Day 2

Working on blog posts.Taken With Glass.

Ah… day two with Google Glass is here. It is about 10 am Saturday. As I am getting up I play with Glass a bit more. I want to see what else it has to offer.  I have not yet explored all its functions. After getting more efficient with navigation, I discover that Glass has a sleep mode.

Sleep mode is wonderful. After a set length of time with no Glass interaction, it turns off the display, just like other devices do. The ways you can wake Glass up though are neat. One is by touch. You tap the side of the device and it brings up the Time (which is the opening screen for the main menu). The second is by raising your head up. I found a function under Settings in Glass that allows you to set up the angle degree at which the glass wakes up.  I currently have it set at 20 degrees.

I played with the “Get directions to…” function of Glass. This start the GPS. You can verbally enter any address, place, or location you wish to go. While I was testing it I choose to get directions to Walmart Kerrville, Texas. The GPS searched and gave me the route. You can say “Okay Glass” and ask for map overlay, or tell it to stop navigation. Both these commands are voice activated. You can also use the touch pad.

I have discovered that if you tap Glass within a few seconds of hearing the tone in your ear that indicates an incoming text, Glass will open the text. From there you can touch, or verbally select, read aloud or reply.

Glass will also field phone calls for you. When it is paired to your phone, anyone that calls your number will activate Glass. Glass will act as your head set. I have not tested the verbal answer yet. I will do that later in my exploration. The touch answer function works wonderfully. I have had a hard time hearing. Google Glass came with an ear piece. I have not used it yet. I will test the sound quality of the ear piece soon. 

Day 1

Today has been a great day. After I got to the office I found out that I was going to be the first of a few testers of Google Glass for the Library and Instructional Technology. Of course, geek that I am, I jumped feet first into the project. After less than 24 hours I am all set up. So far I have been able to successfully navigate the Google Glass. Glass is motion, touch, and verbally activated. It took about an hour to learn most of its navigations. I also, downloaded the Google Glass app from the play store on my phone. With the app I could pair Glass with my phone. This is done by following the on screen instructions of the app and having Bluetooth turned on. Now with the basic navigation functions learned and i have the device paired to my phone I would like to explain the few things I was able to accomplish.  

Glass Welcome Menu. Top right 
corner of photo.

First, I was able to get the main menu. Glass loves its name. In order to interact with and see the main menu you say “Okay Glass”, this command is on the screen for you. It gave me a number of options:

Google

Take a picture

 Record a video

Get directions to…

 Send a message to…

 Make a call to…

 Make a video call to…

Naturally, I started with number 1. I Googled: Minecraft. It gave me a number of results. For testing I selected Wikipedia.  Wikipedia gave me the description of the game.  I instructed Glass to read it aloud to me. It did!!! No mistakes. I was thrilled.  

Next, I went to take a picture. “Okay Glass” “Take a Picture”. Glass turned on the camera and I taped the right side of the device by my temple and a picture was taken.

Then, playing around with the device more I wanted to try and take a video. I said, “Okay Glass” “Record a video”. Glass turned on the recording function. I recorded only a test video for about 10 seconds in length. I will do more with this function in the next week or so and post the videos.

Finally, Now about 2 am. The day is coming to a close.  I have finished homework and just got done playing with some friends on League of Legends. As I am prepping for bed I get a text message. Fancy enough the pairing to Glass allowed me to see, read, or have the message read aloud to me. I tapped Glass, swiped my finger on the right side of the device and tapped again to select reply. It prompted me for a verbal statement. The voice to text program on the Glass with decent paced speech and annunciation does not miss a beat. Perfect! My text was done. It gave me about 2-3 seconds to swipe down on the device to cancel the text if I wanted to change or add information. If you do nothing, the text will send.  

All photos for day 1 were taken with Glass and its vignette mode.This mode was discovered during Cody's testing.