Tool-tip glasses
You maybe wondering.. "What's a tool tip?" If you hover the
mouse pointer over a button for a few seconds then sometimes a
little yellow hint appears explaining what the button does,
this is known as a "tool tip".
An example of a tool tip
Recently, at a friend's house, I was confronted with a
unfamiliar TV remote control, I hovered my finger over one of
the buttons, I genuinely expected a tool tip to magically
appear. To my surprise nothing happened. I think I maybe
loosing my mind...
Anyway, it gave me a brilliant idea...
tool tip glasses, these would work by overlaying computer
graphics onto the real world.
Such technology in the future could be built discretely into
normal glasses.
Example applications
- 'Traditional' tool tips, (explaining unfamiliar technology, like remote controls)
- Warnings to say when objects are dangerously hot, this would be useful in the kitchen (a thermal imagining sensor would need to be included)
- Facial recognition to display a persons name when you see them, this would avoid those embarrassing moments when you meet a distant acquaintance and can't quite remember their name (this could be triggered by detecting uncertainly levels in your voice)
- Facial recognition to warn of dangerous criminals you may see but not recognise on the way to work. (this would need to have some wireless network link to a crime database)