ADAMAAS smart glasses to assist elderly and disabled in everyday tasks

 

We've seen various head-mounted wearables, such as the Motorola HC1, Golden-i and the AITT system, which are designed to give industrial workers or military personnel a helping hand in carrying out highly specialized tasks. But what about the elderly or disabled that struggle with everyday tasks? That's the niche a pair of smart glasses developed through the "Adaptive and Mobile Action Assistance in Daily Living Activities" (ADAMAAS) project are intended to fill. The ADAMAAS glasses are designed to determine what the wearer is doing, such as cooking a meal, and not only provide context-appropriate assistance in the form of text, visuals or avatars on a virtual plane in the wearer's field of view, but also react when a mistake is made. The goal is to allow them to continue working on a task while receiving instructions on how to do it better and correct mistakes as they happen. Unlike other smart glasses, such as Google Glass, the ADAMAAS glasses are particularly targeted at elderly and disabled people, and will ultimately provide directions for basic tasks, like how to bake a cake or brew a pot of coffee, as well as more complex tasks, such as fixing a bicycle or practicing yoga. The ADAMAAS project is being conducted at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interactive Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University in Germany. The group recently received €1.2 million (US$1.3 million) in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education to further development of the glasses. “In this project, different technologies are being combined, including memory research, eye tracking and vital parameter measurements (such as pulse or heart rate), object and action recognition (Computer Vision), as well as Augmented Reality (AR) with modern diagnostics and corrective intervention techniques,” explains CITEC researcher Thomas Schack. It's a different approach to the wearable space, taking a diagnostic system that is usually stationary and making it mobile, while also integrating monitoring technology that enables reaction to and individualized support for the user's actions in real time. This could mean huge things for people who face challenges with everyday tasks but who want to remain independent. Source: Bielefeld University

Ctrl One smart glasses auto tint to suit lighting conditions

 

The Ctrl One smart glasses can toggle between transparent and sunglasses mode, manually or autonomously at an illumination threshold set by the user Image Gallery (6 images) A Dutch subsidiary of liquid crystal specialist AlphaMicron is turning to Indiegogo to fund the development of Ctrl One, a pair of glasses mostly targeted to cyclists and runners that can change tint from dark to transparent in a fraction of a second, automatically adapting to surrounding lighting conditions. Photochromic lenses, which have been around for decades, can change their tint to dynamically fit the surrounding lighting conditions, but they usually take minutes to do so. More recently, scientists have been developing ways of changing the tint nearly instantaneously in both glass lenses and windows, using a small electric current as the trigger. Ohio-based company AlphaMicron developed such a technology (which is dubbed "e-Tint") in a way that lets the lens tint switch from transparent to sunglasses mode in just one tenth of a second. Originally commissioned by the US military, the technology has already been adapted for use in third-party consumer products and found its way to motorcycle helmets. Now, through its Dutch subsidiary Ctrl, the company has come up with the design for a pair of glasses that makes use of the same e-Tint technology. While the Ctrl Ones don't sport LiDAR and twin HUDs, the glasses boast a decent battery life, and are rain and sweat resistant. Users can toggle the lens tint with the press of a button on the temple/arm or, in automatic mode, have the integrated sensor detect the lighting conditions and switch on their own. The idea behind the automatic mode is to make cycling (or driving) safer by removing the need for you to take your hands off the handlebar (or wheel). The glasses are also fitted with ballistic lenses (meaning they offer a higher level of protection against debris like pebbles – not that they stop bullets). The creators do warn, though, that the Ctrl One glasses should be handled with care, and are not as robust as standard, non-electronic glasses. For an extra US$10, a special lens holder that fits inside the adjustable nose pad allows you to equip the glasses with prescription lenses. Ctrl One is being made available in five frame colors with either neutral, orange or blue lenses. The glasses reportedly weigh just 1.8 oz (50 g) and run on a 50 mAh lithium-ion battery that charges in one hour via microUSB and reportedly lasts for 50 hours of operational time. A second version of the glasses is in the works and is set to include GPS technology to detect altitude and average speed. The company says that the updated version, which will also reportedly include the ability to switch between more than two tint shades, should be ready within the next 12-18 months. Three days into its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, the Ctrl One glasses have already surpassed the initial funding goal of US$20,000. At the time of writing, you can pledge $125 for an early bird pair. The glasses will come with a 6-month warranty and, if all goes to plan, are set to be delivered by November.   Source: CTRL Eyewear

Hands-on with Mini's new AR goggles

 

Given that both heads up displays for our cars and smart glasses are emerging (if still niche) product categories, it’s not surprising that a company would try to combine the two into a single product. Earlier this week we had the opportunity to try out Mini’s new Augmented Vision, a set of driving goggles that brings some of the features of your standard heads-up display to a set of glasses, making for an interesting look at the future of both connected eyewear and connected vehicles. For now, Mini’s Augmented Vision googles are just a prototype, however the company plans to eventually bring something like what they’re showing off now to market. In their current form, the glasses are huge, and putting them on is a little more complicated than just putting them on your face. These specs actually have instructions: Once you get them on, you have to go through a bit of a calibration process, matching the output on the display with your own vision. For the purposes of the demo, that calibration was done by closing one eye, and then the other and matching a box on the projected display with one that was on a poster hanging on the wall. Setup took around three minutes, and afterwards all of the content from the glasses was displayed directly in front of me in my field of view. If you’ve tried out something like Google Glass before, then it’s a bit of a different experience. Content is physically in front of you comparable to a heads up display in your car, so you don’t have to change your focus in order to read what’s being projected (on Glass, the content hovers above and to the right of your field of vision). Once I had the glasses on, the gentleman helping with the demo showed me several posters on the wall. While looking at them, information popped up on the display about the event and its location. By tapping on a button on the top of the glasses we were able to select a particular event from its poster and have directions beamed to the glasses on how to get there. Directions include not only turn-by-turn driving directions, but walking details as well. Here's Mini's mockup of what that looks like: Inside the car, I connected the glasses to the Mini and took off on my virtual journey (the car was stationary and the road was projected in front of me). As I drove, arrows were projected on the road telling me where to turn, and my speed along with the posted speed limit was constantly displayed at the bottom of my field of view. As I drove past individual sites, they were pointed out on the glasses, as was a parking space when I finally arrived at the destination. A text message came in from a friend and I was able to see that it arrived and have it read to me from the glasses. For the most part, it was everything you might expect from your standard heads-up display, except on a set of glasses. The goggles take things a step further, though, with an X-ray view. Using cameras mounted on the outside of the vehicle, I was able to see a basketball dropped by a pedestrian through the passenger side door. It’s a pretty cool trick, but one that we think would definitely take some getting used to. We did notice that the prototype ran pretty hot. After 15 minutes of use I was a bit concerned with how warm the model I was wearing had gotten. After a few hours in the car these could very well be unwearable. For now, Mini’s googles are a bit more information than we would want in our field of view while driving. Sure, all that information is handy, but for us it was just a little too much. Yes, seeing through the passenger side door is cool, but while driving? It might be a little too much stimulation. We can see all the bells and whistles becoming more of a distraction than a safety feature. That said, they’re an exciting glimpse of a potential future, and perhaps something we’d become accustomed to over time. Could connected glassware be the future of car tech? Maybe. If nothing else, Mini has a interesting idea in the works. Here's a video look at what the company expects the experience to ultimately be like.

Jins Meme smart glasses have one eye on fatigue levels

 

The Jins Meme eyewear is fitted with sensors to alert the user to when fatigue starts to creep in Much of the hype surrounding smart glasses stems from their ability to inform us of our environment, adding virtual tidbits to what we see around us. But for Japanese eyewear manufacturer Jins, what these wearable computers can tell us about ourselves might prove just as valuable. The company has announced a new line of smart glasses that tracks eye movement to identify when fatigue levels are on the rise, offering up useful data to better manage our workloads. It should be said that Jins aren’t alone in taking this introspective approach to smart eyewear. An app for Google Glass called DriveSafe was revealed early this year, designed to monitor the drowsiness of the wearer and keep them from falling asleep at the wheel. In March a psychologist at Wichita State University built a Glass app called Glass Fatigue Detector that serves a similar purpose. But Jins is aiming to wrap its glasses around the heads of more than just weary drivers. Its rep tells us that integrating the technology in a way that makes the eyewear indistinguishable from regular specs was the focus here, and something it believes is key to mainstream adoption. Dubbed Jins Meme, the system relies on three electrooculography (EOG) sensors located in the base of the frame, the nose pads and above the nose. EOG measures eye movement and blinking by tracking retina position in relation to these sensors, while six-axis accelerometers built into the ends of the arms are intended to monitor the body’s axis and walking behavior. Data collected by the sensors is presented through a iOS and Android smartphone app, which offers insights into things like the wearer's fatigue levels, when they should take a breather from their work, how many steps they’ve taken, how many calories they have burned and even feedback on their posture. The company says there is also a series of more ambitious applications in the pipeline, including games where eyes would act as the controller, functions to measure interest levels, focus-training exercises and potentially tools to tackle neurodegenerative diseases. There’s no word yet on availability or pricing, though the company says it plans on bringing Jins Meme to the US market sometime in 2015. The lineup to date includes sunglasses, half-rim glasses and a thicker-framed model called Wellngton. It will showcase the technology at CES next month.   Source: Jins Meme

K-Glass smart glasses mimic the human brain to improve energy efficiency

 

By Nick Lavars February 19, 2014

In basing the artificial neural network on the brain's central nervous system, the team says it was able to compartmentalize the processing of data, resulting in less congestion and significantly improved energy efficiency

It took a heavyweight like Google to bring the notion of head-mounted devices to the mainstream, but other developers are also testing the waters and pushing the boundaries of what's possible to achieve in the smart glasses space. Exhibit A is K-Glass, a wearable, hands-free display developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Much like its counterparts, K-Glass is designed to offer users an everyday augmented reality (AR) experience. According to the developers, users will be able to walk up to a restaurant and have its name, menu, available tables and a 3D image of different food displayed in front of their eyes.

A point of difference that could distinguish the K-Glass technology from other head-mounted displays, and one emphasized by the researchers, is the approach used to generate the augmented reality experience. Rather than using methods such as algorithms, facial recognition, motion tracking, barcodes and QR codes to establish and deliver a virtual reality like other head-mounted displays, K-Glass is designed to replicate the process our brains use to establish our surroundings.

This all revolves around an AR processor based on the Visual Attention Model (VAM), which reproduces the ability of the human brain to categorize relevant and irrelevant visual data.

When we process visual data we use sets of neurons that, though connected, work independently on different stages of the decision making. One set of neurons completes part of the process and relays the information onto a the next set, before ultimately a set of decider neurons determine what data is required and what can be done away with.

In basing the artificial neural network on the brain's central nervous system, the team says it was able to compartmentalize the processing of data, resulting in less congestion and significantly improved energy efficiency. According to its creators, K-Glass can deliver 1.22 TOPS (tera-operations per second) while running at 250 MHz, using 778 mW powered by a 1.2V supply. The team says this equates to a 76 percent improvement on power consumption of similar devices.

"Our processor can work for long hours without sacrificing K-Glass's high performance, an ideal mobile gadget or wearable computer, which users can wear for almost the whole day," says Hoi-Jun Yoo, Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST.

The team presented its research this month at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California.