Google is already working on vision enhancement with Google Glass and the number of applications that will use Google glass continues to grow. I can imagine that Google glass could migrate into Google vision with contacts and retina projection, but the end result is the same. We want to make our vision do more.
I-Sight is another company that has taken a different approach. This local Ottawa company is building glasses that compensate for conditions that have left people handicapped for years. The correct medical conditions where people can’t focus or are legally blind.
What kind of things would I like from my enhanced vision?
- I would like to be able to get real time information about my car and other cars around me.
- I would like real time information and warnings about cars when I’m on my bike.
- I would like to be able to see objects far away.
- I would like to see clearly at night.
- I would like to see people that I am talking to as if they were in the car beside me or sitting across from me.
- I would like to have a virtual conference with many people sitting around a table.
- I would like to be able to pick out people of interest from a crowd.
- I would like to display a route to my destination while I drive.
- I would like to see where the bus is while I’m waiting at the bus stop with data telling me when it will arrive.
- I would like to be able to see inside things to determine what is broken.
- I would like to be able to see and be warned about hazardous substances in the air I’m breathing.
- Firemen would like to see people trapped in a fire through the smoke.
- I would like to be able to have a guided tour when on holidays or in a strange town.
- I would like a virtual computer terminal to de-clutter my desk.
The challenge with enhanced vision will be to provide people with information without becoming a distraction that cause them further harm.
There are so many things that enhanced vision could provide that I’m sure I have missed many things. Google glass promises to provide us with many applications that will tie our compute resources to our vision. Bionic eyes are closer than we might think.