What will Apple smart glasses do?

Now that Apple has officially announced the Apple Glass, people are wondering what they will be able to do. Of course, as is usual with Apple, the company is going to keep some features secret until the product unveiling, but we can make some good guesses by looking at what smart glasses have done in the past and what technologies Apple has filed patents for.

Augmented reality

Of course, the main feature of smart glasses is augmented reality (AR). Smartglasses provide a technological extension to the real world through an optical display that sits in front of the wearer’s eyes, overlaying information on top of what they are looking at. Having a pair of smart glasses that can quickly show you information about what you’re looking at through AR could be incredibly useful.

Some examples of ways AR could be used in Apple Glass are:

• An AR overlay that shows you information about a product when you’re looking at it in a store
• Navigation systems that show you where to go, pointing out landmarks and roads along the way
• Translating signs and speeches into your preferred language in real-time

Eye-tracking and gesture control

To interact with the AR, users will need a way to input data into the glasses. Some current methods that we may see in the Apple Glass include:

• Touchpad – A touchpad built into the stems of the glasses could allow the user to select and interact with elements in AR, much like how you could do with touch on the original iPhone.
• Gesture control – Using sophisticated sensors and cameras, it’s possible that the Apple Glass will be able to interpret hand gestures to interact with the AR, possibly even signing language for those that are deaf.
• Eye-tracking – Looking at a specific object in the distance could prompt the AR to provide more information about an item without the user doing anything, just putting up the virtual equivalent of a cursor.

Connectivity and compatibility

One of the benefits of wearable technology like smart watches and smart glasses is that they are always on you and provide a new way to connect to your other devices. Because of this, it is likely that Apple Glass will have:

• Connectivity to your phone – Though the glasses will be limited in what they can do compared to a phone, users will likely be able to take calls, read messages, and other basic phone functions directly from the glasses.
• Connectivity to your other devices – Being able to control your TV, or your computer will be a useful extension of the devices. It would also be great to sync notifications and calendars between the glass and your other devices.
• Apple TV compatibility – It would be great to be able to overlay information on the TV, perhaps providing contextual information on the actors in a movie, or to draw up a play diagram in a football game.

Health and fitness

The Apple Watch is well known for its excellent health and fitness tracking, and the Apple Glass could potentially provide some of these features, as well as new ones. Potential features could be:

• Fitness tracking – Tracking your fitness goals using your vitals and GPS data is something the Apple Watch does very well, and this could be expanded upon with the glasses for things like running, providing real-time data on your run, and showing you routes others have created.
• Health alerts – The glasses could potentially monitor your health and provide alerts when you need to move around more, or provide prompts to take a breath and relax.
• Medication reminders – The glass could link to your calendars and remind you to take your medication throughout the day.

Gaming

One area where the Apple Glass will likely shine is in gaming. The AR market has already seen some games tailored for AR hardware, and the Apple Glass will expand on this. Some features gaming enthusiasts will be excited about include:

• Play anywhere – The immersion of AR means that you can play anywhere, from your house to out in public.
• VR experiences – When connected to a powerful enough device, the Apple Glass could provide an VR experience, expanding the potential games to those that normally only require a keyboard and mouse.
• Collaboration – AR games allow friends to collaborate and play together in the same real-world space, working together to complete goals and defeat the game.

Of course, these are just some of the many features that Apple Glass could have. It’s also entirely likely that the glasses will come with many features that no one is expecting, new technologies that we haven’t seen before. Until the glasses are released, we won’t know for sure what they can do.