Remember the original Terminator movie? – if you don’t, then you owe it to yourself to watch it, at least the first fifteen minutes, as it will help you understand where Google may be taking their Glass design. Much has happened in terms of technology since that 1984 sci-fi action film took place – but 30 years is a life-time in the technology field. Google Glass is already proving itself to be a force to be reckoned with and has already been banned in many locations before it has even ‘hit the street’ for sale to the general public.
Now patents are not always used by the filer, but simply to protect its idea or concept from being used by another company. But generally with Google, if they file for protection, it is probably something that they intend on pursuing, and according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Google registered for a new patent on March 11, 2014 that could very well bring the ‘Terminator” perception closer to a reality. The image is at the end of the article and its description is as follows:
“A method includes generating a light pattern using a display panel and forming a virtual image from the light pattern utilizing one or more optical components. The virtual image is viewable from a viewing location. The method also includes receiving external light from a real-world environment incident on an optical sensor. The real-world environment is viewable from the viewing location. Further, the method includes obtaining an image of the real-world environment from the received external light, identifying a background feature in the image of the real-world environment over which the virtual image is overlaid, and extracting one or more visual characteristics of the background feature. Additionally, the method includes comparing the one or more visual characteristics to an upper threshold value and a lower threshold value and controlling the generation of the light pattern based on the comparison.”
The same augmented reality that Arnold Schwarzenegger enjoyed in the movie, where he could look at and immediately read the body or object for many levels of detail (size, materials, etc.) could show up in the Glass viewfinder in the near future. Right now Glass just has one camera and projector, but the new design appears to imply two, one for each eye. Two cameras opens up a whole new ‘view’ where layers could be separated or overlaid or use for depth perception – the end results could be very exciting and open up even more uses for Google Glass.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page if you are a Glass lover or hater…as always, we would love to hear from you.