jeudi 18 juillet 2013

What If You Add Google Glass To A Tesla Model S?


GOOGLE GLASS: WHY AN AUGMENTED REALITY IS HERE TO STAY
A Google Glass beta tester was able to reverse engineer Tesla's official Android app to work with Google Glass.
CHARLIE NUCCI/CORBIS (TESLA) AND STEPHEN LAM/REUTERS/CORBIS (GOOGLE GLASS)
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Wearable computers and electric cars. Two things you might not think have much in common -- but one app developer is exploring ways of linking the two cutting-edge technologies reports Forbes.

Software engineer Sahas Katta has reverse-engineered Tesla's official Android app to work with Google Glass, as there's no official development toolkit available. Katta, in the fortunate position of being one of Google's "Google Glass Explorer" beta testers and knowing a family member with a Model S, combined certain car functions with the abilities of Google's unique augmented reality headset to form "Glasstesla."

Google X, a Secret Product Lab, Revealed for First Time

While Glasstesla has all the features of the regular Model S Android app, it focuses on those that are best used while the wearer isn't actually driving.

That means simple functions such as changing the car's temperature, opening windows, unlocking and locking the doors and managing charging can all be accessed through the futuristic spectacles. So too can a location function, just in case you've forgotten where you parked the car.

Katta's next target will be implemented when Google opens up a voice-activated interface for Glass. This would then allow app users to control functions of the car while it's driving, without having to revert to the Model S's huge display screen -- opening the sunroof, for example.

It could be useful when parked, too. "We’ll soon be able to do something along the lines of being able to say ‘OK Glass, open the trunk,’ for when you’re carrying groceries and your hands aren’t free," Katta told Forbes.

Augmented Reality Doesn't Need Google Glasses

Currently, the technology is relevant only to a limited number of people -- Tesla owners who also happen to be Google Glass Explorers, essentially.

But there's little stopping similar apps being developed when Glass hits the mainstream, and for a wider range of electric vehicles too. “I think this absolutely highlights the potential of wearable technology and how it will interact with the tools we use every day,” said Katta.

As Forbes notes, the real problem then is getting legislators to accept computing that can be used while a driver is operating a vehicle.

Not that Google doesn't have a solution to that too -- it is developing automated vehicles, after all.

This article originally appeared on GreenCarReports, a High Gear Media company. All rights reserved.

JUL 18, 2013 01:30 PM ET // BY HIGH GEAR MEDIA

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