Google Glass Is Beta Tested

Google recently beta tested Google Glass, a device that looks like an eyeglass but is actually a smartscreen with mostly smartphone features that can take videos, send and receive messages and take photos. The device has been tested on select consumers in the U.S.

So are we moving now to mobile devices that are really, well, very mobile?

Apparently so, I think people will increasingly look to mobile devices that are seamlessly integrated into their bodies, much like clothing I should say. With Google Glass for example, you can take pictures without the need to actually hold the device with your hands, although in the case of Google Glass, hands are still needed to operate the device. Pictures and videos for example are readily recorded because the user has the device within eye level. The field of vision becomes the tripod, so I should say more convenient, more speedy and more efficient.

According to an analyst interviewed by CNN for the article, the device is worth USD 1,500. Quite expensive indeed and definitely not for the average user. In addition, Google Glass is only a prototype in which a more comprehensive software program will eventually be developed on. I think Google is exploring the usability of the device as well as exploring the full range of its potentials - and mind you, this device has lots of potentials, although if there ever will be a consumer product of this kind in the foreseeable future, it would be too expensive for the average user to afford.

Google Glass I believe will be most useful, at least initially or until its production cost can be made reasonably affordable, in the security services sector. For example, Glass could be configured to perform X-Ray functions in airports so security personnel can have the flexibility and mobility of scanning passengers and their luggage with ease and efficiency, potentially cutting waiting times for passengers. In the field of law enforcement, Glass would be a boon to police officers in their constant struggle with criminal gangs of all kinds, especially the drug related kind, as the device could be designed to scan for contraband, analyze samples upon view, or check for dangerous weapons as officers approach an offender.

In the medical field, as mentioned in the CNN report, this could help doctors perform complicated operations with the use of Glass by enabling them to access lab and diagnostic results of patients while the operation is going on. For nurses, this would help in organizing medication schedules of patients, pending procedures for patients, lab and diagnostic appointments and the like.

Glass has an exciting future ahead of it. But it looks like a device that needs to be totally free from manual manipulation. As it stands today, the use of the hands is still a need. But being a prototype, this is excusable. Hopefully though, Glass will become touch free and totally retina controlled. Now that's a truly mobile mobile device.