users across many different types of mobile devices, whereas native apps require a separate version to be developed for each type of device. Furthermore, mobile website URLs are easily integrated within other mobile technologies such as SMS, QR Codes and near field communication (NFC).

Upgradability – Mobile Websites Can Be Updated Instantly
A mobile website is much more dynamic than an app in terms of pure flexibility to update content. If you want to change the design or content of a mobile website you simply publish the edit once and the changes are immediately visible; updating an app on the other hand requires the updates to be pushed to users, which then must be downloaded in order to update the app on each type of device. 

Findability – Mobile Websites Can be Found Easily
Mobile websites are much easier for users to find because their pages can be displayed in search results and listed in industry-specific directories, making it easy for qualified visitors to find you. Most importantly, visitors to your regular website can be automatically sent to your mobile site when they are on a handheld (using device-detection).  In contrast, the visibility of apps are largely restricted to manufacturer app stores.

Shareability – Mobile Websites Can be Shared Easily by Publishers, and Between Users
Mobile website URLs are easily shared between users via a simple link (e.g. within an email or text message, Facebook or Twitter post). Publishers can easily direct users to a mobile website from a blog or website, or even in print. An app simply cannot be shared in this fashion.

Reach – Mobile Websites Have Broader Reach
Because a mobile website is accessible across platforms and can be easily shared among users, as well as search engines, it has far greater reach capability than a native app. 

LifeCycle – Mobile Websites Can’t be Deleted
The average shelf-life of an app is pretty short, less than 30 days according to some research, so unless your app is something truly unique and/or useful (ideally, both), it’s questionable how long it will last on a user’s device. Mobile websites on the other hand are always available for users to return to them. 

A Mobile Website Can be an App!
Just like a standard website, mobile websites can be developed as database-driven web applications that act very much like native apps. A mobile web application can be a practical alternative to native app development.

Time and Cost - Mobile Websites are Easier and Less Expensive
Last but certainly not least, mobile website development is considerably more time and cost-effective than development of a native app, especially if you need to have a presence on different platforms (requiring development of multiple apps).

Support and Maintenance
The investment considerations of app vs website don’t end with the initial launch; properly supporting and maintaining an app (upgrades, testing, compatibility issues and ongoing development) is more much more expensive and involved than supporting a website over time.

When Does an App Make Sense?

Despite the many inherent benefits of the mobile web, apps are still very popular, and there are a number of specific use scenarios where an app will be your best choice.  Generally speaking, if you need one of the following, an app makes sense:

• Interactivity/Gaming – for interactive games (think Angry Birds) an app is almost always going to be your best choice, at least for the foreseeable future.
• Regular Usage/Personalization – If your target users are going to be using your app in a personalized fashion on a regular basis (think EverNote) then an app provides a great way to do that.
• Complex Calculations or Reporting – If you need something that will take data and allow you to manipulate it with complex calculations, charts or reports (think banking or investment) an app will help you do that very effectively.
• Native Functionality or Processing Required - mobile web browsers are getting increasingly good at accessing certain mobile-specific functions such as click-to-call, SMS and GPS. However, if you need to access a user's camera or processing power an app will still do that much more effectivley.
• No connection Required – If you need to provide offline access to content or perform functions without a network/wireless connection then an app makes sense.

As with any project, when developing an app you want to ensure that your are getting an optimal return on your investment. What you want to avoid at all costs is the needless and expensive exercise of building an app to do something basic that can be achieved with a mobile website.

In Conclusion

As mobile use continues to grow worldwide, the “app vs web” question will remain a very real consideration for organizations seeking to establish a mobile presence. If your mobile goals are primarily marketing-driven, or if your aim is to deliver content and establish a broad mobile presence that can be easily maintained, shared between users, and found on search engines, then the a mobile-friendly responsive website is the logical choice.

On the other hand, if your goal is to provide a user experience that feels more like a gaming interface or a computer program than a website, or if you need access to a user's phone storage and native functions, then an app is probably going to be required.

It's also important to remember that a mobile/responsive website and a native app are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Plenty of organizations have both a mobile-friendly public website for their general web presence, as well as a downloadable native app to accommodate more specific requirements. In the end, it's all about choosing the right tool for the job.

Sixth sense Technology

Sixth Sense is a wearable gestural interface that enhances the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. It is based on the concepts of augmented reality and has well implemented the perceptions of it. Sixth sense technology has integrated the real world objects with digital world. The fabulous 6th sense technology is a blend of many exquisite technologies. The thing which makes it magnificent is the marvelous integration of all those technologies and presents it into a single portable and economical product. It associates technologies like hand gesture recognition, image capturing, processing, and manipulation, etc. It superimposes the digital world on the real world.

Sixth sense technology is a perception of augmented reality concept. Like senses enable us to perceive information about the environment in different ways it also aims at perceiving information. Sixth sense is in fact, about comprehending information more than our available senses. And today there is not just this physical world from where we get information but also the digital world which has become a part of our life. This digital world is now as important to us as this physical world. And with the internet the digital world can be expanded many times the physical world. God hasn’t given us sense to interact with the digital world so we have created them like smart phones, tablets, computers, laptops, net books, PDAs, music players, and others gadgets. These gadgets enable us to communicate with the digital world around us. 

But we’re humans and our physical body isn’t meant for digital world so we can’t interact directly to the digital world. For instance we press keys to dial a number; we type text to search it and so on. This means for an individual to communicate with the digital world he/she must learn it. We don’t communicate directly and efficiently to the digital world as we do with the real world. The sixth sense technology is all about interacting to the digital world in most efficient and direct way. Hence, it wouldn’t be wrong to conclude sixth sense technology as gateway between digital and real world.  Before Wear Ur World (WuW) came there were other methods like speech recognition software, touch recognition etc., which empowered us with direct interfacing.

This WuW or sixth sense device invented by Pranav Mistry is a prototype of next level of digital to real world interfacing. It comprises of a camera, a projector, a mobile cum computing device and colored sensors which are put on the fingers of a human being. The device efficiently senses the motion of the colored markers. Using them it provides us the freedom of directly interacting with the digital world. This technology enables people to interact in the digital world as if they are interacting in the real world.

Why choose sixth sense technology?

Humans take decisions after acquiring inputs from the senses. But the information we collect aren’t enough to result in the right decisions. But the information which could help making a good decision is largely available on internet. Although the information can be gathered by connecting devices like computers and mobiles but they are restricted to the screen and there is no direct interaction between the tangible physical world and intangible digital world. This sixth sense technology provides us with the freedom of interacting with the digital world with hand gestures. This technology has a wide application in the field of artificial intelligence. This methodology can aid in synthesis of bots that will be able to interact with humans.

Working

How does sixth sense works?

The sixth sense technology uses different technologies like gesture recognition, image processing, etc. At present the commercial product isn’t launched but the prototype is prepared. The sixth sense prototype is made using very common and easily available equipments like pocket projector, a mirror, mobile components, color markers and a camera.

The projector projects visual images on a surface. This surface can be wall, table, book or even your hand. Thus, the entire world is available on your screen now. When user moves their hands to form different movements with colored markers on the finger tips, the camera captures these movements. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. Recognition is made using computer vision technique. These markers act as visual tracking fiducials. The software program processes this video stream data and interprets the movements into gestures. The gestures are different from one another and are assigned some commands. These gestures can act as input to application which is projected by the projector. Since, the projector is aligned downwards for compactness; therefore images would be formed at the user’s feet if mirror wasn’t used. The mirror reflects the image formed by the projector to front. The entire hardware is fabricated in the form of a pendent. The entire product cost around $ 350 and that also because of projector. It works very similar like a touch screen phone with entire world as the screen.

Evolution of Sixth Sense Technology

Steve Mann is considered as the father of Sixth Sense technology who made a wearable computer in 1990. He implemented the Sixth Sense technology as the neck worn projector with a camera system. He was a media lab student at that time. Then his work was carried forward by Pranav Mistry, an Indian research assistant in MIT Media Lab. He came up with exciting new applications from this technology. Sixth sense technology was developed at media labs in MIT and coined as Wear Ur World (WUW). The inventors have filed patent under the name Wear Ur World (WUW) in February 2010.

“Rather than waiting for that time to come, I want people to make their own system. Why not?,” Mistry says in an article on Rediff Business. “People will be able to make their own hardware. I will give them instructions how to make it. And also provide them key software…give them basic key software layers…they will be able to build their own applications. They will be able to modify base level and do anything”.

So it can be expected that the software will be open source and there will be a wide market of apps too.

Applications

Fingers as brush: The user can draw anything on paint with the help of his fingers. This drawing can be 3D also. Hence, no need to use mouse.

Capture photos with fingers: using the fingers the user can capture photos hence, no need to carry an additional gizmo. The box created by the fingers act as frame for capturing photo.

Palm is the new dialer: this technology enables the user to call without using the dialer. The dialer will be projected on palm and the user can dial the number using other hand.

Read Books easily: Check out the ratings of the Book you are going to buy, it checks the ratings from the internet. And another amazing thing is that it reads the book for you.

Video Newspapers: like the video newspapers of Harry Potter this technology identifies the news headline and then projects the relevant video.

Check your Flight Status: Just place the ticket in front of the projector and it checks its status from the internet.

Clock: the user just needs to make gesture of clock and the watch will be projected on the user’s hand.

Access anywhere internet: the users can browse internet  on any surface even on their palm.

Conclusion

This technology has seamless applications. This can be used as a replacement of the 5^th senses for handicapped peoples. This can provide easy control over machineries in industry. This will have different application for different developers just depending upon how he imagines and what he wants. So, considering its widespread applications the inventor Pranav Mistry has decided to make its software open source. This will enable individuals to make their own application depending upon needs and imagination. As this technology will emerge may be new devices and hence forth new markets will evolve. Some existing devices and technologies will be discontinued but one thing is guaranteed it will write a new chapter in history of science and technology.