Introducing Glassperiment
31 Mar 2014Glassperiment, as you can infer, is an experimental application for Google Glass.
Motivation
Glassperiment is an opportunity that Making Sense gave us to get involved with latest technologies about to be launched for consumers on 2014. This is the case of the Google Glass. The purpose of the Glass would be to display the same data for smartphone users but with hands-free style and voice triggered commands.
Breaking news through the Glass
Glassperiment is a glassware to display breaking news and let users stay informed any time they want. Interests preferences will be chosen from a catalogue and set through voice triggers. As a result, users will be synced with news filtered by those preferences.
Scope
The project itself lasted two months, between February-March 2014. Started as a two-people team (@rochimensi, @matiasbeckerle) defining requirements, the idea and the whole concept. Unfortunately, due to lack of time Rosario had to leave the project.
I continued since there and I came to the end with a prototype of what could be a glassware to display breaking news. Obiously, I didn't had time enought to complete everything to make a real world glassware but what I did raises a good foundation.
Development
I have written some articles that you may find interesting if you go through a glassware development:
Conclusion
Well, I have mixed feelings.
Developing glassware can be tough. If you read my article "Environment's Journal" then you will notice how hard things can be. I found myself without an official documentation (very early state), without community and without an emulator. I mean, come on guys, just give me an emulator at least!
It took me a lot of solving problems to get even a hello making sense app running on our glasses:
It is very interesting how you need to think your glassware. The point of view you have to take. That is a new thing, really. You only have the voice and some kind of touchpad.
Still I have my doubts. I found some things very annoying, like the way you have to connect to a WiFi or how short is the battery life.
It's strange, you know? You feel like a cyborg or something. Weird. Maybe I'm not ready. I don't imagine me using the glasses. It is like you are having a dinner with some friends but someone put his cellphone on the table and uses it constantly. You are here, please throw your cellphone through the window. But all your other friends have their cellphones in their pockets, they didn't bother you. With glasses it feels like you are like the first guy. That kind of things still pissing me off.
In the other hand, the Glass could have a very powerful impact in some professions. Think how useful it would be for a surgeon.
Screenshots
Do you want to know how it looks? Check screenshots page.
Download
There you have the latest version and source:
Acknowledgements
The following people helped me throughout the experiment: Rosario, Andrés, Martín, Mariano, Sergio. Thank you very much to all.