Google Glass Has a Number of Hidden Sensors that Will Eventually Enable AR Apps

[dgstorm]

For some, it's easy to dismiss Google Glass as nothing more than a head-mounted camera, but the device is designed to be quite a bit more. One notable example was made obvious recently. A developer named Lance Nanek was poking around in debug mode for his Google Glasses. He was able to push an Android app into the head-mounted display to get a list of available sensors. The results were surprising.

He found a long list of sensors designed for true Augmented Reality functionality, despite the fact that these capabilities are not currently accessible within the Google Glass API. This means that Google Glasses have a hidden potential which will be "unlocked" in the future. Perhaps Google is simply working out the details of making these AR functions safer and more utilitarian, or perhaps Google is just waiting for a crafty developer to help awaken these hidden powers of the product.

Here's a list of sensors the developer found,

Sensors:

• MPL Gyroscope
• MPL Accelerometer
• MPL Magnetic Field
• MPL Orientation
• MPL Rotation Vector
• MPL Linear Acceleration
• MPL Gravity
• LTR-506ALS Light sensor
• Rotation Vector Sensor
• Gravity Sensor
• Linear Acceleration Sensor
• Orientation Sensor
• Corrected Gyroscope Sensor

Location providers:

• network
• passive
• gps

Source: Engadget

 

[J515OP]

It isn't surprising to see all of these sensors in Google Glass. The potential to use them is there. What is surprising is how much is already included and thought of at the very early stage this is still in. Where will it be in 5 years?