Everyone's excited about the upcoming revolutionary mobile technology called Google Glass. Like a minimalistic pair of glasses, one can wear it and carry daily tasks through a tiny lens controlled only by voice commands. While everyone believes Google has introduced its most innovative gadget yet, a Japanese billionaire CEO begs to differ. Masayoshi Son, during his speech about what technology has to offer for the next 30 years, claimed that his company SoftBank Mobile Corp. already holds a patent to one of the most important functions of the Glass technology.
It seems that what Son was talking about was his augmented reality glasses capable of understanding what a person is saying with subtitles as visual overlay. However, some believe this is different from what Google has to offer because the Glass seems to translate what the wearer is saying, not someone he is talking to. This could be a minor detail, but it's interesting to see Google is not the only mobile company to imagine a world where people will wear their mobile devices on their head and talk to themselves in public.
I still feel like the root of the technology seems to be the same regardless of if the speaker or to who the speaker is conversing with is being translated. Voice to visual translation is still being used and is a central part of both technologies.
ReplyDeleteThis minor detail in the companies ideas could prove the subject of future litigation, especially considering the potential profitability of these kinds of products.
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