Google Glass has unveiled, and honestly, another sphere of technology has showed up to us. A glass with every technology you need sitting on your nose – it was only a science fiction movie stuff all these years. And this year, Google made this fiction a reality. With the unveiling of Google Glass, the tech enthusiasts fall into two camps. One is very interested to have such a sci-fi like gadget this early, and another group isn’t so happy about a technology like this; they think it will disappear soon. We’re not into that debate of existence or non-existence, our intention is to find out the key features of Google Glass and look if there’s an alternative to Google Glass.
Google Glass
When Google created this impressive piece of pure awesomeness, they have a wearable computing device in hand. Something that can be worn in human body and could be controlled by the human, but without that much of human interference. So where’s the best place to put such a device?
Yes, the eyes. You can just put it in there, your eyes can reduce the size of the display if it’s placed on the proper focal zone and you can control that computer with your eyes and voice.
The idea of wearable computer is not new at all but Google tried to came up with something new. The Google glass is expected to be released for everyone on 2014.
How does it work?
A prism works as the display and it’s placed just a little far from your eyes. Everything you might need is there – camera, GPS, sound…what not! Whatever you need, you just say it and the microphone grabs your voice command and initiate what you asked for. Google has apps for all these functionalities and when you call them over voice, the specific Google app for your voice command loads up. Almost everything works this way.
Pricing?
This device is assumed to be priced around 750 US$.
The Google Glass Alternative
We actually had to dig the internet to find an alternate product. The dig-and-find session was prolonged there’s not much products like this. But however, we have found one and it’s announced by China’s largest search engine Baidu. They are developing a prototype, which is an unofficial answer to the Google Glass. And this will also develop Baidu’s image and facial recognition techniques. A spokesman told quoting Baidu.
This product is still in its research phase. Internally, this device is called Baidu Eye. But even the higher level of Baidu is not sure if this gadget will ever be commercialized or it’s being made for internal development purposes.
The sensor will be mounted in front of the eyes with a mount. Baidu didn’t disclose the type shape build etc. of the mount but it should be something like a glass. You can do stuffs like capture someone’s photo, let’s say a celebrity and then search Baidu database for a facial match. This is how Baidu is planning on implementing their facial match.
If Baidu releases this product as a commercial product then it will definitely draw a competition against Google Glass, but Baidu says they haven’t even decided yet if this is going to be marketed or not.
So what’s your opinion on the whole wearable computing stuff?
