SAN FRANCISCO — #Google unveiled its Glass Development Kit on Tuesday at a Glass hackathon, inviting #developers to create new applications for its wearable technology. The development kit, or GDK, gives #developers access to parts of Glass that previously have been under lock and key. Developers now can write Glass apps that can work offline, in real time, and that utilize the hardware accelerometer and GPS. Addressing the 100 or so developers who were invited to the hackathon, Timothy Jordan, Glass’s senior developer advocate at Google, told them that even though the company hasn’t made installing Glass apps easy, more than 83 percent of all Glass owners have installed at least one. “The GDK will give you a way to build services for users in a natural and everyday way in their lives,” Jordan said. Up until now, developers have been able to develop only with the Mirror API. The GDK opens up more programming options, so that developers can access the location provider; control the camera; insert voice commands and triggers into the options menu; create live cards; and detect gestures on the touch pad. Several companies also were present at the hackathon to demo apps they built, thanks to early access to the GDK. One of the most impressive was a Glassware app called Word Lens, which translates printed words as you look at them and replaces them with words from the target language.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 03:46:45 +0000