“Google Glass and the Future of Health” was the focus of a MeetUp I attended recently at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Total Health.
The enthusiasm and passion for making change were invigorating and contagious.
The MeetUp was a forum to hear what health-related problems people would like to see Glass solve. The ideas ranged from helping new mothers find places to breast feed, to sensing germs and bacteria on hospital health practitioners’ hands and gloves, to scanning the brain for concussions.
Of course, I love the germ detector. But, Katarina, a woman who won a Glass for her good idea, posited the most interesting idea. Her son is on the Autism spectrum and has issues interacting with people. She suggested that Glass could give him real-time advice about his behavior: remind him to shake hands, make eye contact, or do or say other things that most of us take for granted. This would be a great use of Glass’ close proximity to the user’s eyes and ears.
In fact, couldn’t we all use this kind of advice from time to time? For example, when we’re in a bad mood, it could remind us to “Smile” or splash a funny image on its small screen. When a man meets a woman, it might remind him, “Look at her face!”
I also think it would be a good tool for biofeedback, either sensing the wear’s vital signs directly through the device itself or interacting with other monitors on her body, such as clothes and jewelry sensors and monitors.
Google Glass’ uniqueness lies in its hands-free mobile capabilities, voice recognition, and location close to its user. I’m looking forward to seeing what Glassware will be developed. In the end, users and creative developers like those gathered at the MeetUp, will define what Google Glass really is and how we’ll use it.