6 ms·

Sensors on Google Glass

63 points by cvs268 13y ago

cryptoz 13y ago
The sensor revolution continues. Gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensors all packed in there with a wink sensor too. It's only missing a barometer, hydrometer and thermometer! Perhaps those will make it to a future production version of Glass.
- kall 13y ago
  Well i wouldn't say only. I can think of lots of other sensors that would be cool. Ultrasound proximity, laser based range or ir thermometer come to mind. The whole range of biosensors that are found in fitness gadgets like the Basis band would also be cool. Its also touching your temple, so it could even do EEG like the NeuroSky headsets. The possibilities for cool sensors are really unlimited.
  - cryptoz 13y ago
    Ha yes, I agree. There are so many things you can do even with a microphone which it obviously has. I wonder if it can hear things that the person wearing them can't hear? I think we're all expecting the brain-computing interface to be a ways off, but when you mention that the Glass prototype is already touching your temple and packed full of sensors...they're just getting ready I guess.
- XorNot 13y ago
  EEG sensors for brain wave detection?
  - MasterScrat 13y ago
    "Passthought" Glass unlocking? ;-) http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70726?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70726?...
    - sp332 13y ago
      One of Neil Gaiman's episodes of Dr. Who, "The Doctors' Wife", features a thought-password. The password is "crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor" but you have to think of the concepts in order instead of saying them out loud.
- RossM 13y ago
  Some phones have barometers for GPS (not sure how that works) so I wouldn't be surprised to see that. Perhaps Google are building their own weather center out of human drones.
  - cvs268 13y ago
    Barometers measure pressure. And knowing the pressure at your location(assuming its atmospheric pressure and that U are not in a sealed chamber) one can calculate the altitude(mean height above sea-level). This further improves the accuracy of your location when using GPS to calculate Latitude and Longitude.
    - joshu 13y ago
      GPSs measure altitude too. Do you have any idea how a GPS works?
      - revelation 13y ago
        It's used for a quick fix and no you don't have altitude unless you have enough satellites.
  - Isamu 13y ago
    The Galaxy Nexus uses the Bosch BMP180 barometric pressure sensor. This means you can get a faster GPS location with fewer satellites. That's the main motivation for it. http://www.bosch-sensortec.com/homepage/products_3/environmental_sensors_1/bmp180_1/bmp180 http://www.bosch-sensortec.com/homepage/products_3/environme...
- gmrple 13y ago
  Of course this thing is supposed to be connected to your phone, so do you really need all of those sensors on glass? How much does pressure vary between your face and your pocket? (I honestly don't know, feel free to tell me if you do). Orientation sensors make a lot of sense, but I would imagine they can get away with putting more sensors elsewhere.
- lnanek2 13y ago
  Haha, before recent findings I was thinking of taping my TI SensorTag to my Google Glass - and that does have a barometer. I don't think most Android phones do, actually. Also handy in that it would add some extra buttons that can be read by BLE as well...
alexjeffrey 13y ago
> A major win for TI (FWIW), considering that it has nonchalantly quit the mobile-SoC market citing a low RoI. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
akavel 13y ago
The "teardown" term here (in the rewritten title of the submission) is misleading, there seems to be no tearing down of hardware (as this term is usually understood), but rather digging up information from the published Glass kernel -- which is still a very interesting feat.
sonier 13y ago
One sensor that I have not seen mentioned anywhere is GPS. The pair I tried a few weeks ago had GPS built in and it worked when glass was not connected to a phone or WiFi.
- cvs268 13y ago
  Hmmm... True. I did miss the GPS. Well i was just looking for sensors in the sense that Android defines them. GPS is in a class of its own. There is indeed mention of some sort of "Elton" GPS. Well i am on my mobile now. Travelling home after a satisfying day's work. :P Will dig up more on it once i get home...
  - cvs268 13y ago
    Its the Elton SiRFstarIV GSD4e. Check out its details in this video http://youtu.be/SRRKHDsoDvk http://youtu.be/SRRKHDsoDvk where its demo-ed on a GPS-enabled wrist watch...
casca 13y ago
TL;DR: Google Glass runs on Texas Instruments OMAP4430. Google Glass has a built-in Accel, Gyro & Compass. Google Glass has a "glasshub" Google Glass has a "Proximity" sensor.
- tekacs 13y ago
  It's probably worth mentioning in any TL;DR of this that the so-called 'glasshub' reports winks as well as IR and proximity data (using the latter two technologies for the former-most?)

63 points by cvs268 13y ago

The sensor revolution continues. Gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensors all packed in there with a wink sensor too. It's only missing a barometer, hydrometer and thermometer! Perhaps those will make it to a future production version of Glass.

kall 13y ago
Well i wouldn't say only. I can think of lots of other sensors that would be cool. Ultrasound proximity, laser based range or ir thermometer come to mind. The whole range of biosensors that are found in fitness gadgets like the Basis band would also be cool. Its also touching your temple, so it could even do EEG like the NeuroSky headsets. The possibilities for cool sensors are really unlimited.
- cryptoz 13y ago
  Ha yes, I agree. There are so many things you can do even with a microphone which it obviously has. I wonder if it can hear things that the person wearing them can't hear? I think we're all expecting the brain-computing interface to be a ways off, but when you mention that the Glass prototype is already touching your temple and packed full of sensors...they're just getting ready I guess.
XorNot 13y ago
EEG sensors for brain wave detection?
- MasterScrat 13y ago
  "Passthought" Glass unlocking? ;-) http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70726?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70726?...
  - sp332 13y ago
    One of Neil Gaiman's episodes of Dr. Who, "The Doctors' Wife", features a thought-password. The password is "crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor" but you have to think of the concepts in order instead of saying them out loud.
RossM 13y ago
Some phones have barometers for GPS (not sure how that works) so I wouldn't be surprised to see that. Perhaps Google are building their own weather center out of human drones.
- cvs268 13y ago
  Barometers measure pressure. And knowing the pressure at your location(assuming its atmospheric pressure and that U are not in a sealed chamber) one can calculate the altitude(mean height above sea-level). This further improves the accuracy of your location when using GPS to calculate Latitude and Longitude.
  - joshu 13y ago
    GPSs measure altitude too. Do you have any idea how a GPS works?
    - revelation 13y ago
      It's used for a quick fix and no you don't have altitude unless you have enough satellites.
- Isamu 13y ago
  The Galaxy Nexus uses the Bosch BMP180 barometric pressure sensor. This means you can get a faster GPS location with fewer satellites. That's the main motivation for it. http://www.bosch-sensortec.com/homepage/products_3/environmental_sensors_1/bmp180_1/bmp180 http://www.bosch-sensortec.com/homepage/products_3/environme...
gmrple 13y ago
Of course this thing is supposed to be connected to your phone, so do you really need all of those sensors on glass? How much does pressure vary between your face and your pocket? (I honestly don't know, feel free to tell me if you do). Orientation sensors make a lot of sense, but I would imagine they can get away with putting more sensors elsewhere.
lnanek2 13y ago
Haha, before recent findings I was thinking of taping my TI SensorTag to my Google Glass - and that does have a barometer. I don't think most Android phones do, actually. Also handy in that it would add some extra buttons that can be read by BLE as well...

alexjeffrey 13y ago

> A major win for TI (FWIW), considering that it has nonchalantly quit the mobile-SoC market citing a low RoI. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

akavel 13y ago

The "teardown" term here (in the rewritten title of the submission) is misleading, there seems to be no tearing down of hardware (as this term is usually understood), but rather digging up information from the published Glass kernel -- which is still a very interesting feat.

sonier 13y ago

One sensor that I have not seen mentioned anywhere is GPS. The pair I tried a few weeks ago had GPS built in and it worked when glass was not connected to a phone or WiFi.

cvs268 13y ago
Hmmm... True. I did miss the GPS. Well i was just looking for sensors in the sense that Android defines them. GPS is in a class of its own. There is indeed mention of some sort of "Elton" GPS. Well i am on my mobile now. Travelling home after a satisfying day's work. :P Will dig up more on it once i get home...
- cvs268 13y ago
  Its the Elton SiRFstarIV GSD4e. Check out its details in this video http://youtu.be/SRRKHDsoDvk http://youtu.be/SRRKHDsoDvk where its demo-ed on a GPS-enabled wrist watch...

casca 13y ago

TL;DR: Google Glass runs on Texas Instruments OMAP4430. Google Glass has a built-in Accel, Gyro & Compass. Google Glass has a "glasshub" Google Glass has a "Proximity" sensor.

tekacs 13y ago
It's probably worth mentioning in any TL;DR of this that the so-called 'glasshub' reports winks as well as IR and proximity data (using the latter two technologies for the former-most?)