One of the great things about Google Glass is that it allows the wearer to bring up information directly in front of them, snap photos, record videos, and view maps, just to name a few of its features, but wouldn’t it be even more awesome if it could actually know what you were looking at specifically and could bring up info on that? That’s what a recent patent filed by Google seems to suggest. The company has recently filed for a patent that describes a method in which they are able to tell exactly what you are looking at, using both the front-facing camera and the eye-tracking camera at the same time. According to the description:
A gaze tracking technique is implemented with a head mounted gaze tracking device that communicates with a server. The server receives scene images from the head mounted gaze tracking device which captures external scenes viewed by a user wearing the head mounted device. The server also receives gaze direction information from the head mounted gaze tracking device.
The gaze direction information indicates where in the external scenes the user was gazing when viewing the external scenes. An image recognition algorithm is executed on the scene images to identify items within the external scenes viewed by the user. A gazing log tracking the identified items viewed by the user is generated.
While the patent seems to describe scenery, possibly having something to do with location, we expect that this technology would also allow Google to further enhance their advertising methods. So if you were to look at a car, Google could bring up ads and suggestions as to where you might be able to buy one, or point you towards a nearby dealership and so on. While it does have a lot of potential, at the same time it does seem a little scary that Google knows what you’re looking at, as if knowing what you search for wasn’t a little creepy already.