Google was one of the very first companies to try to come out with an Augmented Reality headset that allowed you to run a small computer monitor through your Google Glasses. It was a very cool invention and we’ve seen many companies make VR headsets while Apple keeps taunting the public with AR tech talk. What we don’t talk about is the fact that the Google Glasses was actually a huge step forward…for conspiracacy theorists.
Adding To the Conspiracy
Google Glasses were banned from many stores because it felt like people were having their privacy invaded. To make it even worse, Google released a commercial that basically confirmed this by showing how the glasses could identify people by just looking at them. Now Google has acquired a company that would add another leg to this conspiracy; Eyenfluence. Eyenfluence is a company that tracks the location of the eye much like a mouse on a computer. This allows the user to never need to use a mouse while being able to use the headgear as a computer. The added conspiracy comes from the fact that many different emotions can be seen when looking at the dilation of a pupil. For instance, the headgear could tell when something has your focus, which would be very useful to advertisers and more accurate than mouse tracking.
What is most likely happening?
Google most likely has no plans on controlling the public, but they are more likely interested in testing out ways to improve the experience a user has on the internet. You see, Google wants you on the internet more now than ever. After all, Google’s revenue comes from advertisements that it can show on the internet for profit and keeping users on the internet more means their wallets get bigger. Additionally, being able to find out which ads will bring your personal eyes to an advertisement means they would be able to sell to you a lot more efficiently. Keeping in mind that talk of a new type of interaction with the web was opened up by the Oculus in the keynote, Google making such a step would be the logical choice for the search giant powered by ad revenue.
As For VR
Right now, Google Glasses don’t do much and they can’t really compete with other headsets. Instead, this seems like an investment into uniqueness when it comes to VR or AR. Being able to know what specific actions can fully bring out an emotion is far better than guessing where they will click because the emotion is what makes us want to do something. This type of “eye-interaction” would mean they would be able to make more impactful games with potentially less resources. However, this doesn’t seem like technology that could be passed along without some type of finger-based override. The movement of a character with your head was and is a really great idea, but trying to interact in such a way with your eyes would be troubling.
I don’t see this completely changing the way we interact with VR game environments very much, but I do see this changing the way we might interact with social media content a lot more. There are a lot of improvements to marketing and content creators for the web, but providing eye interaction in the VR world just seems like it might be useful for controlling the camera.
What does this mean for fitness?
As for fitness, imagine being able to follow how you train and your trainer’s direction just by how you move your eyes! The results you would be able to get would dwarf anything a gym mirror could provide.
In the end, it’s about engagement for the person training and this sort of innovation gives those folks a host of new possibilities and more information than they’ve ever had. What does that mean for you? You might just be on the path to a more ripped physique in a lot less time with the help of Google.
