1. Google Glass is a “wearable computer” which has an optical head-mounted display
(OHMD), Glass is first and foremost a hands free smartphone, which can access to
internet and is used through voice control. Google Glass beta was released on May
15th
2014 for $1500.
Google Glass is still in beta, with future, refined versions to come, at the moment
only American citizens aged 18 and over can apply for the beta (and have to pay
$1500), a release date for other countries is yet to be announced.
Google Glass currently has six main features; it can send text messages, record
videos and take photos in 720p HD, bring up maps, and can be a satnav with real
time updates. With future versions there are expected tweaks to be made to
existing features, as well as more features to be added. However, for it to work
properly it must be connected wirelessly to a mobile phone using bluetooth, as
Google Glass does not have a hard-drive. It also has a touch pad on it.
Google Glass also has the ability to be unclipped from its frame, and clipped onto
glasses.
Google Glass is definitely revolutionary, and is an innovative way forward for
smartphones, and with future versions, it is guaranteed to become even better.
2. What type of games could Google produce for Google Glass?
As Google Glass is not designed to run big Triple A products such as
Battlefield 4, due to its graphical limitations, I believe Google will focus on
more 2D, straight forward, linear games, for example; virtual tennis. All of
Glass' games will probably have an emphasis on using your hands, perhaps
there will be puzzle games where the player has to use their hands to move
slots across, or something similar to that. Maybe perhaps very simply shooter
games would be made. Use of audio will also probably be limited, as even
audio files can take up a lot of memory. It's highly unlikely players will ever be
able to play games like Assassin's Creed or Titanfall on it, although using
hand movement to fight other players on some sort of mobile version of
Titanfall would be quite fun.
Speculate and discuss 3 potential uses for Google Glass in the future of
mobile/smart phone gaming.
Voice control will definitely be a big part of Google Glass' future, there are
likely to be a lot of games with will heavily rely on voice commands, for
example; in the demonstration video there is a man playing a shooting game
and he tells Glass when to release the target into the air for him to shoot, this
is a neat idea that if used properly, could create some very fun interactive
games. Another possible use for Glass is a feature similar to FaceTime for
iOS devices, Glass has a HD camera on it, so some sort of web-cam
conversation would be quite useful, however as Glass is designed to be on a
headset near your eyes, it would need some sort of stand to rest on so
someone could sit/stand at a decent distance from it, this would also mean
that Glass would need some sort of audio system, and not a low quality one.
In terms of games, the best type of games for Google Glass definitely seem
to be sport-orientated ones, perhaps there could be a pack of sports such as
tennis, cricket, boxing, etc, similar to what Nintendo did with the Wii U.