Google Glass gets facial recognition, device still has big problems

Google Glass apps making great progress

First introduced last year, Google Glass has captured the imaginations of tech analysts and entrepreneurs as the technology literally adds augmented reality to the lenses of your glasses. Cool.

Now, a team has gotten together to create MedRef, a Google Glass app that they call the “first facial recognition hack for Google Glass,” and while created for the medical profession to offer better and more organized service, the implications are tremendous.

Check out what the earliest version of this type of technology can do below:

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More facial recognition

Although Lambdal may disagree with MedRef being first (as they launched before MedRef), they would likely agree that facial recognition is an important part of the Google Glass experience, and they’ve developed an app for all users to do just that:

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Google Glass still has big problems

Before the devices start shipping and going mainstream, there are substantial problems that need to be addressed, if not solved, according to The Atlantic Wire:

1. Battery life: the most widespread complaint by testers is that despite Google’s claim that it will last a full day, normal tasks like email and basic apps drain the battery and it dies without warning in just a few hours. Apple dealt with battery life issues with the first iPhone and figured it out – Google will too, even if their issue is a bit more dramatic.
2. Filtering: if you’re wearing Google Glass and you’re about to embark on a busy crosswalk and you get a call from your assistant and an email from your client all at the exact same second, you’re blinded because guess what? Google Glass can’t filter messages according to priority yet.
3. Security: it is said that even any level of hacker could hack into your Google Glass, and because it has an unlocked boot loader, if you put your device down, anyone can pick it up and have instant access to everything. Everything. Every.thing.
4. Fit: people say it isn’t comfortable and that it is awkward. That will change with time, but for now, testers are apt to complain.
5. Display quality: shockingly, the early reviews say the display is poor, the colors are said to be inconsistent, and the quality is far below even an older LCD device.

Google could fix some of these problems prior to launch, but not likely all, so it will be interesting to see what they prioritize.