구글 글래스의 가능성

구글 글래스가 나오면서 화제가 됐었습니다. 특히 얼굴인식 같은 기능에 대해서는 말이 많았습니다. 하지만 꼭 나쁜 쪽으로만 이슈가 된 건 아닙니다. Tammie Van Sant 는 최근 구글 글래스를 사용할 기회가 있었습니다. 그녀는 사고를 당해 가슴 아래부터는 몸을 움직일 수 없습니다. 그래서 사진을 찍거나, 전화 받기, 문자 보내기 등을 스스로 할 수 없었습니다. 구글 글래스를 사용하고 나서는 이런 소소한 일들을 스스로 할 수 있게 됐습니다. 그녀의 말에 의하면 세상과 더 연결된 소셜 라이프를 즐길 수 있게 됐다고 합니다. 새로운 기술이 나올 때마다 여러 이슈가 생기지만 이렇게 긍정적인 변화를 가져오는 모습을 보면 참 기분이 좋습니다. 

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OK, Glass: I Can't Walk, So Help Me Explore

by Adam Popescu|August 8, 2013

Tammie Van Sant grew up in the mountains above Santa Cruz, Calif., where she spent her days riding horses, building forts in the massive redwood trees and hiking through the forests. Then a freak accident changed her life.

In the car on the way home from work on a rainy day, her truck collided with another vehicle, causing her to flip several times. The impact broke her neck, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down.

See also: Google Glass: Not for the Hearing Impaired

The road back from the edge of death was a turbulent ride. She knew she would never regain control of her body but wanted to return to some degree of normalcy. For almost 20 years, she searched for devices to help her accomplish tasks many of us take for granted, like typing on a keyboard, making phone calls and snapping pictures. It was impossible for her to do any of those things herself.

So when she heard about Google Glass, she applied to be an Explorer, using a dictation program to explain how the device would improve her life.

"I figured, what do I have to lose," she told Mashable.

Van Sant was one of about 8,000 accepted to the program in May. She traveled to Mountain View, Calif., with her brother, forked over $1,500 and was fitted with a device.

Now, for the first time in almost 20 years, Van Sant, at 52, can take pictures, answer the phone and navigate around town on her own (well, with Glass' help).

"Google Glass has given me a whole new world," she said. "For 18 years, I wasn’t able to take pictures whenever I wanted. I can’t even describe how amazing that is. I can answer the phone and actually hear the person on the other end and they can hear me. When I get a tex,t, I can read what the text says on the little prism and answer it."

In recent months, criticisms have swirled over Glass' sky-high price tag, its weak specs (you can't zoom into photos yet) and its physical appearance. For the profoundly deaf, worries surface about Glass' fit with hearing aids and cochlear implant interference.

But success stories from the disabled continue to surface. Alex Blaszczuk, 26, was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident last year. Three weeks ago, she was handed a pair of charcoal frames. Before Glass, she told Mashable, she thought a normal social life would be out of her reach. But the high-tech gear has restored that part of her life.

She has run into problems with the device picking up her voice in crowded places, but contends it's been great for connecting with people. Of course, it doesn't fix disabilities, but it encourages self-expression and an involvement with an outside space, she added.

Google followed Blaszczuk on a recent camping trip with friends and documented her experience in a video. Watch it below:

Thad Starner, part of the development team charged with creating Glass, has sported augmented technology for the past 20 years. In the early 1990s, Starner created his own pseudo-Glass device almost two decades before working with Google. He said the point of Glass is to reduce the time between intention and action, which directly benefits the disabled.

"When you see the 'aha' moment when this tech can help in people's everyday lives, that is really quite amazing," he said. "You have somebody who can suddenly message their friends from their power chairs or send SMS from Glass, where before they were locked in their room. That's very powerful."

Google is paying close attention to how people like Van Sant and Blaszczuk are using Glass. At Georgia Tech, the company is working on two projects aimed at finding Glass applications for those with muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease. A collaborative effort between researchers at Carnergie Mellon University and the University of Rochester focuses on using Glass to help the blind.

So while Glass may still be widely viewed as a status symbol, the future of the device may have a much deeper humanitarian impact than we envisioned by clearing a path for the disabled.

Do you know anyone with a disability using Google Glass? Share with us in the comments below.

Image: Google/Tammie Van Sant

http://mashable.com/2013/08/07/google-glass-disabled/?utm_campaign=BD-Pulse-All-Full&utm_cid=BD-Pulse-All-Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews