Developing Apps for Google Glass

Wearables are a path-breaking concept surpassing smartphones and tablets. And Google Glass, being touted as the next big thing, truly represents futuristic technology.

Glass is Google’s answer to the iOS voice recognition assistant Siri. Enabling natural conversation, it has been engineered more as a human assistant than a virtual assistant, offering the ultimate hands-free experience. It not only answers questions, but is a proactive way of interacting with a search engine.

Because glass has more storage capacity and faster internet search results, developers need to give users an experience that exceeds their expectations. Developing Glass apps will provide a new platform to experiment and a whole new way to interact with apps and the internet. It will revolutionize various industries providing easy solutions. Google lists some really intriguing use cases related to:

• Real-time language translation
• Overcoming disabilities
• Augmented reality gaming
• Enhancement of less formal, more hands-on learning
• Revolutionization of higher education
• Enhancement of surgery with augmented reality

These envision how developing for Glass is the next big thing. In addition, through the use of voice command, smart glasses are capable of taking photographs, recording videos, getting directions via GPS, sending messages, and even language translating on the go.

Developing Apps:

Glass apps, called glassware, can be developed by the Google Mirror API. The API is based on cloud services and helps develop advanced web-based services.

Four Things to Keep In Mind While Developing Apps for Google Glass:

• Simplicity is key while designing applications for this novel platform. Whatever is presented on the screen, whether an image or a video, should be simple and easily comprehendible. Avoid elaborate features and time-consuming functionality.
• As the Glass screen measures 0.375 square inches and is in close contact with the user’s eyes, avoid giving long-drawn out information to cut out the strenuous experience. Provide notifications of information in the form of timely and latest updates.
• Think out of the box and create intuitive features and functionalities for an enhanced user experience. The voice command feature offers a seamless user experience. It enables people to record, store and share, making tasks a lot easier.
• While developing apps for Glass, the developers must recognize their target audience. The audience for this particular platform would not like technology to be a hindrance, it should be there when needed and out of the way when not required.

The programming languages recommended for developing Google Glass apps are:

• Java
• Python
• PHP
• Go
• .NET
• Ruby

Limitations:

• Low screen resolution
• Transparent screen hinders legibility of things being displayed
• Limited input methods

With the Glass Development Kit (GDK) yet to be launched, Google has asked developers in the meanwhile to build glassware as APKs using the existing Android SDK (API level 15) that lets them try out ideas. Once GDK is released, Google will demonstrate the migration path between an Android app and a Glass app. The Glass app store is slated for a 2014 release.