With the Explorer program rolling out to those that are both lucky enough to be chosen and fortunate enough to have the cash, Google Glass is beginning to look more and more like an everyday, real product. As with a lot of Google products, such as Android, developers are key to lifting the platform off the ground, and Glass is no different. At SWSW, the search giant showed off a lot of what you’ll be able to do with Glass but now, they’ve released documentation about the Mirror API that folks will be using to create what Google is now calling “Glassware”
Google Developer Programs Engineer Jenny Murphy writes that: “Today we’re releasing the API documentation and a bunch of example code, so even though the API is in a limited developer preview, you can start dreaming with us”. Essentially, there’s some example code and guidelines for those looking to develop for Glass. It’s not the full API as that’s limited to certain developers but, there are best practices outlined as well as client libraries for Dart, Go, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby and .NET.
This isn’t necessarily exciting for folks like us, that don’t know how to code but, it’s an important step for Google to release such documentation. With the right tools, some amazing things can be done with Glass and this is what Google are hoping for. Without app developers, Android would be but a handful of Google apps and a web browser but, thanks to all those that are creating new and brilliant apps, it’s a rich and vibrant eco-system. That’s what Google hopes Glass will become, and this is a great start.
You can head over to the Google Developers page here to get a look at the documentation, which includes a number of videos such as the one below. Each one outlines a different use case and a quick look at some code to go with it.
Let us know in the comments if you’re getting you hands on Glass or, if you’re looking to bring something cool and fun to Google Glass!