Google Glass is certainly spreading its wings more and more these days. Although the infamous Glass device is not commonly available (and probably won’t be while it maintains a $1500 price tag) developers and businesses alike seem to be adopting the device quite readily. Just this morning it was reported how Dubai Police will be providing Glass as a standard issue piece of equipment to its detectives to combat crime. As demand for Glass slowly grows developers start to take more note and recently we have somewhat of a spurt in the number of Glass relevant apps (aka glassware) becoming available online.
Another new glassware app which has come about is ‘Preview’. Although this is new in terms of its availability this is probably much more in-line with what was expected of Glass when the concept was first thrown about. In short Preview does exactly what it suggests. Its previews things and most notable movie trailers. When using Glass and with Preview installed Glass users (Explorers) can simply look at a movie poster and say aloud the infamous “OK Glass” followed by the new command “Preview”. At this point the glassware will kick into gear by sourcing the trailer through YouTube and relaying it back to the Glass display. The video below gives a brief demonstration of how it works and based on the video it seems to work fine. The response (i.e. Sourcing and playing the video) seems a little slow but hey it’s hands-free and still early in its development so maybe this will improve in time. If you already are an Explorer and fancy giving Preview a preview (sorry about that) then you can find out more details as well as download the APK by clicking here.
Another feature which may be of more practical use is ‘Captioning on Glass’ which allows users the ability to read what people are saying. Similar to close captioning on the TV although in real life. This of course will be of much benefit to those who are hard of hearing or have hearing difficulties in general. To activate Captioning Explorers again simply utter “OK Glass” but this time followed by the command “Recognize this” and the captioning will commence. This piece of glassware does require an additional app for your smartphone which users will be directed to when downloading the Captioning glassware. for more information on this you can head over to the Captioning on Glass glassware page by clicking here.
If you don’t already own Glass then do these extra features add any more weight to your decision to buy it or not? Captioning on Glass certainly will be of a benefit to those who need it and has the benefit to change those peoples lives significantly. In contrast is Preview simply more of a gimmicky feature that we first expected when Glass launched? Personally, I’m not sure how many times I have turned up to the movies without knowing which movie I was going to watch. But anyway, if you are out and about and don’t mind standing still in the street facing a movie poster than Preview is for you.